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Conditions Governing Access

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Preferred Citation

Louise E. Blackmar Letters, 1873-1882, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchase from Swann Auction Galleries with funds from the Lyon Gardiner Tyler Library Endowment, 2018.

Scope and Contents

22 letters addressed to family members of Leavenworth, Kansas from a Methodist mission in India. Most of the area in India where Blackmar was located was in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, including Moradabad and Lucknow. Blackmar was serving as a missionary during the great famine of India from 1876-1878 and comments on the conditions of the region in great detail in her letters. In one letter she states, "All the Spring crops have failed, and unless there be rain within a few days, it will be of no use to put in grain for fall crops. There is no grain, no noting, no rice, no sugar cane, no work for all of these people... it makes the flesh creep to think of it all, what it will be to see the way blocked by wretches dying for want."

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Famines -- India
• Missionaries