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Reverend Ola Hanson papers, A1077

 Collection
Identifier: A1077

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of unbound pages, both handwritten and typed, that make up a guide to the Kachin language, also known as the Jinghpaw language. The preface states that the handbook "aims to explain the grammar, idioms and everyday vocabulary, in as complete yet simple manner, as is necessary to gain a fair working knowledge of the dialect within a reasonable time." It also includes manuscript and corrected proof pages from Hanson's translation of the Bible into Kachin.

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1911-1941

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Biographical note

Ola Hanson was born in Ahus, Kristianstad, Sweden on June 25, 1864. He came to Colgate from Minneapolis, Minnesota and graduated from the seminary in 1890.

Hanson studied at Swedish Theological Seminaries in St. Paul, Minnesota and Stromsburg, Nebraska and was ordained in Minneapolis on June 23, 1890. He was a missionary to Kachins, Bhamo Burma with the American Baptist Missionary Union/American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society from 1890 until his death in St. Paul on October 17,1929, during which time he wrote and translated a number of works in the Kachin language. Hanson was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature from Colgate in 1909 and the Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal in 1929.

Elmer William Smith, ed. Colgate University General Catalogue, vol. 2, (Hamilton, NY: Colgate University, 1939), 526.

Historical note

The guide states that the Kachin language is spoken "in Northern Burma, western Yunnan, eastern Assam, and in borders of Tibet."

Some of Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution's earliest students were missionaries in this area, and student and faculty interest in missions continued throughout the nineteenth century.

Howard Williams, A History of Colgate, 1819-1869 (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1969), 46, 52-56 http://cu-cel.org/cuhist/.

Extent

1.2 Cubic Feet (3 legal-sized document boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Title
Guide to the Reverand Ola Hanson papers
Status
Completed
Author
Mary Cordaro, Allyson Smally, and Erin Patterson
Date
May 1, 2014
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections and University Archives, Colgate University Libraries Repository

Contact:
13 Oak Drive
Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology
Colgate University
Hamilton New York 13346 United States US
315-228-6175
315-228-7934 (Fax)