Reverend Ola Hanson papers, 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
- 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
- Baptists -- Missions. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Kachin language -- Dictionaries. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Kachin language -- Grammar. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Kachin language -- Study and teaching. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Religious education. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- 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
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)
