Early Ningbo Treaty Port Printing - 1846 - American Presbyterian Mission Press - Signed by the American Missionary Michael Simpson Culbertson

Early Ningbo Treaty Port Printing - 1846 - American Presbyterian Mission Press - Signed by the American Missionary Michael Simpson Culbertson

Early Printed Ningbo Letter printed at the American Presbyterian Mission Press.

4 pages, quarto. With old folds and postage marks. Folded as a letter addressed to Dr Freeman in New York. Very good condition.

American Presbyterian Mission Press - Ningbo - 1st January 1846

The letter was likely designed to be sent to American sponsors of the American Missionaries sent to China. This letter is signed by the Ningbo Missionary Michael S Culbertson to an American homeopathic Doctor, Dr Freeman who was based in New York. 

The letter starts with a Chinese translation, in the local Ningbo dialect, of Isaiah 49:12.

The letter goes on to describe the history of Christian Missionary work in China, and the current status of Missionaries in China. Much had changed following the opening of the Treaty ports - Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangzhou (Canton), Fuzhou, and Xiamen (Amoy) - after the 1842 Treaty of Nanking and the conclusion of the opium wars.

The letter concludes with details of the challenges of missionary work, including the sad loss of two young children from Missionary families. Nevertheless, at the end of the letter the Missionaries letter stating their on going commitment to their cause. 

The letter is signed by Michael Simpson Culbertson (1819-1862), one of the earliest American missionaries in Ningbo. Culbertson was a Princeton and West Point Graduate who travelled to Ningbo as a missionary in 1844. He was stationed at Ningbo from 1844-1851 and In Shanghai from 1852 to 1862. He was involved in the translation of the Old Testament with the Committee of Delegates, from which he later withdrew due to disagreements. He died of cholera in Shanghai in 1862.

Dr Freeman was an New York based Homeopathic Physician who was likely a sponsor of the missionary work in China.

Not on OCLC under Ningbo 1846 - Apparently unrecorded.