Overview
Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Arrangement
Preferred Citation
Restrictions on Access
Restrictions on Use
Related Material
Subject Terms
You can print a clean version of this finding aid by selecting FIle -> Print from the menu above or you can download a nicely formatted pdf version from here
Record Creator: | Wagner, Dora Amelia |
Title: | Dora Amelia Wagner Collection |
Date Span: | 1903-1953 |
Abstract: | Dora Amelia Wagner (1888-1980), American Missionary, became a deaconess in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Upon completing her higher education the Women's Foreign Missionary Society sent Wagner to Japan in 1913 and retired from the mission field in 1953. The Dora Amelia Wagner Papers contain graduate certificates as well as documents from Wagner’s time spent in Japan. |
Extent: | 0.93 cubic feet |
Identification: | gcah.ms.gcah5855 |
Dora Amelia Wagner (1888-1980), American Missionary, daughter of John Franklin and Helen Mardora Wagner, was born on October 10, 1888, in LaCygne County, Kansas. Wagner, who became a deaconess in the Methodist Episcopal Church, attended both Baker and Northwestern Universities for her formal education. Upon completing her higher education, the Women's Foreign Missionary Society sent Wagner to Japan and arrived in Tokyo on December 7, 1913. Wagner taught at Aoyama Jogakuin Girl's School (1913-1915), Women's Christian College (1923-1933) in Tokyo as well as Iai Jogakko Girls School in Hakodate (1915-1922, 1933-1941 and 1946-1953). Besides teaching other duties included supervising Sunday School work in the Hakodate area, YMCA, church choir and organist. During World War II, she worked with Japanese churches in Colorado. Because of her commitment to Japanese education, the government awarded her the Fifth Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1953. Wagner left Japan for good on June 30, 1953 and retired to the Robincroft Home in Pasadena, California. She died on September 22, 1980, in Lemon Grove, California
The Dora Amelia Wagner Papers contain graduate certificates as well as documents from Wagner’s time spent in Japan. Three certificates of degree are enclosed from Kingman High School in Kansas, Northwestern University in Evanston-Chicago, and Baker University in Kansas. A letter documenting her experience in Japan in 1936, including meeting Emperor Hirohito, a newspaper from Iai Jo Gakko Girls’ School in Hakodate chronicling Helen Keller’s visit to the school amongst other school activities, and a photograph of the Emperor in his car, are also included in the collection. Of the three large documents with currently unknown Japanese characters, one appears to be a Testimonial of Gratitude to Miss Wagner from the mayor of Hakodate, and one is the “Fifth Order of Sacred Treasure,” granted by Emperor Hirohito.
Materials have been arranged in the following manner.
Arrangement is by file folder title.
When citing material from this collection please use the following format: Direct reference to the item or its file folder, Dora Amelia Wagner Collection, United Methodist Church Archives - GCAH, Madison, New Jersey. Do not make use of the item's call number as that is not a stable descriptor.
There are no restrictions regarding this collection.
Detailed use restrictions relating to our collections can be requested from the office of the archivist at the General Commission on Archives and History. Photocopying is handled by the staff and may be limited in certain instances. Before using any material for publication from this collection a formal request for permission to publish is expected and required.
Mission Biographical Reference Files
Microfilm Edition of the Methodist Church (U.S.). Board of Missions. Missionary files series.
Call Number | Folder Title | Date(s) |
2588-3-4: 1 | Source Material from Iai Jo Gakko Girls' School | 1915-1953 |
2587-1-2: 1 | Unknown Japanese Documents | Undated |
2587-1-2: 2 | Diplomas | 1903-1934 |