There are many individual photographs, plus one black paper album. The photos in the album have been scanned twice: -- The entire album has been scanned page by page at a fairly low resolution, and put into a pdf file -- The individual photos have been scanned at our regular higher resolution and entered into the database individually. These photos have an ID number with a "A," the page number and a letter designating it's position on the page (starting with "a" at top left and working toward bottom right.)
These photos were donated to MHGS in June, 2012, by Shirley Smith; there was no additional information from the donor. It appears that the photos belonged to Lorna Gibson, who was born in Vermont, lived several years in Palestine, with her mother, a missionary, and went into missionary work herself. The photos are very roughly grouped into three lots: Family photos from the Gibson and Cox families, snapshots taken in and around Palestine during the late 1920s and early 1930s focusing on Bernice Gibson, her work and her family, and snapshots taken in New England during the 1930s focusing on Lorna Gibson.
The first 25 photos were in a manilla envelope from "CAO TIMES, Box 75, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. 10113" (stamped) to "Mr. Curtis L. Gibson, General Delivery, Sulphur Springs AR 72768" post date unreadable
Items 26 through 37 were in a manilla envelope addressed to Bernice C. Gibson 412 Black Ave. Sulphur Spring, Ark, postmarked Chicago, Ill, no date.
Items 38 through 44 were in an unlabeled manilla envelope
Items 45 through 55 were in an unlabeled cardboard folder
Items 56 through 78 were in an unlabeled manilla envelope
7 copies of item 79 were in a manilla envelope labeled "Gibson Family Relatives & Friends. Mrs. Gibson, 412 Black Avenue. Sulphur Springs, Ark." No postmark
Item 80 was inside one envelope from "Lorna F. Gibson 29 Court Street Woodsville, New Hampshire" to "Moen Photo Service 867 Moen Bldg La Crosse, Wisconsin" postmarked August 11, 1943 and labeled "CBC senior graduation photo." This envelope was inside a second envelope from "19885 Wisteria St. Castro Valley, Calif." to "Mrs. Bernice C. Gibson Sulphur Springs Arkansas" and labelled "Lorna's Friends" and postmarked 1964.
The remaining items were in an envelope with a printed return address of "Spanish-World Gospel Mission, Inc. El Camino de la Vida, P.O. Box 542, Winona Lake, Indiana 46590" and a typed address of "Miss Lorna Gibson, Rt. 1 Box 199 Sulphur Springs, AR 72768"
The final item, oversized, was separate in the box.
The photos were processed by Julia Langel, June and July 2012.
Processing note: Several of the captions for the snapshots in these photos refer to "Mishlambs." After some investigation, the processor thinks that this may not be a family name; instead, it appears to be an affectionate collective nickname for the children of the missionary group Bernice Gibson belonged to.
These items are from the personal files of Faye Wilson Leach.
The first set of items are from her membership in the social sorority XI Delta Pi. There are photographic slides, membership directories and event programs.
After that, the items are a bit more jumbled. Roughly, there are three kinds of materials:
1) Purely family items, including both printed items, such as letters, and photographs
2) Fairmount United Church of Christ items, including church directories and photographs
3) Wichita items, including materials about businesses and people.
Many of these items are recent, copyrighted, or refer to living people, so, while they are in the digital database, they are not available on the web-based interface. If you find something intriguing in this collection online, there is a very good chance that there are additional materials not online. You may search and view these in our library.
Digital images of these items have been contributed to the MHGS Digital Collections by community members. For the most part, MHGS does not hold the physical originals.
