Guide to the Henry R. O'Brien Papers
Open for research.
To browse this collection's digitized content visit Pearl.
Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not have been digitized in their entirety.
Henry Rust O'Brien was born in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1891. After completing high school in Kansas City, Missouri, where his father was a Congregational minister, he attended Washburn College. He then went on to complete an M.A. in organic chemistry from the University of Kansas, and an M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1919.
O'Brien's first tour of duty in Siam was with the Department of Public Health under the Rockefeller Foundation, from 1921-1923. His work there focused on effective control of the hookworm. After his return to the U.S. in 1923, he worked as an assistant resident in surgery at the Cincinnati General Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1925 he was appointed as a missionary to Siam by the PCUSA Board of Foreign Missions. He was assigned to the McCormick Hospital in Chiang Mai, and his field service was primarily medical in nature.
Following his resignation from the Board of Foreign Missions in 1933, O'Brien worked as a government physician and surgeon. He also worked in medical education for the U.S. government and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. He died in 1970.
The collection consists of photographs, photograph albums, and a scrapbook documenting O'Brien's tenure in Siam. The correspondence included in the collection is primarily comprised of letters written and received following his return to the U.S. Most of this correspondence pertains to his interest in the diaries of Daniel Beach Bradley, medical missionary to Siam from 1835-1873. Also included in the collection are letters written to O'Brien from the Crown Prince and Princess Mother of Siam, personal accounts of his experiences in Siam, articles he wrote about medicine and public health in Siam and the United States, and a eulogy for O'Brien.
SERIES 1: PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS, 1925-36
SERIES 2: SCRAPBOOK, 1930-45
SERIES 3: CORRESPONDENCE, 1926-60
SERIES 4: MISCELLANEOUS, 1921-70
To browse this collection's digitized content visit Pearl.
Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not have been digitized in their entirety.
RG 268 contains personal correspondence of Henry R. O'Brien and Rev. Kenneth Wells, 1931-1970.
This collection was donated to the Presbyterian Historical Society by the Rev. Kenneth A. B. Wells. Jim O’Brien donated the folder of medical articles to PHS in 2017, and it was added to the collection at that time.
Unmounted photographs from albums and scrapbooks have been filed in separate boxes.
Collection processed and Finding Aid prepared: February, 1995
Amy J. Roberts, Processing Archivist
| Box | Folder | Description | Alternative Formats |
| 1 | 1 | Finding Aid to Record Group 394 | |
| SERIES 1: PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS, 1925-36, n.d. | |||
| 2 | 1 | Kentung Trails album, n.d. | |
| 3 | 1 | McCormick Hospital album, 1925-36 | Digital |
| 3 | 2 | Along the Meping album, n.d. | |
| 1 | 2 | Unmounted photographs from Along the Meping album, n.d. | |
| SERIES 2: SCRAPBOOK, 1930-45 | |||
| 4 | 1 | Scrapbook, 1930-45 | |
| 1 | 3 | Unmounted photographs from scrapbook, 1930-34 | |
| SERIES 3: CORRESPONDENCE, 1926-60 | |||
| 1 | 4 | Correspondence, 1926-60 | |
| SERIES 4: MISCELLANEOUS, 1921-70 | |||
| 1 | 5 | Personal account of experiences in Siam, 1921-1923 | |
| 1 | 6 | Personal account of experiences in Siam, 1926-1930 | |
| 1 | 7 | Notes on Daniel Beach Bradley's diaries, n.d. | |
| 1 | 8 | Eulogy, 1970 | |
| 1 | 9-10 | Articles written by O’Brien on medicine and public health in Siam, Africa, and the United States, 1922-1966 and undated |