Guide to the Hugh Bousman and Nona S. Bousman Papers

The Hugh Bousman and Nona S. Bousman Papers primarily document the Bousmans' missionary service from 1945 until Hugh Bousman's death in 1953 and Nona Bousman's death in 1955. The collection contains little documentation prior to 1945 because the Bousmans lost nearly everything when they fled Hainan in 1927, and then again when they were interned during World War II.

The collection is divided into three series: Correspondence, 1926-1955, bulk 1945-1955; Subject files, 1919, circa late 1930s-1955; and the Far Eastern Joint Office, 1940s-1953, bulk 1952-1953.

The first series includes correspondence related to Hugh Bousman's missionary work in the Philippines while stationed in Manila from 1945 to 1946; correspondence from his 1946-1947 furlough concerning his assignment on return to the Philippines and his work associated with the PCUSA Restoration Fund; and correspondence and other materials from the late 1940s to the early 1950s related to his service with the Philippine Federation of Christian Churches and his assignment to the United Evangelical Church of the Philippines (succeeded by the formation of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in 1948) for general promotional work and literature. The bulk of Hugh Bousman's correspondence from 1952 to 1953 is in Series III. The first series also consists of incoming and some outgoing correspondence of Nona Bousman from 1926 to 1955, with the bulk from 1953 to 1955. Included are letters of condolence on the death of Hugh Bousman. Several photographs and some assorted material are filed with the correspondence in Series I.  Folders are in chronological order.

The second series consists of subject files that include a folder of sermons and sermon outlines and notes of Hugh Bousman from circa late 1930s to 1950, a folder of material relating to Nona Bousman and the 1946 East Asia Christian Fellowship Mission tour of the United Sates to help finance reconstruction of churches and Far Eastern missions, and a folder of personal and biographical materials that includes Hugh Bousman's Non-Repatriate Interns' Permanent Release of March 27, 1945. With the exception of the miscellaneous folder, folders are in alphabetical order by folder description.

The third series includes correspondence, reports, minutes, printed materials, and other papers from Hugh Bousman's 1952-1953 furlough while working in the Far Eastern Joint Office of the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. This office, of which Rowland M. Cross was executive secretary and Wallace C. Merwin associate secretary, helped with the cooperative work in Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Formosa, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaya, Burma, and Micronesia. During Merwin's absence, Bousman served temporarily in the office of Cross as a consultant about matters in the Philippines and to a lesser extent Indonesia, and corresponded with other people in Southeast Asia. Several files concern the Philippines as well as the Willingen Conference of the International Missionary Council held in Willingen, Germany in July 1952. Bousman attended the conference as one of the representatives of the Philippine Federation of Christian Churches. The series also includes some personal and other business correspondence and papers from Bousman's furlough. With the exception of the miscellaneous folder, folders are in alphabetical order by folder description.