Guide to the Joan Rankin Papers
Open for research.
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Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not be available on Pearl or in their entirety.
Joan Rankin, missionary for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and its successor, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., served in Iran as a teacher in the Community School in Tehran, an international English-speaking school, from 1954 to 1957 and from 1960 to 1966. She resigned from career service in 1967. Rankin returned to the Community School in 1970 and was a staff member until her resignation in 1974.
Rankin, born in 1923, was the daughter of teachers and was raised in Orofino, Idaho. She obtained degrees from Orofino High School in 1941, Lewiston State Normal School in 1943, the University of Idaho in 1947, and the University of Washington, Seattle, where she earned her Washington teaching credentials in 1949.
Rankin's career began in 1943 with teaching the second grade in Idaho. Between 1946 and 1954, she taught in primary and junior high schools in Washington. From 1952 to 1953, Rankin attended the San Francisco Theological Seminary at San Anselmo, California, to pursue a masters degree in Christian education. While still teaching, Rankin began spending her free time on mission work, particularly with Native Americans, teaching Vacation Bible School in southeastern Alaska.
From 1954 to 1957, Rankin taught seventh grade at the Community School in Tehran, Iran. In 1957, Rankin returned to the United States and from 1957 to 1960, she taught fifth and sixth graders in Washington. Rankin returned to the Community School in 1960 and taught until 1966, when she moved back to the United States to teach sophomore English and the New Testament at the Presbyterian related Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. She remained in Utah for a year then taught fifth and sixth graders in Washington from 1967 to 1970.
In 1970, Rankin returned for her last run of teaching at the Community School, remaining there until 1974 when she resigned, largely due to health issues. On her return to the United States, she lived in Seattle with her aunt, Hazel Fuller, who was also a teacher and who taught, from 1964 to 1965, at the Iran Bethel School for Girls in Iran. Rankin died in 2006.
Throughout her time teaching and living in Iran, Rankin studied and traveled through the Middle East and Europe. Her education included two summers at the American University in Beirut, first during the summer of 1964, and later during the early 1970s. Her travels included Greece and Jerusalem in 1955; Amsterdam, Paris, and an ocean voyage from Europe to the United States during the summer of 1957; Spain, Portugal, and Turkey in 1970 en route to Iran; Switzerland in 1972; Edinburgh, Scotland in the summers of 1973 and 1974; and Beirut and Damascus in 1974, en route to Washington.
This collection consists primarily of correspondence, a scrapbook, and a tray of slides. The material is divided into two series: Correspondence, 1954-1957, 1960-1966, 1970-1974 and Scrapbook and photographic materials, 1954-circa 2000, bulk 1954-1957. The Correspondence series is divided into two subseries: Joan Rankin, 1954-1957, 1960-1966, 1970-1974; and Hazel Fuller, 1964-1965.
The Correspondence series consists largely of letters sent from Joan Rankin in Iran to her mother and stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Murray (Vera and Jim), and to other family members and friends. Rankin's correspondence is arranged chronologically. From 1954 to 1955, her letters contain her first impressions of Tehran and the Community School, as well as Iranian anecdotes and customs, the Community School activities, and her involvement with the Girl Scouts. She discusses: in 1956, Carolyn Durham Sherman Fung, the House of Parliament, and a visitor from near Reza Yeh; in 1957, Amsterdam, Paris, and Rome; in 1960 and 1961, the nationalities included in her class (Israeli, Australian, Chinese, American, Iranian, Czechoslovakian, Yugoslavian, Swedish, British, Pakistani, and East Indian); in 1962, her Beirut vacation; in 1963, the village girls learning to read, her Cantonese and Japanese students, and her travel plans; in 1964, her aunt, Hazel Fuller, arriving in Tehran to work, and Rankin's attendance at the American University in Beirut; in 1965, her aunt Hazel Fuller, the Community School, and her travels; in 1966, one of her students named Mina Gouran, wood lice, sowbugs, United Nations Day, and the Persian New Year; in 1970, Istanbul, Spain, Madrid, Turkey, Suleymaiye Mosque in Turkey, Mrs. Staralker, and the Woodwards' death; in 1971, opera, ballet, her friend Nayart, and Kurdish dances; in 1972, her summer in Switzerland; in 1973, her summer in Edinburgh and golf lessons, Sikh's house, Bolivian teacher, No Ruz, and the death of her friend who was a Belgian/French teacher; and in 1974, her illness and return to the United States. Assorted material filed with the letters includes postcards, photographs, personal documents in Persian, ephemera, and personal remembrances.
A single folder of letters to Vera and Jim Murray and to Rankin's aunt and uncle, Lottie and George Jones, were written by Rankin's aunt, Hazel Fuller, during her own year of teaching at the Iran Bethel School for Girls in Tehran from 1964 to 1965.
The Scrapbook and photographic materials series includes a 1956 scrapbook, created by Rankin for her mother and stepfather, which contains autobiographies and photographs of her students at the Community School; a tray of slides of the Community School, the Girl Scouts, and primarily of friends in Iran and elsewhere; and a circa 2000 photograph of Rankin.
The collection is arranged as follows:
SERIES I: CORRESPONDENCE, 1954-1957, 1960-1966, 1970-1974
Subseries 1: Joan Rankin, 1954-1957, 1960-1966, 1970-1974
Subseries 2: Hazel Fuller, 1964-1965
SERIES II: SCRAPBOOK AND PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS, 1954-circa 2000, bulk 1954-1957
To browse this collection's digitized materials visit Pearl.
Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not be available on Pearl or in their entirety.
Received from Lucile Torgerson in 2008.
As part of the More Product, Less Process (MPLP) workshop sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) in May 2012, this collection was minimally processed and the finding aid was prepared by Holly Mengel, co-leader, and produced using the Archivists' Toolkit. This guide was revised in October 2014 by Bill Brock, Collection Management Archivist.
Joan Rankin Papers, RG 486, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
| Box | Folder | Description | Alternative Formats |
| SERIES I: CORRESPONDENCE, 1954-1957, 1960-1966, 1970-1974 | |||
| Subseries 1: Joan Rankin, 1954-1957, 1960-1966, 1970-1974 | |||
| 1 | 1 | 1954-1955 | |
| 1 | 2 | 1955 | |
| 1 | 3 | United Nations Day program, 1956. | Digital |
| 1 | 3 | 1956 | |
| 1 | 4 | 1957 | |
| 1 | 5 | 1960-1961 | |
| 1 | 6 | 1962 | |
| 1 | 7 | 1963 | |
| 1 | 8 | 1964 | |
| 1 | 9 | 1965 | |
| 1 | 10 | 1966 | |
| 1 | 11 | 1970 | |
| 1 | 12 | 1971 | |
| 1 | 13 | 1972 | |
| 1 | 14 | 1973 | |
| 1 | 15 | 1974 | |
| Subseries 2: Hazel Fuller, 1964-1965 | |||
| 1 | 16 | 1964-1965 | |
| SERIES II: SCRAPBOOK AND PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS, 1954-circa 2000, bulk 1954-1957 | |||
| 3 | Slides of the Community School, the Girl Scouts, and friends in Iran and elsewhere, 1954-1970, bulk 1954-1957 | ||
| 2 | 1 | Community School scrapbook (includes photographs and autobiographies of students) created for Joan Rankin's mother and step-father, 1956 | |
| 1 | 17 | Photograph of Joan Rankin, circa 2000 |