The Archives and Special Collections recently received this rare book as a gift from the late Mrs. L. Meiling Yen of Mattapoisett, MA.  Published by the Chinese-American press in 1944, it documents the trip of Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Soong May-ling) to the United States and Canada in 1943.  Madame Chiang was the wife of Generalissimo and later Republic of China President Chiang Kai-shek, who was in office from 1948 to 1975 .  During World War II, Madame Chiang travelled around the world to promote the Chinese cause and build a legacy for her husband on par with Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. She was educated in the United States and was fluent in English.   Well versed in both Chinese and western culture, she became popular both in China and abroad.  Soong May-ling made several tours to the United States to lobby support for the Nationalist’s war effort. She drew crowds as large as 30,000 people and in 1943 made the cover of TIME magazine for a third time. She had earlier appeared on the October 26, 1931 cover along-side her husband and on the January 3, 1937 cover with her husband as “Man and Wife of the Year.”  On February 18, 1943, she became the first Chinese national and the second woman to address both houses of the U.S. Congress.  On that same trip, as laid out in this book, she visited New York City, where she gave a speech at Madison Square Garden on March 2; Boston, where she made a trip to see her Alma Mater, Wellesley College, and gave an address on March 7; Chicago, with an address at Chicago Stadium on March 22; San Fransisco, where her speech was at the Civic Audorium on March 27; and finally, Los Angeles, with an appearance at Hollywood Bowl.  Madame Chiang received the world’s outstanding woman award from Eleanor Roosevelt on this 1943 trip.

As part of the library construction project, the archives will be getting some additional fire suppression equipment installed.   We will reopen with regular hours on January 2nd.

Only two more days left to view this exhibit of Portuguese traditional sea-themed nativity scenes made by local artisans!  The first lapinhas were made by nuns in convents in the 17th century in S. Miquel, Azores.  They were decorated with miniature shells, artificial silk flowers, feathers, fish scales, wax, papers and cotton, and the focus were the clay figurines that represented the Holy Family.  Local artisans continue this long tradition.  Last year, the Casa dos Acores  New England sponsored an artisan to travel to Providence to teach a class.  The presepios de lapinha on display in the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives through December 13, 2012 were made by women in this class.