To learn more about this collection please see the finding aid link found above, and/or visit the College and Lutheran Church Archives to use these primary sources.
Johnson, Ruth Nelson and Hobart Johnson. Correspondence, Hymn Books, and Miscellaneous Materials of Ruth and Hobart Johnson, 1931-1984. LCA Collection 15. ½ Hollinger box.
ABSTRACT:
The Ruth and Hobart Johnson collection consists of materials documenting a portion of their time in Tanganyika (Tanzania), Africa and information about an organization at Gustavus Adolphus College called the Bellmanites. Correspondence is in either English or Swahili. Both hymn books are in Swahili. There are no translations for materials written in Swahili. In addition, the collection contains an autobiography of Ruth and biographies of various family members. This booklet contains a family genealogy.
Ruth Nelson was born on 26 November 1900 in Escanaba, Michigan. She graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1920. Nelson went on to teach Latin, Math, Bible Study, and Church History and served as director of women’s athletics at Gustavus. She married Hobart Johnson on 2 September 1926 at the Clear Lake Lutheran Church in Gibbon, Minnesota. The Augustana Lutheran Church commissioned Hobart Johnson as a medical missionary to Tanganyika Territory, East Africa, in February 1928.
