Nicholas C. Bodman papers

Collection

Identifier: 14-13-3031

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Papers include personal and autobiographical material relating to the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve, 1945-1963 (photocopies); Yale University, 1945-1950 (photocopies); early correspondence from fellow linguists, 1948; account of a trip to Malaya,and the establishment of the Government Officers Chinese Language School there, 1951-1952; correspondence about his book Spoken Amoy Hokkien, 1954-1956; founding of the Chinese language and area training center in Taichung, Taiwan, 1955-1957; other Foreign Service Institute correspondence through 1961; correspondence about a trip to India, 1961-1962; correspondence about teaching at School Of Area Studies, 1966-1967; correspondence about trips to Nepal and Hong Kong, 1968-1969, and China 1980 and 1983; information about Sino-Tibetan conferences, 1985-1986; letters to family (photocopies); obituaries and condolence notes; student papers, 1982; photograph album; and miscellaneous writings. Also alphabetical correspondence file of letters from colleagues, students, publishers, and friends.

Dates

1945-ca. 1980

Creator

Bodman, Nicholas Cleaveland, 1913-1997. (Person)

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Professor of Chinese Linguistics at Cornell University from 1962-1979.

Nicholas C. Bodman received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Yale University. He entered the Navy during World War II, and was transferred to Pearl Harbor in 1942, where he was part of the group that deciphered the Japanese naval code. From 1950 to 1961, he worked as a scientific linguist with the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. State Department. He came to Cornell in 1962 as an expert in the historic reconstruction of Chinese and related languages. He won Guggenheim and National Science Foundation fellowships in 1961 and 1962, which took him to India, Nepal, and Burma to study Tibeto-Burman languages. After his retirement from Cornell he visited the People's Republic of China twice at the invitation of the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He lectured at major universities and research institutes and conducted linguistic fieldwork on the Min dialect in both Fujian and Guangdon provinces. He was the author of four books and numerous articles and reviews. Professor Bodman died in 1997.

Extent

7 cubic feet. (7 cubic feet.)

Additional Description

Abstract

Papers include personal and autobiographical material and materials relating to his work as a linguist in China and other parts of Asia.

Physical Description

Correspondence, photographs, and notes.

General

Contact Information:: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:: RMC Staff
Date completed:: June 2016
EAD encoding:: Marcie Farwell, July 2016
Date modified:: RMC Staff, June 2016