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Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo Collection

 Collection
Identifier: WV 0331

Content Description

The collection includes an oral history transcript, 9 September 2005; undated speech written by Elsie about her life story including living in Stockton, California and moving to China in 1931, joining the Chinese Red Cross during WWII, and subsequent events until 1946 when she left her family in China and moved back to the United States; photographs of Elsie during her service the Chinese Medical Relief Corps, circa 1939-1946.

Dates

  • 1931, 1946, 2005

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information. Please see our Sensitive Materials Statement.

Biographical / Historical

Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo (b. 1918) of Stockton, California, served in the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps from 1942 to 1944 and in the United States Army Nurse Corps from 1944 to 1946. Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo was born in Stockton, California, on 14 September 1918. In 1931, when she was twelve years old, Seetoo's family returned to Xinhui in the Guangdong Province of China, and she attended the Pooi To Middle School in Guangzhoun [Canton] for six years.

After graduation in 1938, Seetoo entered nurse's training at the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong and graduated in 1941. In April 1942 Seetoo joined the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps in Guiyang, where she worked in the operating room before joining a medical training unit. In early 1943 Seetoo was stationed in Ramgarh, India, to train orderlies.

She returned to China after seven months and resigned from the Chinese Red Cross in February 1944. Seetoo joined the United States Army Nurse Corps in June 1944 and was stationed with the 14th Air Force as a member of the Air Service Command. She continued to serve in China with the 95th Station Hospital in Kunming and Chengdu, and with the 172nd General Hospital in Shanghai from October 1945 to February 1946. Seetoo returned to the United States in February 1946 and was discharged in May."

After her military service, Seetoo married and attended the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). She graduated in 1948 with a bachelor of science in nursing. Seetoo and her husband lived in the Washington, D.C., area and raised a family. She did freelance work for a translation agency for thirty years and was a technical publications writer for the Naval Medical Center.

Extent

0.21 Linear Feet (3 folders )

Language of Materials

English

Metadata Rights Declarations

  • License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Condition Description

The condition is good.

Offensive Language Statement

The UNC Greensboro University Libraries collects, preserves, and makes accessible unique and historical materials for learning and research. The nature of historical materials is such that some material may represent positions, norms, and values that are offensive and objectionable. These materials represent the opinions and actions of their creators. By providing access to these records in our reading room and through our digital collections, we recognize that archives and rare books can play a vital role in holding those creators accountable and in helping us learn from the past.

Our finding aids and other collection descriptions may occasionally re-use language provided by creators or former holders of the materials, but we strive to place outdated or offensive terminology in context. That said, we recognize that we may not always make the right decision and welcome feedback from all sources so we can learn and adjust our practices. Please contact us at scua@uncg.edu if you encounter problematic language in our finding aids or other collection description. We will review the language and, as appropriate, update it in a way that balances preservation of the original context with our ongoing commitment to describing materials with respectful and inclusive language.

Processing Information

Processed by Matthew McCarthy.

Title
Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Matthew McCarthy
Date
2023 February
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
eng

Repository Details

Part of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives Repository

Contact:
P.O. Box 26170
320 College Ave.
Greensboro NC 27402-6170 US
336-334-5246