Summary

Creator:

Young, Isaac Jones, 1914-1962 and Ōfuji, Noburō, 1900-1961

Abstract:

Fourteen 8mm motion picture films created or collected by Isaac Jones Young, III, of Henderson, North Carolina, primarily documenting his time spent in China in the late 1930s.

Extent:

14 items
8mm film reels
1.5 Linear Feet
122 Gigabytes
MKV (FFV1) digital preservation files

Language:

Materials in English, Chinese, and Japanese.

Collection ID:

RL.11795

Background

Scope and Content:

The Isaac Jones Young Films contains fourteen 8mm films made primarily by Isaac Jones Young, III, of Henderson, North Carolina. Eleven of the films document Jones's experiences in China, particularly around Shanghai and Tianjin, during the period 1936 to 1940, when he was employed by the Yi Tsoong Tobacco Company (British-American Tobacco's British Cigarette Company). Images include Shanghai in the aftermath of the Japanese invasion of China as part of the Sino-Japanese War, temples and parks in Beijing, a tobacco market and factory, the 1939 Tianjin Flood, stilt walkers, and Young's European/American colleagues in China. One of the films captures a birthday party at Young's family home in Henderson, NC. Two of the films were collected by Young, including a Kodak Cinefilm promotional reel profiling Hawaii, and a silent, black and white print of anime pioneer Noburo Ofuji's 1933 film, The Three Fearless Frogs (Kaeru sanyushi).

Biographical / Historical:

Isaac Jones Young, III, was born in Henderson, North Carolina, in 1914, the son of Celestia Gill Young and Isaac Jones Young, II, the postmaster of Henderson and a community leader who was elected to the North Carolina state legislature for two terms. Jones graduated from Henderson High School in 1931. By the late 1930s he was in China, working for British-American tobacco firm Yi Tsoong, which produced over half the cigarettes made in China at that time. In 1947, Jones married Mary Harrison Bennett (born 1923), also of Henderson, NC, in Shanghai. Mary Bennett Young died in Mexico City in 1957, and Jones remarried in 1958, to Vesta Manning Wester (born 1925), of Henderson, NC. Young died at Duke Hospital, of a pancreatic ailment, in 1962.

Acquisition Information:

The Isaac Jones Young films were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 2019.

Processing information:

Processed by Craig Breaden, December 2019.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2019-0165.

Arrangement:

Arranged chronologically.

Rules or Conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Subjects

Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Duke University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.

Subjects:

Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945
Tobacco industry -- China
Americans -- China
Temples -- China

Formats:

Audiovisual materials
8mm (photographic film size)
Animated films -- Japan