Willis Carl and Pearl Graul Nugent photograph collection
Collection
Identifier: P1584
Scope and Contents
The Willis Carl and Pearl Graul Nugent photograph collection consists of 2 boxes containing 189 black-and-white photographs. Box 1 contains photographs, postcards, and cards taken and collected by Willis and Pearl Nugent and documenting their time ministering to Japanese Americans at Tanforan Assembly Center and Topaz Relocation Center from 1942 to 1945. The box also contains photographs documenting the Nugents' missionary work in Japan from 1927 to 1940 and in the late 1940s-1950s in the years following World War II. The box also contains several photographs of Tule Lake, Jerome, and at the First Baptist Church of Chicago; these photographs depict Japanese American Reverends and may have been given to Nugent through connections with other people in the profession.
Box 2 is oversized and contains a photograph album of other concentration camps, as well as Japanese Americans who were imprisoned and released to work in cities like Detroit, Michigan, during the war. While the album contains some photographs from other camps, a majority of the photographs depict the Granada Relocation Center in Amache, Colorado and a Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) camp in Pueblo, Colorado.
Box 2 is oversized and contains a photograph album of other concentration camps, as well as Japanese Americans who were imprisoned and released to work in cities like Detroit, Michigan, during the war. While the album contains some photographs from other camps, a majority of the photographs depict the Granada Relocation Center in Amache, Colorado and a Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) camp in Pueblo, Colorado.
Dates
- 1927-1957
Creator
- Nugent, Willis Carl, 1892-1971 (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
Conditions Governing Use
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from the Willis Carl and Pearl Graul Nugent photograph collection must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator.
Permission to publish material from the Willis Carl and Pearl Graul Nugent photograph collection must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator.
Biographical Note
Willis Carl Nugent was born in 1892. He studied at the Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and was ordained as a Protestant minister in 1920. Nugent married Pearl Graul in 1920, and the couple sailed to Japan, where they lived until 1930. The couple's four children were all born in Japan. After a brief period of education in the United States, the Nugents returned to Japan. Reverend Nugent worked as an evangelist in the countryside, and Pearl helped to develop kindergartens. In 1940, the Nugents returned to the United States and lived in San Francisco.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Pprisoner Franklin D. Roosevelt’s issuance of Executive Order 9102 targeting Japanese American citizens, the Nugent family continued to work with the Japanese community. Nugent ministered at Tanforan Assembly Center, the former horse tracks in San Bruno, California, where Japanese Americans from the Bay Area were imprisoned in the spring and summer of 1942 while the War Relocation Authority (WRA) constructed concentration camps to hold them. In the fall of 1942, the Nugent family moved to Delta, Utah, to be close to the Federated Church in the Topaz Relocation Center. The Nugents ministered at Topaz and built close relationships with prisoners at Topaz, including Dave Tatsuno, who filmed them taking Japanese American students to Salt Lake City to speak at churches. After Topaz was closed, the Nugent family moved to Illinois before returning to Japan. In retirement they lived in Ohio. Reverend Willis Nugent died in August 1971, and Pearl Nugent died in February 1986.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Pprisoner Franklin D. Roosevelt’s issuance of Executive Order 9102 targeting Japanese American citizens, the Nugent family continued to work with the Japanese community. Nugent ministered at Tanforan Assembly Center, the former horse tracks in San Bruno, California, where Japanese Americans from the Bay Area were imprisoned in the spring and summer of 1942 while the War Relocation Authority (WRA) constructed concentration camps to hold them. In the fall of 1942, the Nugent family moved to Delta, Utah, to be close to the Federated Church in the Topaz Relocation Center. The Nugents ministered at Topaz and built close relationships with prisoners at Topaz, including Dave Tatsuno, who filmed them taking Japanese American students to Salt Lake City to speak at churches. After Topaz was closed, the Nugent family moved to Illinois before returning to Japan. In retirement they lived in Ohio. Reverend Willis Nugent died in August 1971, and Pearl Nugent died in February 1986.
Extent
2 Boxes
Abstract
Willis Carl Nugent and his wife Pearl Graul Nugent worked as Protestant missionaries in Japan beginning in the 1920s. In 1942, they moved to Delta, Utah, to minister at the Central Utah Relocation Center, or Topaz. This collection contians photographs, postcards, and cards documenting the Nugents' work at Topaz and serving as missionaries in Japan dating from 1927 to 1951.
Arrangement
Arranged by subject
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Loretta Saint-Louis in 2009.
Separated Materials
See also the Willis Carl and Pearl Graul Nugent papers (ACCN 2471) in the Manuscripts Division of Special Collections.
Processing Information
Processed by Special Collections staff.
Creator
- Nugent, Willis Carl, 1892-1971 (Person)
- Utsumi, Kenji (Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Willis Carl and Pearl Graul Nugent photograph collection, 1927-1957
- Author
- Finding aid created by Claire A. Kempa
- Date
- 2022
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid encoded in English in Latin script.
Repository Details
Part of the J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections Repository
Contact:
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City Utah 84112 United States
801-581-8863
special@library.utah.edu
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City Utah 84112 United States
801-581-8863
special@library.utah.edu