Creighton Family Papers 1927-1929

The materials in this collection are in English.

Clara Elise Linn was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1892. In her youth, Clara was involved in the Christian Endeavor and the Student Volunteer Movement, two Christian missionary organizations. Clara worked as a secretary for Houghton Mifflin and then for the Ludlow Manufacturing Company in Boston. In 1913, Clara met Roy Creighton through the Christian Endeavor program.

Roy Creighton was born in Arizona in 1889. When he met Clara he was studying architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. At the beginning of 1916 Roy left Harvard to join the YMCA, which stationed him in China. The same year, Clara entered the School of Pedagogy at the Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, where she met Ruth Hahn, a missionary nurse who had worked in China and was on furlough in Connecticut. In 1916, Ruth and Clara traveled to China to join Roy. Clara and Roy got married in Kuling, China in 1916.

The Creightons served as missionaries for the first half of the twentieth century. Roy's experience in architecture qualified him to become a “missionary architect,” trainhing and supervising local craftsmen in Western construction methods in order to erect YMCA buildings, missions, and schools. The Creightons lived and worked primarily in China from 1915 to 1949. However, after a furlough in the United States throughout the 1920s, the Creightons were stationed in Beirut, Lebanon around 1928. The family lived and worked in Lebanon, where Roy helped construct new buildings at the American University of Beirut for two years. The Creightons had three children that survived to adulthood: Linn, Roger, and Phyllis. Phyllis Creighton Danby married Dr. Tony Danby, a professor at North Carolina State University. 

This collection contains photographs taken by American missionaries Clara Elise Linn and Roy Creighton in the first half of the twentieth century as well as greeting cards sent to the family. The collection documents the lives of the Creighton family while they were stationed in Beirut, Lebanon around 1928, shortly after the country's establishment as an independent nation.

The images in this collection depict the family at the various historical and cultural sites that they visited during vacation. In addition to documenting the family life of Clara and Roy Creighton and their three children, these images depict the landscape and culture of Lebanon during this period of transformation. Images include Roy Creighton working with Lebanese builders to construct buildings for the American University of Beirut.

This collection is arranged in the order it was received.

The donor retains full ownership of any copyright and rights currently controlled. Nonexclusive right to authorize uses of these materials for non-commercial research, scholarly, or other educational purposes are granted to Khayrallah Center pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. Usage of the materials for these purposes must be fully credited with the source. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials.

These materials are digital copies of an original resource held by another institution. The KCLDS Archive often works with other institutions to make digital materials available online to the public. KCLDS is not able to grant permission to use or reproduce these materials. The KCLDS Archive strongly encourages users to contact the holding institution for permission to use or reproduce materials from their holdings.

[Identification of item], Creighton Family Papers, KC 0021, Hoda Z. Nassour and Herbert R. Nassour Jr., MD, Archive of Lebanese Diaspora

Roy and Clara Creighton Papers

Gift of Clara Elise Linn and Roy Creighton, 2015 January (Accession No. 2015.005).

Processed by Khayrallah Program staff. Collection Guide content contributed by Claire A. Kempa and updated by Allison Hall, 2023 December.