December 29, 2020
When Art originally set out to curate his collection of China materials to create “Writings from China, 1910-1933”, I encouraged him to publish it as a website, rather than a spiral-bound photocopy from the office store. That worked well for years, and the site grew to include materials from new China trips, and some remarkable finds from Bill Nesse’s research as he wrote the fabulous book: Hans and Danielle Nesse, Their Lives as Missionaries in China. Art’s extensive collection was widely available, and while not attractive in presentation, it beautifully reflected his take on growing up as the youngest of 3 children of a Norwegian missionary couple in China of the 20’s. His stories range from amusing, to horrifying and back to heart-warming, telling of an upbringing that explains a lot about his “relaxed” approach to navigating daily challenges.
I went to move his collection to a new-and-improved server this week, trying to stay ahead of media obsolescence and web provider meltdown. To my own horror, I discovered that much of his collection had been abandoned by a platform upgrade by a (the) major web service company. Coincidentally, this “upgrade” occurred at about the time of his death this past summer. Only enough remained of some pages to make it look like they were intact. He did publish several of the “copy and bind” books collecting other interesting material during his life, and I have to admit that none of those seem to have been similarly affected. Score one for simple.
The happy news is that I did find an online archive of the missing materials, one password change away from oblivion. His site has been recovered, moved onto a private server controlled by the Nesse family, and backed up to modern standards. The collection was never pretty, but it remains wide-ranging, fascinating, and informative of a life that I, let alone my grand-children, can hardly imagine. I hope you’ll enjoy browsing his materials, and contact one of us (Randy, Rob, or Ted) with your comments.
Ted