Introduction
Professor Benjamin A. Elman (1946–), who specializes in the history of education and of science in China, Chinese intellectual and cultural history, as well as the history of cultural exchanges in East Asia, received his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and has held professorships of Chinese history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and of history and East Asian studies, emeritus, at Princeton University. His more representative works include A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China, On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900, A Cultural History of Modern Science in China, Civil Examinations and Meritocracy in Late Imperial China, and Science in China, 1600–1900: Essays by Benjamin A. Elman, among others.
The fonds of Benjamin A. Elman was donated to the IHP by Elman in 2023, totaling four boxes of about 865 items. Contents include a significant amount of research notes, class materials, manuscripts, offprints, lecture notes and slides, official correspondences, and photographs from his time in Thailand serving with the Peace Corps. Some personal artifacts include articles presented by other scholars, works of his students, and a poem gifted by Professor Yu Ying-shih and his wife, reflecting Elman’s research career and academic networks.
The fonds of Benjamin A. Elman was donated to the IHP by Elman in 2023, totaling four boxes of about 865 items. Contents include a significant amount of research notes, class materials, manuscripts, offprints, lecture notes and slides, official correspondences, and photographs from his time in Thailand serving with the Peace Corps. Some personal artifacts include articles presented by other scholars, works of his students, and a poem gifted by Professor Yu Ying-shih and his wife, reflecting Elman’s research career and academic networks.