Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1883-1954 (Creation)
Level of description
Manuscript Collection
Extent and medium
76 boxes (6.4 metres)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
John Otway Percy Bland was born in Malta, second son of Major-General E.L. Bland of County Antrim, Ireland. He was educated in Switzerland, at Victoria College, Jersey, and at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1883 he joined the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs and for some years was also private Secretary to Sir Robert Hart, resigning in 1896 to become Secretary to the Municipality for the Foreign Settlements at Shanghai. He became representative in China of the British and Chinese Corporation Ltd. in 1906, and negotiated four railway loans with the Chinese Government. In 1910 he resigned and left China. He had been Times Correspondent in Shanghai from 1897-1907 and in Peking, 1907-10. After his return to England he engaged chiefly in journalism. He published ten books under his own name, mainly on eastern affiars and current events. He is chiefly renowned for his collaboration with Sir Edmund Backhouse in China under the Empress Dowager, 1910, and Annals of the Court of Peking, 1913.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
The J. O. P. Bland papers were donated to the University of Toronto in 1970 by Mrs. Dolores Coombs.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Correspondence with officials and British authors, journals kept while in China 1883-85 and 1906-1910, typescripts of chapters of his various published books, his unfinished autobiography, scrapbooks, photos and memorabilia.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-request.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- Chinese
- English
- French