Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association

The Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association (OSMA) is a private foundation housed on the campus of Oberlin College. It was established in 1908 to memorialize Oberlin-educated missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions who died in the Boxer Rebellion in China during the summer of 1900. The first of the missionaries, known as the Oberlin China Band, had gone to China in 1881. They evangelized, established schools, carried on medical work and famine relief, and operated opium refuges. When the OSMA was established, it was primarily an educational enterprise, although it retained close ties to ABCFM missions. It established schools in Shansi and operated them until 1949, when the United States cut off diplomatic relations with China. From 1950 to the present, OSMA has functioned as an agency for two-way educational exchange between Oberlin College and countries of Asia and the Pacific Rim.