Starting in 1962, Mary Shallenberger, a University of Montana graduate, began a correspondence with an Indonesian school teacher, Moh G. K. Natawidjaja, which lasted for the next 30 years. Shallenberger was a teacher in Santa Ana, California. Natawidjaja answered Shallenberger's call to trade magazines and friendship to educate their students about different countries and cultures. During the 30-year correspondence, Shallenberger and Natawidjaja became friends and traded magazines, books, postcards, photographs, and letters. Shallenberger received letters from other teachers and students during this time also, but only her correspondence with Natawidjaja endured.
From the guide to the Mary Shallenberger Papers, 1961-1993, (Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)
