Albert Earle Garrett, Jr. (1909-1998), a graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School, practiced law in Danville, Va. In his student days, he met Swain Wu, a Chinese citizen (then called Swain Wool) pursuing an education at the College of William and Mary and at Columbia University. After his return to China, Wu became an educator, businessman, and government official. In 1957, Wu left mainland China and moved to Hong Kong; in 1963, he immigrated to the United States. Correspondence between Swain Wu and Albert Earle Garrett, Jr., 1926-and 1973; photographs of Wu and his family; and a North Carolina Public School Register, circa 1900s. Most of the letters are from Wu to Garrett. Letters, 1926-1931, concern Wu's studies and his social life as a student in the United States. Letters, 1931-1941, written after Wu's return to China, discuss both personal matters, such as Wu's search for a wife, and events of international concern, most notably Japan's invasion of China.Letters written while Wu was teaching at Ginling College in Nanking focus on Japan's attacks on Manchuria and Shanghai, as well as Wu's students and other faculty. Some of these letters discuss Charles Lindbergh's visit to the campus. After he moved to Shanghai, where he taught part-time at the Shanghai University Business School and worked successively for Realty Investment Co. and the National City Bank of New York, Wu wrote about details of his work, the situation with Japan, economic conditions, and his romantic life.Letters from Peking in 1940 and 1941, after Wu had married and was working for the government and teaching at Yenching University, focus on the situation with Japan and the need for aid from the United States. Letters, 1959-1963, focus on Wu's desire to immigrate to the United States and Garrett's assistance in this effort. Letters after 1963 are mainly short social letters. The North Carolina Public School Register belonged to Garrett's father, Albert Earle Garrett, Sr. (b. 1882), who taught in 1902 and in 1908.
