Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Roy Maxwell Talbot Papers
Accession number: 105
Creator:
Talbot, Roy Maxwell, 1881-1963
Extent: Number of containers: 12 boxes
Repository:
Sonoma State University Library
North Bay Regional and Special Collections
1801 E. Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park, California 94928-3609
Language:
English
Note
Collection is open for research
by appointment .
The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible
for satisfying any claimants of literary property.
[Identification of item]. Roy Maxwell Talbot Papers. North Bay Regional and Special Collections, University Library, Sonoma
State University.
Roy Maxwell Talbot (1881-1963) began his career with the Chinese Maritime Customs in 1908. He served as Commissioner of Customs
from 1935 until 1938, when he became Audit Secretary in the Inspectorate General's Office. He was in that position until 1942.
He served in Canton, Icheng, Nanking, Shanghai, Harbin, Swatow, Kongmoon, Aigun, Antung, Changsha, Amoy and Kunning. In July,
1932, Talbot was arrested by Japanese officials in Amtung, Manchuria for refusing to hand over Chinese customs revenues. In
1941, he was held in the Bridge House, an infamous dungeon, for 42 days. Talbot's detention by the Japanese created an international
incident. Newspapers around the world carried headlines of an arrest of an "American employed by the Chinese".
Diaries, photographs, personal correspondence, a radio script, copies of official papers, artifacts and ephemera document
the life of “China hand”, Roy Maxwell Talbot. Talbot worked in China as a Customs Service Agent from 1908-1942. The diaries
contain the greatest depth of information. The subjects in most photographs are not identified.