Nellie Miller Mann Papers (1921–1923)

Nellie Miller Mann (1897–1997), a Mennonite relief worker from Elkhart, Indiana, served as secretary to the treasurer of Near East Relief’s headquarters in Beirut from 1921 to 1923. Dispatched through the Mennonite Relief Commission, she was one of only two Mennonite women sent to the Near East during this period. Working under treasurers including Ray F. Bender and Stanley Kerr, Mann managed administrative operations while regularly visiting orphanages and refugee camps across Syria and Lebanon, including the Birds’ Nest Orphanage in Sidon, where Maria Jacobsen’s young charges knew her as “Miss Nellie.”

This collection includes her NER employment contract, personal correspondence, and administrative reports from the Beirut headquarters. The documents offer a ground-level view of NER’s institutional operations — personnel management, field conditions at the Personnel House, and assessments of relief work across Syria — the view of a young woman who managed the daily paperwork of a large humanitarian organization.

Mann’s papers are held at the Rockefeller Archive Center. Her photographs are presented here in a companion collection.