Introducing the Dr. Edward B. Jones ’54 and Beth Evans Lindsay Jones ’48 Asian History Collection

Beth Evans Lindsay graduated from Furman in 1948. She married Ed Jones ’54 in 1952, and together they visited more than 70 countries and lived in New Delhi, London, and Shanghai. In 1969, they helped established Furman’s Study Away Program in the U.K. Beth Jones was a medical technologist and later volunteered at Greenville Memorial Hospital.

Ed Jones joined the Marine Corps at 17 in 1945 and served in China from 1946-1947. He joined the History Department at Furman in 1956, receiving a Master’s from UNC and a Ph.D. in history from Duke. He first visited India and then taught Furman’s first course in Indian history in 1964. Jones was instrumental in founding Furman’s Asian-African Studies Program and in 1988 was named as the first chair of the newly-created Department of Asian Studies, which he held until 1994. In 1991, he was appointed Gordon Poteat Professor of Chinese Studies.

Ed and Beth Jones led many Furman student semesters and Furman alumni trips to Europe and Asia for over 30 years. They set up the Ed and Beth Evans Jones Endowed Fund for Asian Studies at Furman in 2002. Beth Jones died in 2018, and Ed in 2021.

This collection of their personal and professional papers has been given to Furman by their children, Gordon and Bonnie, in 2023. It includes Asian antiquities, a substantial collection of books about China, personal and professional materials documenting their travels and the Furman students and alums who traveled with them, Beth’s student scrapbooks, Furman artifacts, and objects of material culture from the Furman Woman’s College campus before its sale to Greenville County in the mid-1960s.

Many thanks are due to Rick Jones for creating the poster for this exhibition, and to Gordon Lindsay Jones and Bonnie Evans Jones for this generous gift.