The McGraw-Page Library recently added the Taylor Anderson Memorial Collection to its Archives and Special Collections. Taylor Anderson graduated from Randolph-Macon College in 2008 with a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and minors both in Asian Studies and Political Science. She was teaching English in Ishinomaki, Japan when she was killed in the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster in March 2011. Her memory has been honored by The Japan Foundation, Ishinomaki Senshu University, and the U.S. Japan Council’s TOMODACHI Initiative.
This collection contains ephemeral and published materials relating to Ishinomaki City, Ishinomaki High School, the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster of March 2011, and Ishinomaki Senshu University. Materials include books, newspapers, pamphlets, computer printouts, and ticket stubs collected during a summer exchange program between Randolph-Macon College and Ishinomaki Senshu University in 2016.
Ishinomaki Senshu University is located in the Miyagi Prefecture in the Tohoku region of northern Japan, which was greatly affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.
Some items in the collection have especially significant meaning.
Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story: and Stories of Courage and Sacrifice during the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, is a documentary on DVD that examines the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami through Taylor Anderson’s life.
The book Teira san kara no okurimono: Tsunami no gisei ni natta amerika no sensei: Shinsai no ishinomaki: Taiyaku (A Gift from Taylor: The story of an American teacher who was lost in the Tsunami) by Naomi Chiba is in both Japanese and English and also tells Taylor’s story. The copy in our Taylor Anderson Memorial Collection was signed and donated by the author in Taylor’s memory.
The POP[ular] reading section on the first floor of the library is also dedicated to Taylor’s memory. She was one of two students who began the Randolph Readers book club, which met monthly in the library beginning in 2006.
We are glad to be able to honor Taylor’s memory and the relationship between Randolph-Macon College and Ishinomaki Senshu University through this collection, and hope its resources will inspire current and future R-MC students to use their liberal arts education to explore their passions and prepare to follow their dreams.
You can read more about Taylor’s life and Randolph-Macon College’s Japanese Studies program here.