Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek

Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek

Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek Photograph, on paper bearing official seal, 10.5" x 8" (matted, in a 21" x 17" frame)

Madame Chiang presented this photograph to Mrs. Dorothy Thomas in 1941. In 1985, Mrs. Thomas (the former Dorothy Quincy Hancock Read) donated the photograph to the Thomas Room. This photograph is located on the second floor, at the northern entry to the Thomas Reading Room.

In 1925, Chiang Kai-Shek took over Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), subdued feudal warlords, and became ruler of mainland China from 1928 to 1949. When the Chinese Communists won the civil war, Chiang, together with the remaining Nationalist forces, moved to the island of Taiwan where he set up a government-in-exile.

Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, the former Soong May-Ling, was the daughter of Soong Charles, who attended Trinity College. Madame Chiang was an important politician in her own right. In 1943, she traveled extensively throughout the United States in search of aid for the Nationalist Government's fight against Japan. The culmination of her trip was a well-received speech before Congress.