The Leona Ruppel papers date from 1917 to 1958 and measure 4 linear feet. The papers are stored within 5 boxes. The papers are arranged into two series: Biographical and Correspondence.

The Biographical series (1919-1946) consists of notes Ruppel took during religious lectures, account books, programs for various religious meetings and groups, and several clippings of religious poems and articles. This series also includes Ruppel’s answers to several questions that determined whether she was fit for missionary work and Ruppel’s certification as a missionary. Lastly, this series includes a colored map of the world produced by American Express, and a printed drawing of an Indian woman with her child with four lines of Marathi below it.

The Correspondence series (1917-1958) largely consists of Ruppel’s weekly letters home to her family during the two periods of her missionary work in Bombay, India. These letters are filled with detail of what Ruppel did on a day to day basis at the Indian Girl’s School of Bombay and provide a vivid depiction of India from the viewpoint of a white American woman. Included in these letters are hints at the unrest felt by the Indian people under the colonial rule of Great Britain, some superstitions and traditions of India, and the health issues faced by the Indian population, such as infant mortality, which was a reoccurring topic within Ruppel’s letters home. Mahatma Gandhi makes an appearance in a letter from 1931 in which Ruppel was able to see him from afar as he was being released from imprisonment. The majority of these letters are photocopied, and several letters were transcribed by the donor, Sue Lind in 2015 and 2016. Lind also inserted some footnotes with background information and questions in some of the transcriptions. Scattered throughout the series are also letters to Ruppel, several of which were from other missionaries in other locations, such as China, Africa, Mexico, and Native American reservations, who sent their own observations of the places where they performed missionary work and occasionally photographs. There are also several letters from her friends and associates she had from Bombay who kept in touch with her after she returned home. One friend, Phulwaisli Chvislisse, was Ruppel’s teacher in Marathi and continued to send her letters in Marathi Hindi for years after her return home. Many of the letters included in this series still have stamps attached that depict the profile of King George V of Britain and then King George VI of Britain. Multiple letters also have a letter or sticker that indicates that it passed through the British colonial government’s censors.