Martha Jane Cunningham (3 June 1856 – 22 April 1916) was a Canadian missionary educator in Japan. She was first principal of Shizuoka Eiwa Girls' School in Shizuoka, which was founded in 1887.
Martha Jane Cunningham | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 June 1856 Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Died | 22 April 1916 (age 59) Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario |
| Occupation(s) | Missionary, educator, school principal |
Early life and education
editCunningham was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the daughter of William Cunningham and Matilda Ellen Burns Cunningham. Her father was a clothier.[1] Both of her parents were born in Ireland.
Career
editCunningham was a teacher with the Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church of Canada.[2] She went to Japan in 1887.[1] She worked with a Japanese Methodist minister and a local official, and became the first principal of the first girls' school in Shizuoka that year.[3][4] She traveled in Japan, often with other Western women teachers.[5] While in Canada on furloughs, she taught and spoke to Canadian audiences about Japan and her work,[6][7][8] with illustrations.[9] She left Japan after her third term of service, during the 1906–1907 academic year.[10]
Beginning in 1913, Cunningham was a mission teacher in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, working mainly with European immigrant women and children.[10] She was a member of the Daughters of the Empire and of the Red Cross Society.[11]
Personal life and legacy
editCunningham died in 1916, at the age of 59, in Sault Ste. Marie.[11] In Shizuoka, the alumnae of Shizuoka Eiwa Jogakko, the Methodist Church, and local officials held a memorial service in June 1916, and the school placed a portrait of Cunningham in the students' library, along with books donated in tribute.[12] At the centennial of the school in 1987, a memorial marker was placed for Cunningham on the school's grounds. The school is still operating as of 2023, as is the women's college it launched in 1966, now a university.[13]
References
edit- ^ a b "Going to Japan! The First Through Passenger from Halifax; Miss Cunningham Leaves To-Day for the Kingdom of the Rising Sun via Canadian Pacific Railway and Steamer". The Halifax Herald. 1887-08-09. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Miss Jane Cunningham and pupils, Japan". United Church of Canada Archives. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
- ^ Dugal, Alexandria. "Martha Jane Cunningham: A Women's Missionary Society Pioneer" International Bulletin of Mission Research 42(1)(January 2018): 76-84.
- ^ Gagan, Rosemary R. (1992). A sensitive independence : Canadian Methodist women missionaries in Canada and the Orient, 1881-1925. Internet Archive. Montreal [Que.] : McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 78, 88–90, 99. ISBN 978-0-7735-6330-8 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Shannon, Anne Park (2012). Finding Japan: Early Canadian Encounters with Asia. Heritage House Publishing Co. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-927051-55-9.
- ^ "Miss Cunningham Gives Address on Japan". The Evening Mail. 1909-01-26. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Summer School for S. S. Workers; The Gathering Will Take Place at Berwick Beginning Next Week". The Evening Mail. 1907-07-30. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Woman's Missionary Convention". The Montreal Star. 1907-09-28. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Miss Cunningham's Illustrated Address". The Sault Star. 1914-03-05. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Platt, Harriet Louise (1917). The story of the years : a history of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada, from 1881 to 1906. Emmanuel - University of Toronto. Toronto. pp. 92–94, 117–119 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b "Untitled death notice". The Sault Star. April 24, 1916. p. 2. Retrieved August 31, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Memorial Service in Japan for Late Miss Cunningham". The Sault Star. 1916-10-06. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Shizuoka Eiwa Jogakuin Junior and Senior High School, English pamphlet.
External links
edit- Dugal, Alexandria. "Serving a Gender in Need: Educational Endeavors of Canadian Protestant Missionary Martha Jane Cunningham and the Shizuoka Eiwa Jo Gakko in a Changing Japan" (dissertation, Saint Mary's University 2012).
- Ion, A. Hamish. "Canadian Missionaries in Meiji Japan: The Japan Mission of the Methodist Church of Canada (1873-1889)" (Master's thesis, McGill University 1972).