An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands: Letters of Carrie Prudence Winter, 1890-1893

Sandra E. Bonura; Deborah Day

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2012

An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands

Letters of Carrie Prudence Winter, 1890-1893

Sandra E. Bonura and Deborah Day

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824837228

Overview
Contents

About this book

When twenty-three-year-old Carrie Prudence Winter caught her first glimpse of Honolulu from aboard the Zealandia in October 1890, she had "never seen anything so beautiful." She had been traveling for two months since leaving her family home in Connecticut and was at last only a few miles from her final destination, Kawaiaha'o Female Seminary, a flourishing boarding school for Hawaiian girls. As the daughter of staunch New England Congregationalists, Winter had dreamed of being a missionary teacher as a child and reasoned that "teaching for a few years among the Sandwich Islands seemed particularly attractive" while her fiancé pursued a science degree. During her three years at Kawaiaha'o, Winter wrote often and at length to her "beloved Charlie"; her lively and affectionate letters provide readers with not only an intimate look at nineteenth-century courtship, but many invaluable details about life in Hawai'i during the last years of the monarchy and a young woman's struggle to enter a career while adjusting to surroundings that were unlike anything she had ever experienced.

In generous excerpts from dozens of letters, Winter describes teaching and living with her pupils, her relationships with fellow teachers, and her encounters with Hawaiian royalty (in particular Kawaiaha'o enjoyed the patronage of Queen Lili'uokalani, whose adopted daughter was enrolled as a pupil) and members of influential missionary families, as well as ordinary citizens. She discusses the serious health concerns (leprosy, smallpox, malaria) that irrevocably affected the lives of her students and took a keen (if somewhat naive) interest in relaying the political turmoil that ended in the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the U.S. in 1898.

The book opens with a magazine article written by Winter and published while she was still teaching at Kawaiaha'o, which humorously recounts her journey from Connecticut to Hawai'i and her arrival at the seminary. The work is augmented by more than fifty photographs, four autobiographical student essays, and an appendix identifying all of Winter's students and others mentioned in the letters. A foreword by education historian C. Kalani Beyer provides a context for understanding the Euro-centric and assimilationist curriculum promoted by early schools for Hawaiians like Kawaiaha'o Female Seminary and later the Kamehameha Schools and Mid-Pacific Institute.

Author / Editor information

Bonura Sandra E. :

Sandra E. Bonura lives in Southern California and teaches in higher education. Her two previously published works emanating from primary sources were An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands: The Letters of Carrie Prudence Winter (1890–1893) (2012) and “Lydia K. Aholo—Her Story, Recovering the Lost Voice,” from volume 47 of The Hawaiian Journal of History (2013).

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword: Providing a Context for An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands C. Kalani Beyer Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Notes on Transcription and Research Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
1. An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands August 15, 1890 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. First Impressions August 29–October 26, 1890 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
3. Meeting Royalty November 16–December 21, 1890 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
4. The King Is Dead January 12–April 15, 1891 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
5. Leprosy And Other Ailments April 26—July 17, 1891 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
6. Maui Summer July 17–August 30, 1891 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
7. Back To School September 6, 1891–January 15, 1892 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
8. Politics And Punishment February 2–April 10, 1892 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
9. Riding Mattie May 1–June 26, 1892 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
10. Big Island Summer July 3–August 26, 1892 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
11. The Queen In Crisis September 4–October 23, 1892 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226
12. Down With Malaria November 9–December 25, 1892 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
13. The Revolution January 1–March 19, 1893 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256
14. Homeward Bound April 1–June 13, 1893 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Appendix: Who’s Who In Miss Winter’s Letters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Credits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	392
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	409

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 456
Illustrations
- Other: 69 illus.

eBook

Published: September 30, 2012
ISBN: 9780824837228