Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore

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Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore

Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore (born October 14, 1856 in Clinton , Iowa , † November 3, 1928 in Geneva ) was an American writer , photographer and geographer and the first female board member of the National Geographic Society .

Live and act

Childhood and youth

Scidmore was born on October 14, 1856 in Clinton, Iowa. Her brother was the career diplomat George Hawthorne Scidmore (1854-1922), who served in the Far East from 1884 to 1922. She attended Oberlin College in the US state of Ohio . As a child she was interested in geography, as she confessed in an interview in 1890.

"My daydreams were always of other countries."

"My daydreams were always about other countries."

- Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore

In the 1870s, Eliza Scidmore was one of the first women to work as a newspaper correspondent. She wrote her first columns for the National Republican newspaper in Washington, DC , at the age of 19, and then published articles on Washington society issues in various newspapers, including the New York Times .

Since they are sometimes called "ER Scidmore" or "E. Ruhamah Scidmore, “wrote, many readers assumed she was male. Letters addressed to them began with "Dear Sir". Book critics praised the works of “Mr. Scidmore ”.

to travel

Alaska

Map of Glacier Bay with Scidmore Bay (northwest of center). The Scidmore Glacier (not labeled) is to the west of it.

In the years 1883 and 1884 she traveled to Alaska to get an idea of ​​the then largely unexplored country. The United States bought Alaska from Russia in the 1860s , and few Americans had visited the country since then.

Scidmore sailed the Inside Passage to Alaska on the Idaho liner . From her travels, she wrote a number of letters that were printed in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and New York Times newspapers. Maps and illustrations were added to the letters in 1885 and published as a book under the title Alaska: its southern coast and the Sitkan archipelago . This work was considered the ultimate guide to Alaska and is still used by tourists in the area today.

This was followed by a series of further trips to Alaska, which Scidmore documented in the form of articles in various American newspapers and magazines, which contributed to the promotion of tourism: From 1884 to 1889 the number of visitors to Alaska rose from 1,650 to over 5,000. The Scidmore Glacier and Scidmore Bay in Glacier Bay National Park were named after her. World icon World icon

Japan

The view from the north of West Potomac Park over the Tidal Basin shows the cherry trees in bloom

Scidmore first visited Japan in 1885 , which had only recently opened to western visitors. From there she wrote travel reports for various magazines. She admired the high status of Japanese women in Harper's Bazaar , wrote teapots for The Cosmopolitan Magazine, and analyzed the differences between Japanese and Chinese chopsticks.

The Japanese Cherry Blossom impressed her so much that she suggested again and again on their return to the government as a sign of friendship with Japan cherry trees in Washington, DC to plant. However, this proposal was only taken up in 1909 by First Lady Helen Taft , who had lived in Japan for a time. In 1912, 3,020 cherry trees donated by the City of Tokyo were planted around the Tidal Basin on the grounds of West Potomac Park . Many of these trees are still in bloom (around 1000 in 1998), the others have been replaced over time. Today these trees are an attraction and draw many tourists, especially during the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

National Geographic

The National Geographic Society was founded in 1888. Eliza Scidmore became a member in 1890 and was the first woman to publish articles and photographs in the Society's magazine. Initially, she was one of only a dozen female members. Just two years later she was elected to the company's board of directors, which had been all male until then.

In the 1890s, the Smithsonian Institution provided her with a Kodak camera to document her travels through India , Japan, China, and the Indonesian island of Java . She became National Geographic's probably first female photographer. She continued to publish her travel reports in book form.

At the same time, she ensured a realignment of the National Geographic magazine , which at that time consisted exclusively of text contributions. Scidmore prevailed with the suggestion that the contributions should be illustrated according to the model of European magazines. She herself published pictures for her texts, but it is not always clear which pictures she took and which she commissioned.

A goze sings and plays shamisen . Hand-colored photograph by Eliza Scidmore, 1912

By 1905, photos had already become the centerpiece of the magazine, albeit largely in black and white. The reproduction of color photographs was extremely expensive at the time and was viewed critically by the company's board of directors, as they feared that this could dilute the magazine's scientific claim. In 1909, Scidmore encouraged Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor , editor-in-chief of National Geographic, who is now considered the founder of photojournalism, to include color photographs in the magazine. At first, Grosvenor doubted whether they would find suitable motifs for color photographs. The first color photographs were finally published in 1914, including an 11-picture series by Eliza Scidmore for her article “Young Japan”.

After the First World War

After the First World War , Scidmore moved to Geneva to write about the newly formed League of Nations . She furnished her house with souvenirs she had collected for life - including the throne seat of China's Dowager Empress - and it quickly became a meeting place for diplomats.

In 1928, at the age of 72, she contracted appendicitis and was hospitalized with complications. Eliza Scidmore died in the early morning of November 3, 1928. She was buried in the Aliens Cemetery in Yokohama , along with her brother and mother. Next to her grave is a cherry tree planted in her honor by the Eliza Scidmore Cherry Blossom Society in 1991 .

Works

Scidmore - Westward To The Far East - Title.jpg

Books

  • Alaska: its southern coast and the Sitkan archipelago . D. Lothrop and Co., Boston 1885 (English, archive.org ).
  • Jinrikisha days in Japan . Harper & Brothers, New York 1891 (English, archive.org ).
  • Appletons' guide-book to Alaska and the northwest coast: including the shores of Washington, British Columbia, southeastern Alaska, the Aleutian and the Seal islands, the Bering and the Arctic coasts . D. Appleton and Co., New York 1893 (English, loc.gov ).
  • Westward to the Far East: a guide to the principal cities of China and Japan with a note on Korea . Canadian Pacific Railway Company, Montreal 1893 (English, archive.org - first edition: 1891).
  • Java: the garden of the East . Century Co., New York 1897 (English, archive.org ).
  • China, the long-lived empire . Century Co., New York 1900 (English, archive.org ).
  • Winter indi . Century Co., New York 1903 (English, archive.org ).
  • As the Hague ordains: journal of a Russian prisoner's wife in Japan . Henry Holt and Co., New York 1907 (English, archive.org ).

Journal articles

  • Recent explorations in Alaska . In: The National Geographic Magazine . tape 5 , 1893 (English).
  • The Recent Earthquake Wave on the Coast of Japan . In: The National Geographic Magazine . tape 7 , 1896 (English).
  • Reports of Sealing Schooners from Tuscarora Deep . In: The National Geographic Magazine . tape 7 , 1896 (English).
  • The Discovery of Glacier Bay, Alask . In: The National Geographic Magazine . tape 7 , 1896 (English).
  • Young Japan . In: The National Geographic Magazine . tape 26 , 1914 (English, archive.org ).

Web links

Commons : Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Place of birth from passport applications from April 1, 1878, June 27, 1894 and September 28, 1903 as well as passenger list from Yokohama to Seattle July 1923. Her family lived in Clinton, Iowa at the census of 1856 (from en: Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Nina Strochlic: The Woman Who Shaped National Geographic. In: National Geographic Society. February 2017, accessed February 15, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Diana Parsell: From Early 'Lady Writer,' Washington Cherry Blossoms and a National Geographic Legacy. In: National Geographic Society. Retrieved February 15, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b U.S. Department of Transportation (Ed.): Women in Transportation: Changing America's History . 1998, p. 8–9 (English, dot.gov [PDF]).
  5. ↑ Diana Parsell: Cherry Tree Planting in March 1912 Shaped Public Face of Washington, DC In: National Geographic Society. March 26, 2012, accessed February 15, 2020 .
  6. ^ History of the Cherry Trees. In: National Park Service, US Department of the Interior. Retrieved February 15, 2020 .
  7. ^ Jean Case: Celebrating International Women's Day: Remarkable Women On The Front Lines Of Exploration. In: Forbes. Retrieved February 15, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Scidmore, Eliza Ruhamah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer, photographer, and geographer
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Clinton
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 1928
Place of death Geneva