Emma Ahuena Taylor

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Emma Ahuena Taylor
Kingdom of Hawaii
DiedNovember 8, 1937(1937-11-08) (aged 69)
Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii
Resting placeOahu Cemetery
Political partyRepublican
SpouseAlbert Pierce Taylor
Parent(s)Benomi R. Davison
Mary Jane Kekulani Fayerweather
RelativesRose C. Davison (sister)
Emma (right) with her siblings: Rose and Harry, c. 1870s

Emma Ahuena Davison Taylor (November 13, 1867 – November 8, 1937)

Native Hawaiian high chiefess during the 20th century. She was a cultural historian, a genealogist, and a repository of Hawaiian culture and history who wrote many articles and recollections about the past and influenced her husband, Albert Pierce Taylor, the author of the historical book Under Hawaiian Skies. She was involved in local philanthropic, historical, and civic groups and participated in the women's suffrage movement in the Territory of Hawaii, campaigning for the rights of local women to vote prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
.

Early life and family

Emma Ahuena Davison was born on November 13, 1867, although her gravestone says she was born in 1866.[2] She was the eldest daughter and second child of American pharmacist Benoni Richmond Davison—who became the superintendent of the United States Marine Hospital in Honolulu—and British-Hawaiian chiefess Mary Jane Kekulani Fayerweather.[3] On her mother's side, she was a great-granddaughter of the British Captain George Charles Beckley and Ahia, a distant relation of the reigning House of Kamehameha. Davison's siblings included William Compton Malulani, Rose Compton, Henry Fayerweather, and Marie Hope Kekulani.[4][5] Her father died in 1875 and her mother later married photographer A. A. Montano in 1877.[6]

Davison attended

Mānoa Valley.[7]

She married Albert Pierce Taylor on November 5, 1902, at her mother's Mānoa residence, becoming Taylor's second wife.[8] Taylor, originally from the United States, settled in Hawaii and worked for The Pacific Commercial Advertiser and later became the librarian for the Archives of Hawaii. He was also a writer of Hawaiian history whose most notable work is Under Hawaiian Skies.[9] They had no children.[10]

Literary career

Emma Ahuena Taylor was an authority on Hawaiian history, genealogy, and language. With her mother, she planned and directed many historical pageants. Her husband's later works were greatly influenced by Taylor and her mother.[11] In the 1920s, Taylor received a government appointment to the Hawaiian Historical and Hawaiian Folklore Commissions.[9][12] The trustees of Bishop Museum and Kamehameha Schools consulted her and other Hawaiian scholars in the translation of Samuel Kamakau's seminal work Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii into English.[3]

Taylor and her husband became officers in the

Paradise of the Pacific magazine.[3]

The most notable characteristics of Taylor's writings were its personal touches and romantic depictions of the past, containing many vivid accounts drawn from her own life. In 1935, she wrote a series of eight weekly installments titled "Personal Recollections", in which she recounts life in Hawaii from her childhood in the 1870s until 1934, for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.[3] Eleanor H. Williamson notes:

Her writing was personal, vivid, and poignant as she described the elegance of court life, with its picturesque and majestic emblems of royalty in the stately kahilis and feather capes, and the genteel and dignified manner of the men and women surrounding the monarch. She was a repository of information on old Hawaii and was liberal in sharing it. In her recollections she provided the color, drama, and personal stories so often absent from purely factual histories. One can almost taste the dust, smell the leis, and view old Honolulu in the mind's eye as she wrote...[15]

Community involvement

In 1912, she became a supporter of the

Native Hawaiian soldiers.[3][19]

On September 23, 1921, Taylor wrote an article published in the

Washington, DC, honoring women from each of the then-forty-eight states. Speaking on behalf of the women of Hawaii, she advocated for Hawaii's spot in the proposed memorial, suggesting "a pillar of laval stone chiselled from the laval flows of Kilauea, be placed within this Hall of Remembrance to symbolize Hawaii" and for the recognition of the early pioneering American missionary wives, Queen Kaʻahumanu and High Chiefess Kapiʻolani. The pillar representing Hawaii was never erected.[3]

Taylor also supported many local organizations and was the premier of Māmakakaua (the Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors), a group composed of the descendants of the high chiefs (aliʻi) from the deposed monarchy. The group hosted pageants celebrating the history and traditions of Hawaii.[11][3][20] Other organizations she became involved include the League of Women Voters, The Outdoor Circle, and the Native Daughters of Hawaii—which she helped organized. She was also elected the first female vice-president of the Manoa Percent Republican Club.[11][3]

In later life, Taylor befriended writer Beatrice Ayer Patton—the wife of General George S. Patton—who wrote The Blood of the Shark: A Romance of Early Hawaii, which was published in 1936 and loosely influenced by the exploits of Taylor's Hawaiian and British ancestors.[21]

Death

Richard Weinberg described her in a 1936 interview about the art and craft of Ancient Hawaii in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: "Mrs. Emma Ahuena Taylor impresses one as a person who has carried a strikingly handsome, youthful appearance into maturity. Although her hair is gray and her old fashioned, black holoku sweeps the floor, her limpid brown eyes retain all the charm and fire of youth. Her carefully modulated voice recalls a day when conversation was not a neglected art."[22]

Taylor died on November 7, 1937, and was buried next to her husband at the Oahu Cemetery.[3][2] Her private notes, diaries, letters, and manuscript drafts, and those of her mother Mary Jane Montano, are now in the Hawaii State Archives.[23]

References

  1. ^ Peterson 1984, p. 369.
  2. ^ a b Grave Marker of Albert Pierce and Emma Ahuena Taylor. Honolulu, HI: Oahu Cemetery.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Peterson 1984, pp. 369–373.
  4. ^ Lam 1932, pp. 1–7.
  5. ^ Peterson 1984, p. 270.
  6. ^ Peterson 1984, p. 371.
  7. ^ Bouslog & Greig 1994, pp. 78, 158.
  8. ^ "Married". The Independent. Honolulu. November 6, 1902. p. 3. Archived from the original on April 6, 2018. Retrieved May 5, 2017.
  9. ^ a b Nellist, George F., ed. (1925). "Albert Pierce Taylor, Journalist and Author". The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Honolulu: Honolulu Star Bulletin.
  10. ^ Lam 1932, p. 7.
  11. ^ a b c Bouslog & Greig 1994, p. 78.
  12. ^ "Taylor, Emma A. D. office record" (PDF), state archives digital collections, state of Hawaii, archived (PDF) from the original on April 5, 2018, retrieved February 3, 2017
  13. ^ Taylor 1930, pp. 34–38.
  14. ^ Damon 1957, pp. 366–367.
  15. ^ Peterson 1984, p. 370.
  16. ^ a b Harper 1922, pp. 715–719.
  17. ^ Yasutake 2017, pp. 119–124.
  18. ^ Yasutake 2017, pp. 127–137.
  19. ^ Yasutake 2017, p. 126.
  20. ^ "He Mau Hoikeike No Ka Moi Kauikeaouli". Ka Nupepa Kuokoa. Vol. LXIV, no. 22. Honolulu. May 28, 1925. p. 2. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  21. ^ Totten 2005, pp. 147, 177–180, 183, 256–257, 271, 283–285.
  22. ^ Weinberg, Richard (July 4, 1936). "Arts and Crafts of Old Hawaii Ready for Healthy Revival". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Honolulu. pp. 1, 7. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Dye 1997, p. 232.

Bibliography

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