Caroline Augusta Furness Jayne (July 3, 1873 – June 23, 1909) was an American

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

who published the first book on string figures in 1906 titled ''String Figures: A Study of Cat's Cradle in Many Lands''.

Early life and education

Jayne was born on July 3, 1873, the youngest of the four children and only daughter of Shakespearean scholar

Horace Howard Furness Horace Howard Furness (November 2, 1833 – August 13, 1912) was an American Shakespearean scholar of the 19th century. Life and career Horace Furness was the son of the Unitarian minister and abolitionist William Henry Furness (1802–1896), ...

and author Helen Kate (Rogers) Furness. She grew up in the family's house in Washington Square in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, and at Lindenshade, their summer house in

Wallingford, Pennsylvania Wallingford is an unincorporated community in Nether Providence Township, Delaware County in Pennsylvanias. Founded in 1687, it is named for Wallingford, England. In 2007, Wallingford was named by ''Money Magazine'' as the 9th best place to li ...

. She graduated from the

Agnes Irwin School The Agnes Irwin School is a non-sectarian college preparatory day school for girls from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. It was founded in 1869 by Agnes Irwin in Philadelphia. Irwin, a great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin, later beca ...

Career

Jayne became interested in string figures through her brother, William Henry Furness III's anthropology work with

Alfred Haddon Alfred Cort Haddon, Sc.D., FRS, FRGS FRAI (24 May 1855 – 20 April 1940, Cambridge) was an influential British anthropologist and ethnologist. Initially a biologist, who achieved his most notable fieldwork, with W.H.R. Rivers, C.G. Seligma ...

studying native cultures where string game figures were used. Jayne was the first to create a popular study of string figures built on academic papers from journals such as''The Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology''. the ''Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society'' and other foreign language anthropological journals. She also personally recorded string figures from several native groups that were in attendance at the

1904 World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 milli ...

in St. Louis, Missouri.

String Figures and How to Make Them Fig 817

Jayne published the first book on string figures in 1906 titled '' String Figures and How to Make Them''. The book provided instructions on how to create 129 string figures that were identified by anthropologists studying traditional societies such as those in Congo-Kasai and the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the ce ...

. The 1906 book review from the ''Journal of Education'':

Personal life, death and legacy

On October 10, 1894, she married

Horace Jayne Horace Fort Jayne (5 March 1859, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 9 July 1913, Wallingford, Pennsylvania) was an American zoölogist and educator. Biography He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania ( A.B., 1879; M.D., 1882), and studied ...

, a zoologist and professor at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. Together they had two children, Kate Furness Jayne (b. 1895) and Horace H. F. Jayne (b. 1898). They built a house in Philadelphia at 19th & Delancey Streets, designed by her uncle, the architect Frank Furness, now known as the

Horace Jayne House Horace Jayne House (1895) is an architecturally significant building designed by architect Frank Furness in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located at the southwest corner of 19th and Delancey Streets, about a block south of Rittenhouse Square. ...

. They also built a summer house in

, "Sub Rosa" (again designed by her uncle), on the grounds of her father's summer house. Following Jayne's early death at age 36, her husband and children lived year-round at "Sub Rosa". In her memory, her father commissioned a Tiffany window for the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphiabr>
The window features a portrait of her holding a lily. In 1910, her friend, the poet

Florence Earle Coates Florence Van Leer Earle Nicholson Coates (July 1, 1850 – April 6, 1927) was an American poet, whose prolific output was published in many literary magazines, some of it set to music. She was mentored by the English poet Matthew Arnold, with wh ...

, wrote a poem in her memory. Her son, Horace H. F. Jayne, was the first curator of Chinese art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, worked as director of the

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...

and as vice director of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Bibliography

String Figures: A Study of Cat's Cradle in Many Lands
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1906

Gallery

File:Our Philadelphia (Pennell, 1914) p333.jpg, Jayne's childhood house in Washington Square, Philadelphia File:Horace Jayne 1899.jpg, Horace Jayne, in 1899 File:Jayne House Philly.JPG,

at 19th and Delancey Streets in Philadelphia File:Photocopy of old photograph (in possession of Jayne family, as of September 1962) FRONT ELEVATION - Subrosa, Turner Road (Nether Providence Township), Wallingford, Delaware County, HABS PA,23-WALF,3-1.tif, The Jayne's summer home, "Sub Rosa" (c.1896) in Wallingford, Pennsylvania File:Horace Howard Furness, Horace and Catherine Furness Jayne tombstone.jpg, Caroline Furness Jayne tombstone in Laurel Hill Cemetery

Citations

Sources

External links

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Caroline Furness Jayne (1873-1909)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jayne, Caroline Furness 1873 births 1909 deaths 20th-century American women writers Agnes Irwin School alumni American anthropology writers American ethnologists Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Furness family String figures Women ethnologists Writers from Philadelphia