Corinna Shattuck (April 21, 1848 – May 22, 1910) was an American educator and missionary in Turkey, recognized for heroism at

Urfa Urfa, officially called Şanlıurfa (), is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. The city was known as Edessa from Hellenistic period, Hellenistic times and into Christian times. Urfa is situated on a plain abo ...

in 1895–1896.

Early life

Corinna Shattuck was born in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

in 1848. After her parents died, she was raised by her grandparents in

South Acton, Massachusetts Acton is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, approximately west-northwest of Boston along Massachusetts Route 2 west of Concord and about southwest of Lowell. The population was 24,021 in April 2020, according to the Unit ...

. She trained as a teacher in Massachusetts, at the Framingham State Normal School."Tablet to Missionary"
''Boston Daily Globe'' (February 15, 1915): 13."'Buried' in Oorfa" ''Boston Daily Globe'' (May 31, 1908): SM4.

Career

In 1873, Shattuck was sent by the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...

to Turkey, where she remained for most of the next 37 years. She set up kindergartens, girls' schools, orphanages, a school for blind students, and vocational training programs at Urfa, and coordinated relief efforts in that city. She worked with Fannie Perkins Shepard to establish a business called Industries for Women and Girls that helped provide work to thousands of women and girls. She described her work with Armenian refugees at Urfa in a letter published in ''The Washington Post'' in 1896: "We are now dispensing coffee, 800 pounds having been given to us by the Red Cross people. We are also giving out shoes for the widows and orphans, arranging for their rents, and setting up the different tradesmen in work," she wrote. She arranged for

braille Braille ( , ) is a Tactile alphabet, tactile writing system used by blindness, blind or visually impaired people. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone device ...

editions of Armenian texts, including the Bible, to be produced, and sponsored a young blind Armenian woman, Mara Haratounian, to attend college in England. In January 1896, she helped to prevent a massacre of Armenian women and children in her care at Urfa, by standing in front of her church and school (some versions of the story have her holding an American flag in one hand) and challenging the Turkish forces to attack her personally. Six Turkish officials protected Shattuck from the "angry mob". The incident was fictionalized in an 1899 novel, ''By Far Euphrates'' by

Deborah Alcock Deborah Alcock (1835– 15 January 1913) was a late-Victorian author of historical fiction focused on religious, evangelical themes. Life She was born in Kilkenny, where her father, the Venerable John Alcock, who became Archdeacon of Waterfo ...

Personal life

Shattuck returned to the United States in ill health in 1910, and died soon after from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

, aged 62 years. A bronze plaque in her memory was dedicated in 1915 at Framingham State Normal School. Her tombstone in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...

is inscribed in English and Armenian."Testimony Cut in Stone"
''The Missionary Herald'' (January 1911): 5.

References

External links

* * Ryan Toomey
"Corinna Shattuck: A Heroine on a Mission"
''Henry Whittemore Library's Blog'' (May 2, 2017). A blog post with a photograph of Corinna Shattuck. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shattuck, Corinna 1848 births 1910 deaths Female Christian missionaries American Protestant missionaries Educators from Louisville, Kentucky American educators People from Acton, Massachusetts Framingham State University alumni 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Protestant missionaries in the Ottoman Empire American expatriates in the Ottoman Empire Tuberculosis deaths in Massachusetts