Martha Jane Cunningham (3 June 1856 – 22 April 1916) was a Canadian missionary educator in Japan. She was first principal of Shizuoka Eiwa Girls' School in

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain was a feudal domain under the Tok ...

, which was founded in 1887.

Early life and education

Cunningham was born in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

, the daughter of William Cunningham and Matilda Ellen Burns Cunningham. Her father was a clothier. Both of her parents were born in Ireland. MarthaJaneCunningham1910s

Career

Cunningham was a teacher with the Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church of Canada. She went to Japan in 1887. She worked with a Japanese Methodist minister and a local official, and became the first principal of the first girls' school in Shizuoka that year. She traveled in Japan, often with other Western women teachers. While in Canada on furloughs, she taught and spoke to Canadian audiences about Japan and her work, with illustrations. She left Japan after her third term of service, during the 1906–1907 academic year. Beginning in 1913, Cunningham was a mission teacher in

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Sault Ste. Marie ( ) is a city in northern Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of the St. Mary's River directly across from its "twin city," Sault Ste. Marie, in the state of Michigan. The city's population was 72,051 at the 2021 census, makin ...

, working mainly with European immigrant women and children. She was a member of the Daughters of the Empire and of the

Red Cross Society The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the world's largest group of non-governmental organizations working on humanitarian aid, is composed of the following bodies: *The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is an indep ...

Personal life and legacy

Cunningham died in 1916, at the age of 59, in Sault Ste. Marie. In Shizuoka, the alumnae of Shizuoka Eiwa Jogakko, the Methodist Church, and local officials held a memorial service in June 1916, and the school placed a portrait of Cunningham in the students' library, along with books donated in tribute. At the centennial of the school in 1987, a memorial marker was placed for Cunningham on the school's grounds. The school is still operating as of 2023, as is the women's college it launched in 1966, now a university.Shizuoka Eiwa Jogakuin Junior and Senior High School
English pamphlet.

References

External links

* Dugal, Alexandria
"Serving a Gender in Need: Educational Endeavors of Canadian Protestant Missionary Martha Jane Cunningham and the Shizuoka Eiwa Jo Gakko in a Changing Japan"
(dissertation, Saint Mary's University 2012). * Ion, A. Hamish
"Canadian Missionaries in Meiji Japan: The Japan Mission of the Methodist Church of Canada (1873-1889)"
(Master's thesis, McGill University 1972). {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Martha Jane 1856 births 1916 deaths Canadian missionaries Canadian expatriates in Japan 19th-century Canadian women 19th-century Canadian people