Persis Goodale Thurston Taylor

American painter

Townsend Elijah Taylor

(m. 1847)

Persis Goodale Thurston Taylor (September 28, 1821 – April 20, 1906) was a painter and sketch artist.

Biography

Her parents, Reverend Asa Thurston (1787–1868) and Lucy Goodale Thurston (1795–1876), were in the first company of American Christian missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands.^[1] When she was four, she had been asked to be given in hānai to Princess Kapulikoliko, daughter of Kamehameha I. Her mother politely refused. The concept of giving a child to be raised by a relative or friend was common in Hawaii, but it horrified the missionaries who preached one doesn't give out their children like puppies.^[2]^: 88

For three years, she lived in Lahaina, Maui, where she assisted in the work of the seminary press at Lahainaluna School.^[3] In 1847, she married Rev. Townsend Elijah Taylor of LaGrange, New York, who was serving as the seaman's chaplain for the Port of Lahaina.^[4]

Taylor is best known for her landscapes (two of which were made into engravings at the Lahinaluna seminary) and silhouettes of both missionaries and Hawaiian royalty.^[3]

Family tree

Thurston Hawaii family tree

Asa Thurston
(1787–1868)

Lucy Goodale
(1795–1876)

Lorrin Andrews
(1795–1868)

Mary Wilson^[i]

William Cornelius Shipman
(1824–1861)^[ii]

Persis Goodale Thurston Taylor
(1821–1906)

Asa Goodale Thurston
(1827–1859)

Sarah Andrews
(1832–1899)

William Herbert Shipman
(1854–1943)

Margaret Clarissa
Shipman

Lorrin A. Thurston
(1858–1931)

Harriet Elvira Potter^[iii]

William Twigg-Smith
(1883-1950)

Margaret Carter Thurston
(1895–1976)

Lorrin Potter Thurston
(1899-1984)

Thurston Twigg-Smith
(1921-2016)^[iv]

Notes:

^ "TC LIB: Rev. Lorrin Andrews - Missionary to Hawaii". www.tc-lib.org. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
^ Clark, John R. K. (1985). Beaches of the Big Island. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824809768.
^ Chaplin, George (1998). Presstime in Paradise: The Life and Times of The Honolulu Advertiser, 1856-1995. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824820329.
^ Nakaso, Dan (2016-07-16). "Former Honolulu Advertiser publisher Twigg-Smith dies". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Retrieved 2019-10-16.

References

^ Thurston, Brown (1892). Thurston Genealogies. B. Thurston.
^ Lucy Goodale Thurston (1882). Life and Times of Mrs. Lucy G. Thurston, wife of Rev. Asa Thurston.
^ ^a ^b Severson, Don R. (2002). Finding paradise : island art in private collections, Honolulu Academy of Arts. Michael D. Horikawa, Jennifer Saville. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts, University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-2657-4. OCLC 49553660.
^ "Persis Goodale Thurston Taylor - Artist Facts". www.askart.com. Retrieved 2021-03-18.