Oct 21, 2004 - Sale 2018

Sale 2018 - Lot 187

Price Realized: $ 14,950
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(HAWAII.) Bound volume containing 32 letters written to John Smith Emerson and Ursula Sophia Emerson, both missionaries on Oahu, sent by various Protestant missionaries from other parts of Hawaii, plus a few from John Emerson to his wife. The letters both 4to and 8vo, lengths vary; a few with tape repairs. Small folio, early 1/2 morocco, worn, paper library label on the front cover; library bookplate on the front pastedown. Hawaii, 1835-38
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The Emersons arrived in Honolulu on 17 May 1832 aboard a New Bedford whaler and were quickly assigned to a new station at Waialua. This remarkable collection of letters gives a good depiction of the life of a missionary at the time of a great spiritual awakening in the region. Included are letters from some of the most important Protestant missionaries during the early period of Christianity in Hawaii: Hiram Bingham, Richard Armstong, Levi Chamberlain, Titus Coan, Lorenzo and Lucia Lyons, Ephraim and Mary Clark, Jonathan Smith Green, Mercy Partridge Whitney, Sarah Lyman, A. H. Van Dusen, Juliette Montague Cooke, Maria Ogden and others. Most of the letters describe positive progress at the missions, citing numerous meetings and a closeness to God. Other letters include accounts of sickness and death among the missionaries, with a detailed description in one letter of the death of J. S. Green's daughter. Of particular note is a 27 February 1837 letter from Richard Armstrong discussing the planned publication of an Ai O Ka La. Of the 4 letters written by Emerson to his wife, most were penned while he was in Honolulu attending meetings. One such letter, dated 3 February 1837, describes a visit to the meeting by King Kamahema III who was distraught at the death of his daughter. See Oliver Pomeroy Emerson's Pioneer Days in Hawaii (Garden City, 1928) for an excellent description of his parent's mission, consisting largely of extracts from his father's journal.