Persis Goodale Thurston Taylor

Who was Persis Goodale Thurston Taylor?

Persis Goodale Thurston Taylor was a painter and sketch artist who was born in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on September 28, 1821. Her parents, Reverend Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston, were in the first company of American Christian missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands. 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. For three years, she lived in Lahaina, Maui, where she assisted in the work of the seminary press at Lahainaluna School. 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.

Taylor is best known for her landscapes and silhouettes of both missionaries and Hawaiian royalty.