Emma Helen Blair

Who was Emma Helen Blair?

Emma Helen Blair was a United States historian, journalist and editor, whose most notable work was a monumental documentary history of the Philippines.

Although born in Wisconsin, she attended high school in Westfield, Massachusetts. In 1871, she returned to Wisconsin and enrolled in Ripon College, where she graduated in 1874. After graduation she taught in public school for two years and then moved to Milwaukee, where she worked as a journalist. In 1892, she began postgraduate work in history, economics and sociology at Wisconsin State University. She later became a librarian at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

In 1894, Blair resigned from the library staff and became assistant to Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites. Thwaites was the translator of the 73-volume work Jesuit Relations. This massive work consisted of English translations of the annual reports issued by the superior of the Jesuit missions in New France to the Jesuit overseer in France between the years 1632 and 1673. Blair participated in the editing and annotations.