Janet Cumming Clarke

Artist Unknown, Chinese
An Ode to a Parting Traveler
brush and black, red and white ink on silk; 51.8 x 74.7 cm
Gift of Dr. Mabel Louise Hanington and Janet Cumming Clarke, 1939

Janet Cumming Clarke (Cork, Ireland, about 1872-11 May 1939 Saint John, N.B.) was an educational missionary serving for 36 years in Fujian Province, where she became friends with Dr. Mabel Hanington. Clarke’s first donation to the Natural History Society took place in 1929, and like Dr. Hanington she continued giving to The New Brunswick Museum throughout the 1930s. Together both Hanington and Clarke gave an impressive collection of almost 200 Chinese artefacts internally referred to as the Hanington-Clarke collection. In retirement, Clarke moved to Saint John to live with Dr. Hanington.