Dr. Mabel Louise Hanington

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

Dr. Mabel Louise Hanington: (Saint John 19 April 1875-18 April 1966 Saint John) was the daughter of prominent Saint John lawyer Augustus Harvey Hanington and Jane Elizabeth Chase. She trained as a physician at Trinity Medical College, Toronto. In the service of the Anglican Church under the Church Missionary Society of London, England, Dr. Hanington worked as a medical missionary in Fujian Province, South China, from 1904 to 1918. In 1919 Dr. Hanington gave her first donation of Chinese costume to the Natural History Society, directly after returning from China. This was a small gift including 12 items of costume and accessories. During the 1920s Dr. Hanington solidified her relationship to the Natural History of New Brunswick by becoming a member of the Ladies’ Association of the Natural History Society.

Dr. Hanington gave another small group of objects in 1927 and continued donating throughout the 1930s.