Helen J. McMillan

Artist Unknown, Korean
Playing Nyut
brush and black ink with watercolour and gouache and touches of gold on paper; 23.3 x 20.2 cm
Gift of Jennie B. Robb, 1934

Helen J. McMillan (Jacquet River [now Belledune], N.B. 11 November 1899-1 October 1967) was the daughter of William R. and Margaret McLeod McMillan. Helen was an educational missionary for the United Church in Hamheung, Korea, from 1926 for an unknown period. She was the niece of Dr. Kate McMillan, a well-known administrator of Hamheung Hospital in Korea. The McMillan collection at the museum is described in the accession register as having been “brought from the country by missionaries.” Because of this statement’s vagueness, it is still not certain whether these objects were collected by Helen herself or by other members of her family. In 1934 Helen resigned from the Women’s Missionary Society and married Reverend Chester Roland Sutherland (1897-1973). Reverend Sutherland died in Montreal and it is possible that Helen died there as well. Though relatively small, the McMillan gift is the first missionary contribution from Korea, dating to the late Choson Dynasty (1392-1910) or shortly thereafter.