Dorothy Schurman Hawes

Dorothy Schurman Hawes (December 19, 1905 – July 24, 1977) was an American writer. Her father, Jacob Gould Schurman, was the United States minister to China in the 1920s, and her first husband, James M. McHugh, was an American intelligence officer in China. She wrote To the Farthest Gulf: The Story of the American China Trade (1941).

Dorothy Schurman Hawes
A young white woman with tousled dark cropped hair, wearing a v-neck dark top and dark beads; the edge of an embossed seal is visible in the image
Dorothy A. M. Schurman, from her 1924 passport application
Born
Dorothy Anna Maria Schurman

December 19, 1905
Ithaca, New York
DiedJuly 24, 1977
Purcellville, Virginia
Other namesDorothy Schurman McHugh, Dorothy Schurman Sisk
OccupationWriter
Notable workTo the Farthest Gulf: The Story of the American China Trade (1941)
Spouse(s)James M. McHugh, Robert Nicholas Dawes, James Strother Sisk
ParentJacob Gould Schurman

Early life edit

Dorothy Schurman was born in Ithaca, New York, the youngest daughter of Jacob Gould Schurman and Barbara Forrest Munro Schurman. Her parents were both born in Canada; her father was an American diplomat, and third president of Cornell University.[1] She graduated from Rosemary Hall School in Connecticut and attended Bryn Mawr College.[2] She left Bryn Mawr after two years, to help her mother with social duties at the American embassies in Beijing and Berlin.[3]

Career edit

Schurman lived with her parents in China, and moved with them to Berlin in 1925,[4] when her father was American ambassador to Germany.[5][6] She was living in China again in 1931.[7] Hawes wrote a series of articles about the trade history between the United States and China for the Essex Institute,[8] based on ships' logs and other primary sources archived in Massachusetts,[9] and compiled the series into a book, To the Farthest Gulf: The Story of the American China Trade (1941).[10]

 
Dorothy Schurman, right, with her parents, on the deck of a ship in 1925

Personal life and legacy edit

Dorothy Schurman married three times. She married U.S. Marine Corps officer James Marshall McHugh in 1926, in Germany.[11][12][13] They had two sons, James Jr. and George,[14] and divorced in 1940. She married attorney Robert Nicholas Hawes in 1940, as his second wife; they had a daughter, Nicole, and divorced in 1946.[15][16] Soon after her second marriage began, she was fined for driving while intoxicated in Missouri.[17] She married James Strother Sisk; they had a daughter, Suzanne, born in 1949. She was widowed when James Sisk died in 1970; she died in 1977, aged 71 years, in Purcellville, Virginia.[2][18]

Dorothy Schurman Hawes' book, To the Farthest Gulf, was reissued in 1990, and is still cited by scholars,[19] and found on suggested reading lists for the topic.[20][21]

References edit

  1. ^ Finding aid for the Jacob Gould Schurman papers, Cornell University Library.
  2. ^ a b "Mrs. Dorothy S. Sisk". The Ithaca Journal. 1977-07-27. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Downing, Margaret B. (1925-10-25). "Miss Dorothy Schurman". Evening Star. p. 32. Retrieved 2021-07-18 – via Newspapers,com.
  4. ^ "Dr. Schurman Sails For Post at Berlin". The New York Times. June 11, 1925. p. 18 – via ProQuest.
  5. ^ "Dorothy Schurman to be Wed in Berlin: Ambassador's Daughter to Marry Lieut. J.M. McHugh of the Marine Corps on May 19". The New York Times. May 7, 1926. p. 22 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ "Honor Miss Schurman at Berlin Reception: American Embassy Is Scene of Brilliant Social Function on Eve of Wedding". The New York Times. May 19, 1926. p. 3 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ "$60,000 Trust Fund Left to Employe: Wife of Jacob Gould Schurman Provided for Superintendent of Apartment in Will". The New York Times. January 31, 1931. p. 5 – via ProQuest.
  8. ^ Hawes, Dorothy S. (April 1941). "To the Farthest Gulf: Outline of the Old China Trade". Essex Institute Historical Collections. Essex Institute. pp. 101–142 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ^ Morrison, Dane Anthony; Schultz, Nancy Lusignan (2015-01-16). Salem: Place, Myth, and Memory. Northeastern University Press. pp. 107–109. ISBN 978-1-55553-851-4.
  10. ^ Hawes, Dorothy Schurman (1990). To the farthest gulf : the story of the American China Trade. John Q. Feller. Ipswich, Mass. ISBN 0-938864-13-0. OCLC 22886155.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ^ "Dorothy Schurman Weds Lieutenant". Spokane Chronicle. 1926-05-19. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Guide to the James M. McHugh papers, 1930-1965". Cornell University Library. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  13. ^ "Marriage Knot Not Easily Tied". The Courier-Journal. 1926-05-16. p. 54. Retrieved 2021-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "First Trip Over Burma Road Made by Wichita Lieutenant Colonel with Kai-shek's OK". The Wichita Eagle. 1943-02-14. p. 9. Retrieved 2021-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Robert N. Hawes Weds Mrs. D. S. McHugh". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1940-03-01. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Clipped From St. Louis Post-Dispatch". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1946-03-27. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Woman Driver is Fined $20 on Guilty Plea to 4 Charges". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1940-05-02. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Mrs. Sisk Dies; Rites in Virginia". Syracuse Herald Journal. July 28, 1977. p. 55. Retrieved 2021-07-18 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  19. ^ Wang, Dong (2013). The United States and China: A History from the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-7425-5782-6.
  20. ^ "Early American Trade with China". Teaching Resources, University of Illinois. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  21. ^ "Salem In History: The Science and Art of Learning from Evidence and Materials in History". Salem State College. Retrieved 2021-07-18.