Johann Miertsching | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Miertsching in 1854 | |
| Born | Johann August Miertsching 21 August 1817 |
| Died | 30 March 1875 (aged 57) Kleinwelka, Kingdom of Saxony |
| Occupation(s) | Interpreter, missionary, explorer |
Mission | |
| Organization | Moravian Church |
Expedition | |
| Awards | Arctic Medal, 1818–55 (1857) |
Johann August Miertsching (Upper Sorbian: Jan Awgust Měrćink; 21 August 1817 – 30 March 1875) was a Sorbian missionary with the Moravian Church and interpreter of Inuktitut who took part in Sir Robert McClure's 1850–1854 Arctic search expedition to look for traces of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Northwest Passage expedition.
Early life
editJohann August Miertsching was born on 21 August 1817, to working class parents. He was sent to the Moravian community at Kleinwelka, Saxony, at a young age, where he was apprenticed to a shoemaker and joined the Moravian Church.
Career
editMoravian mission to Labrador
editThe Moravians were among the first Protestant denominations to send out missionaries to spread the Christian message among unreached peoples, among which were the nomadic Inuit. Having first set up missions in Greenland early in the 18th century, they slowly fanned out to North America and set up missions among its natives.[1]
Also fitting this description was Labrador, and the Moravians first came to its shores to set up mission stations in the 1770s. Miertsching was chosen to minister to Labrador's migratory Inuit and was deployed there in 1844. He founded and spent the next five years at Okak mission station on the northern Labrador coast, where he learned the local variant of Inuktitut—Inuttitut—and gained experience in Arctic travel.[2]
References
editFootnotes
edit- ^ Whiteley 1972, § 2.
- ^ Neatby 1982, p. 335.
Bibliography
edit- Benham, D. (1854). Sketch of the life of Jan August Miertsching. London: William Mallalieu. OCLC 10856668.
- Neatby, L. H. (1982). "Johann August Miertsching (1817–1877)". Arctic. 35 (2): 334–335. doi:10.14430/arctic2336. JSTOR 40509447.
- Whiteley, W. H. (1972). "Miertsching, Johann August". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 10. University of Toronto.
External links
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