Title: Cameos of a Chinese city.
Publisher: London : Church of England Zenana Missionary Society ; London ; New York : Marshall Bros.
Publication Date: 1917
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition
210 printed pages, 16 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations, map, portraits (one plate with very short closed tear); contemporary & later owner's signatures on front free endpaper. Some pages mildly toned. 13.5 x 19 cm. Original blue cloth (very slightly worn at edges), Spine with black lettering (slightly faded), upper cover with lettering and Chinese characters in black (corners very slightly worn). Mary Elizabeth Darley (c.1870-1934) served in China with the Church of England Zenana Mission Society and was supported by the Ladies Auxiliary of the Dublin University Fuh-Kien Mission. The Zenana missions were outreach programmes established in British India with the aim of converting women to Christianity. From the mid 19th century, they sent female missionaries into the homes of Indian women, including the private areas that male visitors were not allowed to see (zenana). In 1884 it expanded its missionary work into Qing Dynasty China. Four members of the society were murdered in the Kucheng massacre on 1 August 1895. The Mission's archives suffered badly from numerous changes of headquarters and also from severe flood damage during the Second World War. Their correspondence with the missions overseas survives only from 1921. No other copy found currently listed for sale. Bookseller Inventory # 5026