Annie Stocking Boyce (January 7, 1880 – January 26, 1973) was an American Presbyterian missionary teacher active in Tehran, from 1906 until 1949. She also launched and edited a Persian-language women's journal, Alam-e-Nesvan (World of Women).[1]
Annie Stocking Boyce | |
|---|---|
 Annie Stocking Boyce, from her 1915 passport application. | |
| Born | Annie Woodman Stocking January 7, 1880 Wiscasset, Maine, U.S. |
| Died | January 26, 1973 (aged 93) Pasadena, California, U.S. |
| Known for | Educator Presbyterian missionary in Tehran |
| Spouse | Arthur Clifton Boyce (m. 1914-1959; his death) |
Early life
editAnnie Woodman Stocking was born in Wiscasset, Maine, and raised in Williamstown, Massachusetts, the daughter of William Redfield Stocking and Isabella Coffin Baker Stocking. Her parents and paternal grandparents were missionaries in Persia and Turkey; her father, born in Persia,[2] was also a Union Army veteran of the American Civil War. She earned a bachelor's degree at Wellesley College in 1902.[3][4]
Career
editBoyce was a teaching missionary in Iran from 1906 until 1949,[5] appointed by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.[3][6] She spoke Persian, and worked at the Iran Bethel School, a girls' school in Tehran;[7] Jane Doolittle was among Boyce's colleagues there. From 1918, she was president of the school's alumnae association. She was also founding editor of Alam-e-Nesvan (World of Women), a Persian-language women's magazine that carried practical advice, alumnae news, and translations from American literature.[3] She was also active in Anjoman-e ḥorrīyat-e zanān (Association for the Freedom of Women), a feminist organization of the late Qajar period.[8]
She also worked at Alborz College in Tehran, teaching courses and supervising housing;[3] her husband, Arthur Clifton Boyce, was a professor and dean at Alborz, and was the college's acting president in 1929.[7]
Boyce wrote about her work in letters to her family[9] and for American publications, including "Moslem Women in the Capital of Persia" (1930),[10] and in a book, Kings, Queens and Veiled Ladies (1933).[11][12] She spoke about Iran to church congregations and women's groups during her furloughs in the United States.[13][14][15]
Personal life
editAnnie Stocking married fellow American missionary educator Arthur Clifton Boyce in 1914. That year they attended an annual missions meeting in Chicago together.[16] In 1915, returning to Tehran during World War I, they traveled by sea and rail from New York through Norway, Finland and Russia.[17] She was widowed in 1959, and she died in 1973, aged 93, in Pasadena, California. Her gravesite is in Illinois.[18]
References
edit- ^ Cronin, Dr Stephanie (2012-11-12). The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921-1941. Routledge. p. 158. ISBN 978-1-136-02694-2.
- ^ "Teheran Police Aid Foreigners". The North Adams Transcript. 1924-07-22. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-11-01 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d Sarah Ansari; Martin, Vanessa (2014). "A Presbyterian Vocation to Reform Gender Relations in Iran: The Career of Annie Stocking Boyce". Women, Religion and Culture in Iran. doi:10.4324/9781315810720. ISBN 9781317793403.
- ^ "College Notes". College News. November 7, 1901. p. 1. Retrieved November 1, 2020 – via Wellesley College Digital Repository.
- ^ Zirinsky, Michael P. (1992). "Harbingers of Change: Presbyterian Women in Iran, 1883—1949". American Presbyterians. 70 (3): 173–186. ISSN 0886-5159. JSTOR 23333052.
- ^ Rostam-Kolayi, Jasamin (2008). "From Evangelizing to Modernizing Iranians: The American Presbyterian Mission and Its Iranian Students". Iranian Studies. 41 (2): 213–239. doi:10.1080/00210860801913453. ISSN 0021-0862. JSTOR 25597450. S2CID 162338066.
- ^ a b "Persian Girls Discard Veils". The North Adams Transcript. 1929-07-11. p. 12. Retrieved 2020-10-31 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ EIr, Janet Afary. "Feminist Movements I". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
- ^ "Tells of Political Life in Persia". The North Adams Transcript. 1925-12-05. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-11-01 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Boyce, Annie Stocking (1930). "Moslem Women in the Capital of Persia". The Muslim World. 20 (3): 265–269. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.1930.tb00794.x. ISSN 1478-1913.
- ^ Boyce, Annie Stocking (1933). Kings, Queens and Veiled Ladies.
- ^ "Mrs. Annie Boyce Writes Article". The North Adams Transcript. 1933-07-06. p. 12. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
- ^ "Mission Worker Heard by Groups". The North Adams Transcript. 1933-05-03. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-11-01 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Persian Women Lecture Topic". The North Adams Transcript. 1933-05-01. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-11-01 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Boyces Lecture in Local Church". The Tribune. 1933-02-10. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-11-01 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ McAfee, Harriet B. (July 1914). "The Women's Day at General Assembly". Woman's Work. 29: 152–153 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Thrilling Journey to Mission Field". The North Adams Transcript. 1915-04-12. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-11-01 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Boyce". The Decatur Daily Review. 1973-06-10. p. 24. Retrieved 2020-11-01 – via Newspapers.com.
