Laura Temple
{{Short description|American educator (1865–1949)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Laura Temple
| image = LauraTemple1914.png
| alt = A newspaper photograph of a middle-aged white woman with dark hair, center parted and dressed back to the nape
| caption = Laura Temple, from a 1914 newspaper
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = August 3, 1865
| birth_place = Jefferson County, Pennsylvania
| death_date = June 23, 1949
| death_place = Mexico
| occupation = Missionary educator
| years_active =
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| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
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}}
Annie Laura Temple (August 3, 1865 – June 23, 1949) was an American teaching missionary, based in Mexico.
Early life
Temple was born in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Samuel Wylie Temple and Annie J. Smith Temple. She trained as a teacher at the State Normal School in Edinboro, and attended Allegheny College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1893 and a master's degree.{{Cite book|last=Leonard|first=John William|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GvwUAAAAYAAJ&q=Laddey&pg=PA805|title=Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915|date=1914|publisher=American Commonwealth Company|pages=805|language=en}} She earned a second master's degree in archaeology at the University of California.
Career
Temple was a school teacher in Pennsylvania as a young woman. She went to work in Mexico under the auspices of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.{{Cite news|date=1949-07-21|title=Founder of School in Mexico Dies|pages=1|work=The Jeffersonian-Democrat|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83175161/founder-of-school-in-mexico-dies/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}} She was appointed principal of Hijas de Juarez school in Mexico City in 1903.{{Cite news|date=1903-03-05|title=She Goes to Mexico|pages=8|work=The Jeffersonian-Democrat|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83188433/she-goes-to-mexico/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}} She was founder and director of the Sara L. Keen Methodist College in Mexico City,{{Cite news|last=Clarke|first=Ida Clyde|date=1914-08-23|title=Plucky Woman in Mexico Remains at Her Post|pages=17|work=Lexington Herald-Leader|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83188213/plucky-woman-in-mexico-remains-at-her/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}} which offered commercial and teacher-training courses. She was president of the Mexican Education Society. In 1912, Temple was in the United States to attend missionary conferences in Baltimore and elsewhere.{{Cite news|date=October 21, 1912|title=About the Folks|page=7|work=Kingston Daily Freeman|url=https://news.hrvh.org/veridian/?a=d&d=kingstondaily19121021.2.93&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|access-date=August 9, 2021|via=Hudson River Valley Heritage Historical Newspapers}}
Temple was the only American missionary who did not evacuate the city in 1914, during the Mexican Revolution. "If I were in the United States, I would volunteer to come here for Red Cross service. Now that I am here, why should I go away when there is an opportunity for serving?"{{Cite news|date=1914-05-15|title=Faces Peril for School; Miss Laura Temple Remains at her Post in Mexico|pages=5|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83174188/faces-peril-for-school-miss-laura/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}} She successfully protected her school from violence and damage.{{Cite news|date=1915-10-08|title=Woman Remains to Face Mexican Mobs|pages=13|work=Oakland Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83174603/woman-remains-to-face-mexican-mobs/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}}
In 1915, she spoke at a missionary conference in Pennsylvania,{{Cite news|date=1915-06-21|title=Missionary Conference Held in College Chapel|pages=6|work=The Evening Republican|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83188713/missionary-conference-held-in-college/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}} and the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society meeting in San Francisco, and attended the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.{{Cite news|date=October 9, 1915|title=Church Women Granted Plaque|work=San Francisco Call|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19151009.2.110&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|access-date=August 9, 2021|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} In 1916, she was a delegate to the Congress on Christian Work in Latin America, held in Panama.{{Cite journal|date=January 1916|title=The Congress on Christian Work in Latin America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=harNAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Laura+Temple%22+missionary&pg=RA2-PA12|journal=The Woman's Missionary Friend|volume=48|pages=12}} After the Revolution, she founded and ran Granja, a farm school for orphaned boys, in Chapultepec.{{Cite news|date=1923-05-26|title=Phi Kappa Phi Takes Mexican Education into Honor Society|pages=11|work=Arizona Republic|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83190009/phi-kappa-phi-takes-mexican-education/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}}
Temple was involved in archaeological projects in Mexico, and considered an expert on Mexican codices. In 1923, in her fifties, she was part of a project led by Byron Cummings, studying ancient Navajo pueblos in Northern Arizona.{{Cite news|date=1923-05-13|title=Byron Cummings to Lead Archaeology Party into Unexplored Navajo Pueblos|pages=23|work=Arizona Daily Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53456074/eva-scales-part-of-archaeological/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1923-09-07|title=Archaeologist's Expedition Starts for Home with Data Gathered in Northern Hills|pages=7|work=Arizona Daily Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53457579/eva-scales-returns-from-archaeological/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life and legacy
Temple died at her home in Mexico in 1949, aged 83 years.{{Cite news|date=1949-07-22|title=Hazen Educator Buried in Mexico; Local Woman Founder of Laura Temple School, Mexico City|pages=1|work=The Brockway Record|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83187806/hazen-educator-buried-in-mexico-local/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}} One of the schools she founded was renamed the Laura Temple School. Allegheny College had a Laura Temple Scholarship Fund.{{Cite news|date=1949-07-21|title=Founder of School in Mexico Dies (continued)|pages=2|work=The Jeffersonian-Democrat|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83175008/founder-of-school-in-mexico-dies/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}}
References
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Category:American women educators
Category:American missionary educators
Category:Allegheny College alumni
Category:People from Jefferson County, Pennsylvania
Category:American archaeologists