‘Happy is the bride the rain falls on’:¹ climate, health and ‘the woman question’ in nineteenth‐century missionary documentation

Abstract

European ‘acclimatization’ represented a central geographical and medical question throughout the nineteenth century. Prolonged residences by Europeans in the tropics were thought to result in physical and moral deterioration, and women were thought to be particularly vulnerable. Among the first British women to venture into the tropics and sub‐tropics, missionary women played an important role in the articulation of acclimatization debates. In this paper, we use unpublished application and medical correspondence to illustrate how perspectives offered by and about missionary wives and female missionaries applying to the London Missionary Society reflect and challenged popular constructions of the tropics as uniformly dangerous places.

Private diaries as information sources in climate research

“…Their reconstruction of precipitation over the Kalahari has been previously mentioned. 45 Using many of the same materials, the authors also interrogated contemporary missionary discourses around the climate of southern Africa, including the origin of belief in progressive desiccation, 81 the gendering of acclimatization discourses, 82 the relationship of such discourses with local forms of environmental knowledge, 83 and the region's supposed pathological geography. 84 Perhaps the most comprehensive study of climatic narratives within personal diaries to date has been undertaken by Toby Pillatt, focusing on two farmers' diaries from Cumbria around the end of the 19th century.…”

Climate and history: a critical review of historical climatology and climate change historiography

“…By the early twentieth century, however, some parts of the Caribbean such as Barbados had transformed into one of the world's most desirable tourist destinations; medical breakthroughs, tourism opportunities, economic agendas, and travel preferences were all responsible for this transition 167. Understandings of climate acclimatization during the nineteenth century also emerged from this combination of scientific and cultural perceptions 179. Whether a European could acclimate to new climates, especially in tropical regions, had as much to do with the political economy of empires and cultural perceptions of the Tropics as it did with state of the art medical science on the subject.…”

“…167 Understandings of climate acclimatization during the nineteenth century also emerged from this combination of scientific and cultural perceptions. 179 Whether a European could acclimate to new climates, especially in tropical regions, had as much to do with the political economy of empires and cultural perceptions of the Tropics as it did with state of the art medical science on the subject.…”

“…There have been very few gender histories of climate for any period or world region. 179 There are even fewer studies of youth or children and climate. 187 Tackling these topics and answering these questions would put real people more explicitly into climate studies of the past.…”

‘A good site for health’: Missionaries and the pathological geography of central southern Africa

“…The LMS only began to accept applications from single females in 1875 (Seton, 1996; Haggis, 1998) and, even then, considered only those candidates who were regarded as the ‘strongest and best fitted to service abroad’ (LCM, 1‐book 2, 10 July 1894). Constitutional status and medical history represented important criteria in a stringent list of entry qualifications expected of an LMS lady missionary (Endfield & Nash, 2005).…”