Domestic Frontiers: Gender, Reform, and American Interventions in the Ottoman Balkans and the Near East

1. Missionary Families and the Contested Concept of Home

17 Chapter 1 Missionary Families and the Contested Concept of Home & Once she had settled into her new home in Izmir toward the end of 1843, Mary Van Lennep wrote to her mother in Hartford, Connecticut , to describe her new environment in the major Ottoman sea port south of Istanbul: Our house is quite a warm one for this place, and the little parlor in which I am writing is heated by a cheerful grate. The two little tables on either side the fire-place are ornamented by the gifts of my friends. The work-box which Mrs. E. gave me is a treasure. One large window lights the room, looking on the street,andwhitemuslincurtains,withaprettygreenandpurple fringe, hang very gracefully over it. Our little room I am sure you would call quite cheerful. It has an American look. Our desire is to have things neat, plain and in taste, so that we can be comfortable , and have it pleasant for our friends.1 Likeanydaughterfarfromhome,VanLennepwantedtoassurehermother that she was happy and secure in her new surroundings. Cheerful, cozy, well lit, and full of mementos from friends in Hartford, her “little parlor” had “an American look.” It was almost like home. She expected to radiate from there 18 s chapter 1 the beneficial influences of Anglo-American Protestant culture and entertain her acquaintances. Little did she know that she was not to enjoy her pleasant surroundings for long. Her influence was required elsewhere, and only two months after she described her home in Izmir to her mother, she wrote again to report that she and her husband were to be transferred to Istanbul. There, she would have to adjust to a new idea of home. As a result of changes in strategy at the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the Van Lenneps had a new assignment in the Ottoman capital. Mary’s husband, Henry, was to preach among Armenians; she was to supervise a boarding school for Armenian girls. Her new home would be in the school, a proposition that filled her with dismay. “Sometimes my heart diedwithinme,”shewrotedespondently,“tobeattheheadofaseminary,and tohavenohomebutinaboardingschool.”Sheshrankfromthesacrificesthis move would entail. Her vision of home must extend to incorporate a family of people she did not yet know. It must also stretch to duties she did not relish. “I do not like the idea of becoming the head of a boarding school and superintending all its concerns,” she confessed. “I love a quiet way of living too well to make the idea of becoming a matron very pleasant.”2 The changes that would transform her home and family life were unwelcome. Mary Van Lennep was born in Hartford in 1821 to the Reverend Joel Hawes and his wife, Louise. Growing up, she enjoyed the comfortable surroundings of a well-appointed New England home and had the best education her environment could provide. She attended Catharine Beecher’s female seminary in that town and was trained as a teacher. Her father was minister of the First Congregational Church and a prominent member of the American Board. Brought up in a family committed to evangelical Protestantism , she supported the cause of Christian missions, but was not necessarily well prepared to be the wife of an American Board missionary. The job she must contemplate did not suit her temperament. After thoughtful prayer and reflection, however, she acknowledged that the change was God’s work and committed herself to the project. She anticipated adapting her home life to a boarding school as her duties demanded. Her domestic frontiers expanded. Van Lennep’s letters emphasize the importance of the domestic realm for womenmissionarieswhotooktheirvisionsofNewEnglandhomeswiththem Missionary Families and the Contested Concept of Home s 19 to the Near East. Neat, tidy, snug, and warm, home was a place where women nurtured family and welcomed friends but kept outsiders at bay. Her letters also highlight the flexibility inherent in the idea of home that shaped American Board policy. Women’s visions did not easily accommodate to the theory of home that shaped board policy, but policy responded to mission needs, and missionaries had to adapt to the realities imposed by their changing circumstances. The missionary home extended to take in all sorts of outsiders and additional duties, even if its residents did not embrace them. As Van Lennep explained to her mother, by incorporating a missionary home within a female boarding school the American Board “want[ed...