Constance Gordon-Cumming

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Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming (1837 - 1924) was a travel writer and painter.

Gordon-Cumming was born May 26, 1837 at Altyre, Scotland, the 12th child of a wealthy family. Her parents were Sir William Gordon-Cumming, 2nd Baronet, and Elizabeth Maria (Campbell) Cumming. She was the aunt of Sir William Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet. She grew up in Northumberland, and was educated at Fulham, London. She taught herself how to paint, and had help from artists visiting her home, including one of Queen Victoria's favorite painters, Sir Edwin Landseer. After spending a year in India in 1867, she became interested in travel.

Gordon-Cumming was a prolific travel writer and landscape painter who traveled the world, mostly in Asia and the Pacific. She has painted over a thousand watercolors. Places she visited include Australia, New Zealand, America, Hawaii, China, and Japan. Her best known books are At Home in Fiji and A Lady's Cruise on a French Man-of-War. The latter book resulted from an invitation to join a French ship put into service for the Bishop of Samoa so that he could visit remote parts of his far-flung diocese.

Miss Gordon-Cumming received much criticism from male writers of the era, perhaps because she did not fit in the traditional Victorian role of women, as she often traveled alone and unaided. Henry Adams said her books are a collection of anecdotes without much interest and in another letter. In any case, her landscape drawings and watercolors seem to be universely admired.

Gordon-Cumming visited Yosemite Valley in April 1878, after visiting Tahiti. She intended to visit for 3 days, but ended up staying 3 months. She says "I for one have wandered far enough over the wide world to know a unique glory when I am blessed by the sight of one . . ." She published her letters back home as Granite Crags in 1884. While in Yosemite Miss Gordon-Cumming also drew watercolor sketches, which she displayed in Yosemite Valley—making it first art exhibition in Yosemite.

In the late 1880s Miss Gordon-Cumming became interested in the education of blind Chinese. She invented a system where all 408 Chinese Mandarin sounds (not characters) were assigned a number, which was encoded in Braille. This allowed both blind and illiterate Chinese to read phonetically.

In old age Constance Gordon-Cumming returned home in Scotland. She died September 4, 1924.

[edit] Books and articles published

• 1876 From the Hebrides to the Himalayas; a Sketch of Eighteen Months' Wanderings in Western Isles and Eastern Highlands. (London: Sampson Low, Marston)
• 1881 "The Last King of Tahiti," Contemporary Review, v.41, (London)
• 1881 At Home in Fiji (Edinburgh: William Blackwood)
• 1882 A Lady's Cruise on a French Man-of-War (Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons)
• 1882 "Gordon Ningpo and the Buddhist Temples," The Century Magazine (Sept.) (online at Making of America)
• 1883 Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii (Edinburgh: William Blackwood)
• 1883 In the Hebrides (Edinburgh). Cruising the Scottish Islands.
• 1884 "Fijian Pottery," The Art Journal
• 1884 Granite Crags Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons). Reprinted in 1886 and 1888 as Granite Crags of California, minus 2 illustrations
• 1884 In the Himalayas and on the Indian Plains (London: Chatto & Windus)
• 1884 "New Zealand in Blooming December," The Century Magazine (Dec.) (online at Making of America)
• 1885 "The Offerings of the Dead," British Quarterly Review
• 1885 Via Cornwell to Egypt (London: Chatto & Windus)
• 1886 Wanderings in China 2 v. (Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons)
• 1887 Work for the Blind in China: Showing How Blind Beggars may be transformed into useful Scripture Readers Part I (London: Gilbert & Rivington), Part II (Helensburgh, [1892])
• 1889 Notes on Ceylon (London)
• 1889 Notes on China and its Missions (London)
• 1890 "Across the Yellow Sea," Blackwood's Magazine
• 1892 Two Happy Years in Ceylon, 4d ed., 2 v. (Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons)
• 1895 The Blind in China (Helensburgh)
• 1899 The Inventor of the Numeral-type for China, by the use of which Illiterate Chinese both Blind and Sighted can very Quickly be Taught to Read and Write Fluently (London: Downey & Co.)
• 1904 Memories. Autobiography