Light in the Queen’s Garden : Ida May Pope, Pioneer for Hawai‘i’s Daughters, 1862–1914

At the end of the 1800s, when Oberlin graduate Ida May Pope accepted a teaching job at Kawaiaha‘o Seminary, a boarding school for girls, she couldn’t have imagined it would become a lifelong career of service to Hawaiian women, or that she would become closely involved in the political turmoil soon to sweep over the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. __Light in the Queen's Garden__ offers for the first time a day-by-day accounting of the events surrounding the coup d’état as seen through the eyes of Pope’s young students. Author Sandra Bonura uses recently discovered primary sources to help enliven the historical account of the 1893 Hawaiian Revolution that happened literally outside the school’s windows. Queen Lili‘uokalani’s adopted daughter’s long-lost oral history recording, many of Pope’s teaching contemporaries’ unpublished diaries, letters, scrapbooks, and photos tell a story that has never been told before. Towering royal personages in Hawai‘i’s history—King Kalākaua, Queen Lili‘uokalani, Princess Ka‘iulani and others—appear in the book, as Ida Pope sheltered Hawai‘i’s daughters through the frightening and turbulent end of their sovereign nation. Pope was present during the life celebrations of the king, and then his sad death rituals. She had the extraordinary opportunity to travel with Lili‘uokalani on her controversial trip to Kalaupapa’s "leper colony” to visit Saint Marianne Cope and afflicted pupils. In 1894, with the endorsement of Lili‘uokalani and Charles Bishop, Pope helped to establish the Kamehameha School for Girls, funded by the estate of Princess Pauahi Bishop, and became its first principal. Inspired by John Dewey and others, she shaped and reshaped Kamehameha’s curriculum through a process of conflict and compromise. Fired up by the era’s doctrine of social and vocational relevance, she adapted the curriculum to prepare her students for entry into meaningful careers. Lili‘uokalani’s daughter, Lydia Aholo, was placed in the school and Pope played a significant role in mothering and shaping her future, especially during the years the queen was fighting to restore her kingdom. As Hawai‘i moved into the twentieth century under a new flag, Pope tenaciously confronted the effects of industrialization, the growing concentration of outside economic power and worked tirelessly to attain social reforms to give Hawaiian women their rightful place in society. At the end of the 1800s, when Oberlin graduate Ida May Pope accepted a teaching job at Kawaiaha'o Seminary, a boarding school for girls, she couldn't have imagined it would become a lifelong career of service to Hawaiian women, or that she would become closely involved in the political turmoil soon to sweep over the Kingdom of Hawai'i. Light in the Queen ' s Garden offers for the first time a day-by-day accounting of the events surrounding the coup d'état as seen through the eyes of Pope's young students. Author Sandra Bonura uses recently discovered primary sources to help enliven the historical account of the 1893 Hawaiian Revolution that happened literally outside the school's windows. Queen Lili'uokalani's adopted daughter's long-lost oral history recording; many of Pope's teaching contemporaries' unpublished diaries, letters, and scrapbooks; and rare photographs tell a story that has never been told before. Towering royal personages in Hawai'i's history—King Kalākaua, Queen Lili'uokalani, and Princess Ka'iulani—appear in the book, as Ida Pope sheltered Hawai'i's daughters through the frightening and turbulent end of their sovereign nation. Pope was present during the life celebrations of the king, and then his sad death rituals. She traveled with Lili'uokalani on her controversial trip to Kalaupapa to visit Mother Marianne Cope and afflicted pupils. In 1894, with the endorsement of Lili'uokalani and Charles Bishop, Pope helped to establish the Kamehameha School for Girls, funded by the estate of Princess Pauahi Bishop, and became its first principal. Inspired by John Dewey and others, she shaped and reshaped Kamehameha's curriculum through a process of conflict and compromise. Fired up by the era's doctrine of social and vocational relevance, she adapted the curriculum to prepare her students for entry into meaningful careers. Lili'uokalani's daughter, Lydia Aholo, was placed in the school and Pope played a significant role in mothering and shaping her future, especially during the years the queen was fighting to restore her kingdom. As Hawai'i moved into the twentieth century under a new flag, Pope tenaciously confronted the effects of industrialization and the growing concentration of outside economic power, working tirelessly to attain social reforms to give Hawaiian women their rightful place in society.

"I learned who I was… at Kamehameha."

In 1944, J. Arthur Rath, a part-Hawaiian boy from a broken home, entered the Kamehameha School for Boys as an eighth-grade boarder. Thus began Rath's love affair with an institution that he credits with turning his life around, with giving him and other disadvantaged children of native ancestry - Hawai‘i's "lost generations" - the confidence and support necessary to make something of themselves. This is the story of that love affair. It is also the story of Rath's recent battle, together with other alumni, for the integrity of his beloved Kamehameha against the school's trustees and their organization, the powerful Bishop Estate.

In a lively talk-story manner, Rath reminisces about campus life and his classmates, many of whom became lifelong friends and influential members of the Hawaiian community. Years later Rath, a successful retired businessman, would call on these same friends to hold Kamehameha's trustees accountable for their mismanagement of Bishop Estate's vast financial holdings and ultimately their failure to carry out founder Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop's mandate to educate Hawaiian children. Rath draws on his many personal ties to the school and the estate to provide surprising revelations on the trustees and the "Bishop Estate Scandal," which made headlines daily throughout the mid-1990s.

Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: Ida’s Heritage, 1862–1914 Chapter Two: The Extraordinary Nineteenth Century Chapter Three: Kawaiaha‘o Seminary: Acorn to Oak, 1865–1890 Chapter Four: Ida to the Kingdom, 1890–1892 Chapter Five: Miss Pope in Charge Chapter Six: Pilikia Chapter Seven: Off to Moloka‘i with the Queen, 1892 Chapter Eight: Prayer and Politics: The Revolution of 1893 Chapter Nine: Endings: Kawaiaha‘o Seminary, 1893–1894 Chapter Ten: Beginnings: The Kamehameha School for Girls, 1894–1897 Chapter Eleven: The Foundational Years Chapter Twelve: Outside the School Gates: Pālama Settlement Chapter Thirteen: The Turbulent Ending of the Nineteenth Century Chapter Fourteen: Up and Away in the New Century Chapter Fifteen: A Dream Realized: The Ka‘iulani Home Chapter Sixteen: Taking Honolulu by Storm Chapter Seventeen: The Changing Hawaiian Islands Chapter Eighteen: Last Aloha to Mother Pope, 1914 Notes on Sources and Research Individuals Mentioned in Letters and Reports Notes Index