CandicePrenderga at 22:22, 17 February 2025

2025-02-17T22:22:17Z

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{{short description|American educator, writer, and editor}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gertrude Emerson Sen
| image = GertrudeEmersonSen1936.png
| alt = A white woman wearing a dark cloche-style hat, with the front of the brim folded upward
| caption = Sen from a 1936 issue of ''The Indian Listener''
| birth_date = May 6, 1890
| death_date = {{death date and age|1982| | |1890|5|6|df=yes}}
| alma_mater = [[University of Chicago]]
| occupation = Educator, writer, editor
| relatives = [[Alfred E. Emerson]] (brother); [[Edith Emerson]] (sister)
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Basiswar Sen]]|1932|1971|end=d.}}
| awards = [[Padmashri]] (1976)
}}

'''Gertrude Emerson Sen''' (6 May 1890<ref name="tandon07">{{cite journal|author=B. N. Tandon|year=2007|title=Untitled <nowiki>[</nowiki>review of Nearer Heaven than Earth: The Life and Times of Boshi Sen and Gertrude Emerson Sen, by Girish Mehra<nowiki>]</nowiki>|journal=Indian Literature|publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi]]|volume=51|issue=3 (239)|pages=199–203|issn=0019-5804|jstor=23340474}}</ref> – 1982) was an early 20th-century expert on [[Asia]] and a founding member of the [[Society of Woman Geographers]].

== Early life and education ==
Gertrude Emerson was the daughter of Alfred Emerson, Sr., and Alice Edwards Emerson.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=1932-11-07|title=Gertrude Emerson Wed in Calcutta; Author of "Voiceless India" Married to Basiswar Sen, Scientist, on Nov. 2|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/11/07/archives/gertrude-emerson-wed-in-calcutta-author-of-voiceless-india-married.html|access-date=2021-11-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Her father was an archaeologist and professor at [[Cornell University]];<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|date=1943-10-20|title=Dr. Emerson Dead; Archaeologist, 84|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/10/20/archives/dr-b1vibr0n-dead-archaeologist-841-former-professor-at-cornell.html|access-date=2021-11-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> her mother was a concert pianist.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Gertrude Emerson Sen|url=https://www.womeninexploration.org/timeline/gertrude-emerson-sen/|access-date=2021-11-19|website=Women in Exploration|language=en}}</ref> She was the sister of famed entomologist [[Alfred E. Emerson|Alfred Emerson]], and of artist [[Edith Emerson]] who served as president and curator of Philadelphia's Woodmere Art Gallery (1940–1978).<ref>{{Cite news|title=Obituary, Edith Emerson|date=November 23, 1981|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer}}</ref> Another brother, Willard, was a banker.<ref name=":2" />

Emerson graduated from the [[University of Chicago]].<ref name=":0" />

== Career ==
[[File:GertrudeEmerson1920.png|alt=A young white woman dressed in a leather cap and thigh-lenght coat, wearing lettings and boots, standing in front of a brick wall with one leg bent at the knee|left|thumb|A photograph of Emerson taken by Elizabeth Buehrmann, from a 1920 publication]]
After teaching [[English language|English]] in [[Japan]],<ref>{{Cite news|date=1929-07-14|title=Globe Trottin' Lady Extraordinary|pages=7|work=The Havre Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84279755/globe-trottin-lady-extraordinary/|access-date=2021-08-28}}</ref> Sen returned to the [[United States]] to become the associate editor of ''[[Asia (magazine)|Asia]]'' magazine in 1917.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=|last2=|date=1920|title=Asia's Expedition to the Orient|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012257904|journal=Asia and the Americas.|volume=20|pages=754}}</ref> In 1920, she undertook a round-the-world expedition with photographer [[Donald C. Thompson (photographer)|Donald Thompson]] which included stunt flying and caving.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1920-08-15|title=Shopping for a Year's Trip into an Asiatic Wilderness|pages=58|work=New-York Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84221750/shopping-for-a-years-trip-into-an/|access-date=2021-08-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1920-07-10|title=Going into Orient. Mr. and Mrs. Donald Thomson on a Historical Expedition|pages=14|work=The Topeka State Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82330278/going-into-orient-mr-and-mrs-donald/|access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref> In 1925, she was one of the founding members of the Society of Women Geographers.<ref name=":1" /> In 1926, she traveled from Beirut through the Arabian Desert and Afghanistan to India.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1926-08-10|title=Editor of Asia Sails; Gertrude Emerson to Study Village Life in Remote India|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/08/10/archives/editor-of-asia-sails-gertrude-emerson-to-study-village-life-in.html|access-date=2021-11-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In 1941, she was named a contributing editor to ''Asia'' magazine.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1941-12-16|title=Asia Magazine Gets New Editors|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/12/16/archives/asia-magazine-gets-new-editors.html|access-date=2021-11-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Eventually she settled in Almora in northeastern [[India]], participated in rural life, and came to love the culture of her adopted country. Her attachment is reflected in her books ''Voiceless India'' (1930),<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sen|first=Gertrude Emerson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74VCAAAAIAAJ|title=Voiceless India|date=1930|publisher=Doubleday, Doran, Incorporated|language=en}}</ref> ''Pageant of India's History'' (1948),<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sen|first=Gertrude Emerson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3oVCAAAAIAAJ|title=The Pageant of India's History|date=1948|publisher=Longmans, Green|language=en}}</ref> and ''Cultural Unity of India'' (1965).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sen|first=Gertrude Emerson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QBFuAAAAMAAJ|title=Cultural Unity of India|date=1965|publisher=Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India|language=en}}</ref> Although not born in India herself, she strongly disapproved on the involvement of non-Indians in subcontinental matters.
She was awarded with [[Padmashri]] for literature and education in 1976 by Government of India.<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2015 |accessdate=21 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archivedate=15 October 2015}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Emerson married Indian native [[Basiswar Sen]] on November 1, 1932, in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]].<ref name=":0" /> Basiswar Sen was a scientist and one of the favorite students of legendary scientist [[Jagadish Chandra Bose]]. He was also a very close associate of [[Swami Vivekananda]], [[Sister Nivedita]]. Gertrude Emerson Sen died in 1982, aged 91 or 92. Her papers are with the Emerson family's papers at the [[New York Public Library]].<ref name=":1" />

== Sources ==

* Girish N. Mehra, ''Nearer Heaven Than Earth—The Life and Times of Boshi Sen and Gertrude Emerson Sen'', foreword by M.S. Swami. New Delhi: Rupa & Co., 2007.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

* The [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]] has [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp85081/gertrude-emerson-sen three photographs of Gertrude Emerson Sen], all taken in 1935 by [[Lady Ottoline Morrell]]

==See also==

* [[Ernestine Evans]]
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sen, Gertrude Emerson}}
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1982 deaths]]
[[Category:Members of the Society of Woman Geographers]]

Gertrude Emerson Sen - Revision history

CandicePrenderga at 22:22, 17 February 2025