Katharine Bushnell - Biography

Biography

Katharine Bushnell was born February 5, 1856, in Peru, Illinois. She attended Northwestern University for pre-medical studies and medical school at Chicago Women's Medical College where she specialized in nerve disorders. She established a pediatrics hospital in Shanghai while a missionary sponsored by the Woman's Mission Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church. There she was influenced by translations of the Bible into Chinese which she thought were dishonestly done to subjugate women. She began comparing the English translation to the original Greek New Testament and found similar patterns of what she considered intentionally biased mistranslations. That motivated her to study Hebrew on her long sea travels.

In 1885 she joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as the National Evangelist of the Department of Social Purity. She helped found the Anchorage Mission in Chicago which sheltered homeless women. She appeared before the Wisconsin Legislature to expose white slavery in a lumber camp, although the state of Wisconsin denied its existence. She was first defamed for allegedly creating "cruel lies" which later were proved to be factual. In 1887, Wisconsin passed Senate Bill 46 to address white slavery.

Bushnell then traveled with Elizabeth Andrew to India where the government of India had denied allegations that its soldiers were frequenting Indian prostitutes. The government was proved wrong by Bushnell and Andrew’s wealth of evidence, as well as corroborating results from an independent investigation. The women's efforts led to a reprimand for Lord Roberts, the Commander-in-Chief, India. They coauthored two books about their experiences, The Queen’s Daughters in India, and Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers. The British government subsequently commissioned her to look into the opium trade between India and China.

She died January 26, 1946.