Edward Smith Craighill (Craighill) Handy was an “ethnologist and anthropologist, who was an authority on Pacific island people.” (HnlAdv Jan 28, 1981)
Handy was born in Roanoke (VA) on September 22, 1893. He was a 1915 graduate of Harvard University; he also earned master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology there.
“He had participated in several expeditions to Pacific islands in the 1920s, including some to the Society Islands. He also had been affiliated with the Bishop Museum in Hawaii in the 1920s and early 1930s. He kept up these interests and contacts until the end of his life.”
“After serving as a visiting professor at Yale in the mid-1930s, Dr. Handy returned to his native Virginia and in 1936 became a farmer near Oakton in Fairfax County.”
“Dr. Handy was sought out by others in the fields of ethnology and anthropology. Margaret Mead, author of ‘Coming of Age in Samoa’ and many other noted books, took instruction in the Marquesan language from Dr. Handy.” (Washington Post)
On September 21, 1819, he married Willowdean Chatterson (Jan 10, 1889 – Nov 5, 1965); she was later an anthropologist, attached to the Bernice P Bishop Museum, specializing in Marquesan and Tahitian culture. They later divorced.
He then married Elizabeth Green Kalb (the Kalb last name was later dropped) (Oct 30, 1896 – Aug 17, 1973). She was a graduate of Rice Institute, 1916, and a student at the University of Chicago. She won the Carnegie Prize in Texas state intercollegiate oratory contest in 1915.
In 1918 Elizabeth became active in the woman’s suffrage movement and went to work for the National Woman’s Party (NWP) in Washington, DC. She was among the 8,000 marchers who took part in the US Capitol picket.
She was later arrested during a watchfire demonstration in January of 1919, for which she was sentenced to five days in District Jail. She later became the librarian at NWP headquarters where she was in charge of the literature and library department. (Culwell)
In about 1926, her mother, Benigna Green, came to Honolulu to meet Elizabeth, who had been teaching in China. They liked Hawai‘i so well that they made their home there. (SB April 14, 1938)
From 1928 through 1933, Elizabeth was the editor of Pacific Affairs (during its first six years of existence). Pacific Affairs is an interdisciplinary scholarly journal focusing on political, economic, and social issues throughout Asia and the Pacific.
At the time, Pacific Affairs’ headquarters was located in Hawai‘i. (Pacific Affairs has been located on the campus of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, since 1961.) (Pacific Affairs)
ES Craighill Handy married Elizabeth on March 22, 1934 in Honolulu. Elizabeth’s mother Benigna Green had “devoted her life to working for women’s rights and the advancement of women’s achievements.” She died in an automobile accident near Bakersfield, Cal. Mrs Amy Otis Earhart, mother of the late Amelia Earhart, was also seriously injured.”
Elizabeth’s mother had gone “to the mainland to meet her daughter, Mrs Edward SC Handy … to spur a search among South Sea islands on the possibility that Miss Earhart and Fred J Noonan might have landed on one of them on their ill fated attempt to fly around the world last July.” (SB April 14, 1938)
ES Craighill Handy and Elizabeth Green Handy collaborated on numerous papers and books. Many included the participation of Mary Kawena Pukui.
“During her years at the museum, Mary Kawena Pukui became the “go to” person for anything Hawaiian. Her time and expertise was always in demand. … The academic works of ESC Handy and Martha Beckwith depended largely on the work of Kawena.”
“She was also a primary source for the works of Dorothy Barrěre, Kenneth Emory, Adrienne Kaeppler Alphonse Korn, Margaret Titcomb and many others.”
Kawena’s long association with the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum began when she was asked by Dr. Martha Beckwith for assistance in translating old Hawaiian manuscripts and newspapers around 1923.
Kawena’s skills soon attracted attention from other noted scholars, anthropologists, biologists, etc., who sought her assistance in their own work. She actually worked helping others at the museum for some fourteen years before she was hired as a translator. Museum ethnologist, ES Craighill Handy actually paid her out of his own pocket for her help, which was extensive.
In 1933, Kawena translated manuscripts and added new information from her knowledge, combined with that of her mother, Pa‘ahana, and other Hawaiian friends. The names, Handy and Pūku‘i would appear on notable works in years to come.
“In 1935, Dr. Handy told Pa‘ahana that he and his wife were going on a field trip to Hawai‘i and would like Kawena to go with them.”
“Pa‘ahana gave them her blessing and knowing that her people would not talk to foreigners, she said she would hanai (adopt) them. ‘Now go with your sister to my homeland,’ she said.”
“They were able to gather much information as the word spread about Pa‘ahana’s adopting the Handys, who accompanied Kawena, child of Ka‘ū. Many doors of family and their friends were opened for then.” (Mary Kawena Pukui Preservation Society)
One notable publication from the Handys and Pukui is ‘Native Planters’ (they had many other papers and books). “Originally published in 1972, Native Planters in Old Hawaii is the fruit of a brilliant collaboration between Pacific anthropologist, E. S. Craighill Handy, his wife, Elizabeth Green Handy, and the beloved expert on Hawaiian language and culture, Mary Kawena Pukui.”
“Today, this classic work remains invaluable to scholars and practitioners alike as both a precious ethnographic resource on Hawaiian planting practices and as an in-depth examination of Hawaiians’ relationship to land.”
“The book discusses basic patterns of Hawaiian planting culture, the gods worshipped, class and land divisions, water rights and irrigation techniques, tools, crafts, and general horticultural skills.”
“It includes an examination of how people shaped their cultivation practices to the varied Hawaiian environment, and documents various myths and rituals connected to planting.” (Bishop Museum Press) Edward Smith Craighill died December 26, 1980.
