https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Bess_Allen_DonaldsonBess Allen Donaldson - Revision history2026-10-21T21:30:46ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bess_Allen_Donaldson&diff=490543&oldid=prevLucillecrale: adding basic details initial version2026-03-05T20:41:47Z<p>adding basic details initial version</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Infobox person/Wikidata<br />
|fetchwikidata=ALL<br />
|dateformat=mdy|suppressfields=restingplace<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Bess Allen Donaldson''' (December 7, 1879 – December 20, 1974) was an American [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] missionary in [[Iran|Persia]] and [[India]]. <br />
<br />
Bess Allen Donaldson was born on December 7, 1879 in [[Galesburg, Illinois]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Avery |first=Peter |date=2011 |title=DONALDSON, BESS ALLEN |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/donaldson |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Encyclopaedia Iranica |language=en-US}}</ref> She graduated from [[Knox College (Illinois)|Knox College]] and worked as a teacher in Illinois.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Shavit |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesinmi0000shav/page/96/ |title=The United States in the Middle East : a historical dictionary |date=1988 |publisher=New York : Greenwood Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-313-25341-6}}</ref> In 1910, she went to [[Tehran]] as a missionary with the [[Presbyterian Mission Agency|Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions]], where she worked as a teacher and later principal of the Iran Bethel Girls' School. In Tehran in 1916, she married Dwight Martin Donaldson, a missionary who began working in [[Mashhad|Mašhad]] in 1915. They worked in the country until 1940, when missionaries were expelled and schools nationalized in Iran. The couple then lived in India, where her husband was principal of the [[Henry Martyn Institute]] of Islamic Studies at [[Aligarh]]. They retired in 1951. <ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
Both Donaldson's wrote extensively about the Middle East. Bess Donaldson published ''The Wild Rue: A Study of Muhammadan Magic and Folklore in Iran'' (1938), a study of everything from childbirth practices to burial practices. She also wrote a pair of memoirs, ''Prairie Girl: Memoirs of the Midwest'' (1971) and ''Prairie Girl in Iran and India'' (1972).<ref name=":0" /><br />
<br />
Bess Allen Donaldson died on 20 December 1974 in [[Lakeland, Florida]].<ref name=":0" /><br />
<br />
== Bibliography ==<br />
<br />
* ''The Wild Rue: A Study of Muhammadan Magic and Folklore in Iran'' (London, 1938)<ref name=":0" /><br />
* ''Prairie Girl: Memoirs of the Midwest'' (Galesburg, Ill., 1971)<ref name=":0" /><br />
* ''Prairie Girl in Iran and India'' (Galesburg, Ill., 1972)<ref name=":0" /><br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
<br />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donaldson, Bess Allen}}<br />
[[Category:Created via preloaddraft]]<br />
[[Category:1879 births]]<br />
[[Category:1974 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:American Presbyterian missionaries]]<br />
[[Category:American women writers]]<br />
[[Category:People from Galesburg, Illinois]]</div>Lucillecrale