Iowa Law
First International Students
A Gift for Chancellor Hammond
William Gardiner Hammond
First Chancellor (Dean) of the Law School
William Gardiner Hammond was Iowa Law’s first dean. In 1881, he retired from Iowa Law and moved to St. Louis to become dean of Washington University School of Law. Moung Edwin presented Chancellor Hammond with a book of Karen Hymns upon his graduation. He inscribed the book with several lines of Burmese we sought to translate.
Moung Edwin’s book of Hymns is part of the Hammond Collection held by the Law Library’s Special Collections.
Hymn Book
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Hymn Book
Translation of Moung Edwin’s Notes
The first inscription is written by Moung Edwin to William Hammond on June 20, 1879. The second signature is from Sarah Jane Higby, a Baptist missionary and teacher. The date, April 2, 1869, is about when Moung Edwin left Burma for the U.S. The last inscription is in Burmese and says “Moung Edwin” and “May 8, 1869.”
Almost everyone that looked at Moung Edwin’s note found it a challenge to read. Perhaps it was the 19th century cursive or old spellings? Most likely, it is not Burmese at all, but a version of “Christian Karen.” Karen dialects at the time had no written language. In order to translate the Bible into Karen dialects, Baptist missionary Jonathan Wade (and others) created a written language in the 1830s. While it is based on Burmese and Mon alphabets, Karen dialects have more tones and needed additional characters to represent them.
The first line is in English, addressing William Hammond. The next line is “Moung Edwin.” The third line translates to something like “history has been rough or wild.” Today, we might say "law school was a wild ride." The next line is “Hammond” written in Burmese. The last line is in English “Written in Burmese, May 31, 1879.”
Special Thanks for Translation Assistance
Special thanks to Nataša Ďurovičová and Lisa Gardinier for their invaluable assistance in translating Moung Edwin’s inscriptions. Nataša reached out to a network of University of Iowa's International Writing Program's Burmese alumni and other scholars, including Brandon Miliate at Yale University Library.
Sarah Jane Higby
One of the signatures in Moung Edwin’s Hymns book is from Sarah Jane Higby.
A teacher from Lockport, Illinois, she travelled to Burma in the 1860s and spent most of her life at the Bassein mission.
She died in Burma at the age of 78 in July 1917.
It is likely she gave Moung Edwin the book as a gift before he left to study in the United States.