author
Mary H. (Mary Helen) Fee
1864–1935
An educator, traveler, and wartime relief worker, Mary Helen Fee transformed her experiences abroad into vivid writing. Her best-known book, A Woman’s Impressions of the Philippines, offers a revealing glimpse into American teaching and imperial life in the early twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
A Woman's Impression of the Philippines
by Mary H. (Mary Helen) Fee
About the author
Born in October 1864 in Quincy, Illinois, Mary Helen Fee became an English and history instructor at the Normal School in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. She earned a teaching credential from the University of Chicago in 1901 and soon joined the “Thomasites,” the American teachers sent to the Philippines. Her experiences there inspired A Woman’s Impressions of the Philippines, published in 1910, as well as educational work created for Filipino children.
During World War I, Fee traveled to France in 1917 to work in canteens and evacuation hospitals, serving soldiers under difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. She later returned to the United States, reviewed plays for the suffrage periodical Woman Citizen, and taught in schools for Native American students. She died in San Diego in 1935.