Anna L. Fisher

Anna Linderfelt Fisher (1878 – October 17, 1939) was an American Red Cross worker who ran an orphanage in Damascus. She was an advisor to Faisal I of Iraq in the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920, and held the rank of captain in the Syrian army. In 1927 she was appointed to the Ministry of Education in Iraq.

This page is about the American Red Cross worker. For the astronaut, see Anna Lee Fisher.
Anna L. Fisher, from a 1921 publication.
Anna L. Fisher in uniform and headdress, from a 1920 publication.

Early life

Anna Linderfelt (or Linderfeldt) Fisher was born in Milwaukee,[1] but was often described as being from New York,[2][3] or from California, either Pasadena or Santa Barbara, depending on the source.[4][5] She was the daughter of Swedish-born librarian Klas August Linderfelt and Margaret Eliza Parker Linderfelt.[6] Her elder brother, Karl Linderfelt, was a Colorado National Guardsman involved in the Ludlow Massacre.[7] Anna Linderfelt was educated in Paris.[8]

Career

During World War I, Fisher joined the Red Cross to do relief work in France, and later moved to working in Damascus. In 1919, she held the rank of captain in the Syrian army.[9] She was described as "unofficial ruler of the Arab Kingdom of Syria", in reference to her role as advisor to Faisal I of Iraq. She organized schools, encouraged the development of traditional handicrafts,[10] and ran the American Red Cross orphanage in Damascus.[11]

From 1922 to 1927, she was in New York City, managing the restaurant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[12] She also donated art objects to the museum during this period.[13][14] Soon after she resigned from that position, Fisher was appointed an attache to Iraq's Ministry of Education, based in Baghdad.[15][16][17] In 1933, the year Faisal died, she published a reminiscence, "My Memories of King Faisal", in Asia magazine.[18]

Personal life

Anna Linderfelt was engaged to architect Oswald Constantin Hering IV in 1900, while she was living in Paris.[8] She married mining engineer William Bowditch Fisher after 1901. The couple lived in Boston and wintered in Santa Barbara, but they were living in Paris before World War I.[6] They had a daughter, Frances Fisher (later Collins), born in Idaho in 1907.[16][19] Anna L. Fisher died in 1939, at her daughter's home in Millbrook, New York, aged 61 years.[1]

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References
  1. "Mrs. Anna L. Fisher Rites to be Today" Poughkeepsie Eagle-News (October 19, 1939): 9. via Newspapers.com
  2. "American Woman, Captain" Barre Daily Times (September 14, 1920): 3. via Newspapers.com
  3. "U. S. Woman Real Ruler of Arabia" Roanoke Leader (August 10, 1921): 8. via Newspapers.com
  4. "Santa Barbara Woman's Work Given Tribute" Morning Press (November 4, 1919): 5. via California Digital Newspaper Collection
  5. William T. Ellis, "American Woman Made Captain in Army of Syria" Star Tribune (October 2, 1919): 12. via Newspapers.com
  6. "Daughter of San Diego Woman is Made Captain by Arabians" The Service Star (January 1920): 11.
  7. Alan Prendergast, "Bloody Ludlow" Westword (April 17, 2014).
  8. "1897" The Technology Review (April 1900): 168.
  9. "California Woman Arab Captain" The Golden West (November 1, 1919): 8.
  10. Elizabeth Williams, "Nazik al-'Abid and the Nur al-Fayha' Society: Independent Modernity, Colonial Threat, and the Space of Women" in Mohammed A. Bamyeh, ed., Intellectuals and Civil Society in the Middle East: Liberalism, Modernity and Political Discourse (I. B. Tauris 2012): 46-48. ISBN 9781848856288
  11. "The Woman Behind the Arab Throne" The Mentor (May 1, 1921): 34.
  12. "New York Woman Gets Post in Iraq" New York Times (November 27, 1927): N7. via ProQuest
  13. "Bequests Donors and Lenders 1922" Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1922): 49. via JStor
  14. "Dagger (Jambiya) with Scabbard" Gift of Mrs. Anna L. Fisher, 1922, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  15. "The Government of Iraq" Star-Phoenix (December 12, 1927): 20. via Newspapers.com
  16. "American Woman Gets Post in Iraq" The Courier (December 19, 1927): 19. via Newspapers.com
  17. "American Woman Heads School System in Iraq" Journal of Education (December 26, 1927): 645. via JStor
  18. Anna L. Fisher, "My Memories of King Faisal" Asia (November 1933): 549-552.
  19. "Frances Fisher Collins" Poughkeepsie Journal (June 18, 2002): 4B. via Newspapers.com
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