Guide to the Margaret Anna Smith Papers

Margaret Anna Smith, the eldest of 10 children, was born to Reverend James N. and Elizabeth W. Smith in 1847 in Haysville, Ohio. The family moved to Portersville, Pennsylvania, and then to Berea, Kansas, where Margaret finished school and started teaching at the age of 17.

In 1872 Ms. Smith was appointed by the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America as a missionary to Egypt. There she directed a girls' school in Haret es Sakkai and later the Fowler orphanage in Fom-el-Khalig. Her missionary work was both educational and evangelical in nature. After many years concentrated on work with Egyptian women and children Ms. Smith retired to the United States in 1931, where she died a year later.