| Persis Goodale Thurston Taylor | |
| Birth Name: | Persis Goodale Thurston |
| Birth Date: | September 28, 1821 |
| Birth Place: | Kailua-Kona, Hawaii |
| Death Date: | (aged 84) |
| Death Place: | Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Nationality: | American |
| Field: | Painting |
Persis Goodale Thurston Taylor (September 28, 1821 – April 20, 1906) was a painter and sketch artist.
Her parents, Reverend Asa Thurston (1787–1868) and Lucy Goodale Thurston (1795–1876), were in the first company of American Christian missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands.[1] When she was four, she had been asked to be given in hānai to Princess Kapulikoliko, daughter of Kamehameha I. Her mother politely refused. The concept of giving a child to be raised by a relative or friend was common in Hawaii, but it horrified the missionaries who preached one doesn't give out their children like puppies.[2]
For three years, she lived in Lahaina, Maui, where she assisted in the work of the seminary press at Lahainaluna School.[3] In 1847, she married Rev. Townsend Elijah Taylor of LaGrange, New York, who was serving as the seaman's chaplain for the Port of Lahaina.[4]
Taylor is best known for her landscapes (two of which were made into engravings at the Lahinaluna seminary) and silhouettes of both missionaries and Hawaiian royalty.