Hall, Queen's Street

George Copway, a writer and missionary from the Mississauga Ojibwa First Nation in what is currently Ontario, Canada, lectured here in October and November 1850. Born in 1818, Copway attended mission school before working as an interpreter and school teacher. After training as a missionary, he travelled extensively on lecture tours in Canada, the United States and Europe throughout the 1840s. However, by 1851, he was no longer in favour among missionary societies or intellectual circles and support for his causes had evaporated. Little is known about his life from 1851 until his death in 1867.

He held a deep affinity for Scotland and for Edinburgh in particular, writing in his book about his European travels that in “Edinburgh, there are warm hearts to be found for me and my race.” He described it as “the city of palaces, and there are a great many things to admire in this city. It is situated in a romantic and abrupt country - high, naked hills - grim-visaged, hard-browed, and frowning with dignity. And amidst this country so full of hills and so full of valleys is this city situated.”

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