Series S2 - Diaries

Mary Susanne Edgar, writer and social worker, was born on May 23, 1889, in Sundridge, Ontario. She studied at Havergal Ladies College in Toronto and took extension courses at the University of Chicago. She also took lectures at the Teachers' College, Columbia University, and graduated from the National Training School of the Young Women's Christian Association, New York City, in 1915. Through the Y.W.C.A. she worked with young girls both in Canada and in Japan. She was also involved with the Canadian Girls in Training, the Girl Guides, the Canadian Camping Association and the Ontario Camping Association. In 1920 she purchased a large property on Lake Bernard, near Sundridge, and founded a girls camp, Glen Bernard Camp,of which she was the director until her retirement in 1956. Miss Edgar was also an author of poetry, one-act plays, and hymns. Her best known hymn, God who touchest earth with beauty, is now included in numerous hymnals and has been translated into several languages including Japanese and Cree. Miss Edgar died at Toronto in 1973.