Elinor Alice Veilleux Langton-Boyle (died 13 July 1946), also known as Ma Boyle, was a Hawaiian businesswoman and journalist, who operated the Paradise of the Pacific magazine from 1902 to 1944. [1]
Elinor Boyle was born in Irasburg, Vermont, and came to Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1900. [2] While the magazine Paradise of the Pacific had been founded by King Kalākaua in 1888, [3] Boyle-Langton and her husband, William Langton, took ownership and began publishing the paper four years after arrival. [2] Even after the death of her husband in 1910, and during her second marriage to James S. Boyle, she continued to publish the paper until health issues (sustained from a fall [3]) required she stop in 1944. [2] After long serving as its proprietor, [4] she sold the magazine to fourteen of its employees. [3] Her husband died in 1945, and she died on 13 July 1946. [5] In death, the Honolulu Sunday Advertiser described her as kamaʻāina, [5] literally meaning a child of the land. [6]
As the owner of the magazine, it circulated widely both inside and outside of Hawaii. [7] Described by a contemporary of hers, Maile Kearns, as a "pioneer" in color reproductions of artwork for magazines, she routinely solicited artists to create color covers for the magazine (often reproductions) and selected them herself: For Kearns, this was a defining element of Boyle-Langton's ownership of the magazine. [7] Under her leadership, the magazine was largely full of color, and it devoted significant attention to topics relevant to Hawaii. [8]
At one point, Paradise of the Pacific may have been among the largest printing plants owned and run by a woman in the United States. [9]