Mrs. Lydia Maria Child

(Born: February 11, 1802 - Died: October 20, 1880)

American editor, author and abolitionist. Lydia Maria Francis was born in Medford, MA. She was the last of six children. Her parents were Susanna Rand and David Convers Francis, her father being a banker and real-estate broker of some means. In 1828, Lydia married David Lee Child, who would become one of the founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832. He died on September 18, 1874, and she died just over 6 years later. Both died in Wayland, MA. For  eight years, beginning in 1826, she edited and published the Juvenile Miscellany, the first monthly magazine aimed at children in the United States. Among her best remembered works are Philothea: A Grecian Romance (Boston: Otis Broaders, 1836) and the poem “Boy’s Thanksgiving,” beginning “Over the river and through the woods / To grandfather’s house we go” (first published in Flowers to Children, 1844). Her long career as a prominent abolitionist began with the publication of An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans (Boston, 1833). A collection of her papers may be found at the William L. Clements Library of the University of Michigan.