A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (1889)

Lucy Larcom (1824-1893) was a Beverly, Massachusetts native. She was the ninth of ten children. Lucy left Beverly in 1835 to work in the cotton mills in Lowell, Massachusetts from the ages of 11 to 21. As a mill girl she hoped to earn some extra money for her family. While working at the mills in Lowell, Lucy made a huge impact. She wrote and published many of her songs, poems, and letters describing her life at the mills. Her idealistic poems caught the attention of John Greenleaf Whittier. Lucy served as a model for the change in women’s roles in society. Larcom has penned one of the best accounts of New England childhood of her time, A New England Girlhood Outlined From Memory (1889), commonly used as a reference in studying early American childhood. Among her other famous works are: At The Beautiful Gate, Idyl of Work, and Childhood Songs.