Kate Douglas Wiggin
Encyclopedia
Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator and author of children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
. She started the first free kindergarten
in San Francisco in 1878 (the Silver Street Free Kindergarten). With her sister during the 1880s, she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Kate Wiggin devoted her adult life to the welfare of children in an era when children were commonly thought of as cheap labour.
descent. Kate herself experienced a happy childhood, even though it was saddened by the American Civil War
and her father's death. Kate and her sister Nora were still quite young when their widowed mother moved her little family from Philadelphia to Portland, Maine
, then, three years later, upon her remarriage, to the little village of Hollis
. There Kate matured in rural surroundings, with her sister and her new baby brother, Philip.
", some home schooling under the "capable, slightly impatient, somewhat sporadic" instruction of Albion Bradbury (her stepfather), a brief spell at the district school, a year as a boarder at the Gorham Female Seminary, a winter term at Morison Academy in Baltimore, Maryland, and a few months' stay at Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts
, where she graduated with the class of 1873. Although rather casual, this was more education than most women received at the time.
, where Kate's stepfather died three years later. A kindergarten training class was opening in Los Angeles
under Emma Marwedel (1818-1893), and Kate enrolled. After graduation, in 1878, she headed the first free kindergarten in California, on Silver Street in the slums of San Francisco. The children were "street Arabs of the wildest type", but Kate had a loving personality and dramatic flair. By 1880 she was forming a teacher-training school in conjunction with the Silver Street kindergarten.
In 1881, Kate married (Samuel) Bradley Wiggin, a San Francisco lawyer. According to the customs of the time, she was required to resign her teaching job.
Still devoted to her school, she began to raise money for it through writing, first The Story of Patsy (1883), then The Birds' Christmas Carol
(1887). Both privately printed books were issued commercially by Houghton Mifflin
in 1889, with enormous success.
Ironically, considering her intense love of children, Kate Wiggin had none. She moved to New York City
in 1888. When her husband died suddenly during 1889, Kate relocated to Maine
. For the rest of her life she grieved, but she also traveled as frequently as she could, dividing her time between writing, visits to Europe, and giving public reading for the benefit of various children's charities.
During 1895 Kate Wiggin married a New York City businessman, George Christopher Riggs, who became her staunch supporter as her success increased. Her literary output included popular books for adults; with her sister, Nora A. Smith
, she published scholarly work on the educational principles of Friedrich Froebel: Froebel's Gifts (1895), Froebel's Occupations (1896), and Kindergarten Principles and Practice (1896); and she wrote the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
(1903), as well as the 1905 best-seller Rose o' the River. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm became an immediate bestseller; both it and Mother Carey's Chickens (1911) were adapted to drama. Houghton Mifflin collected her writings in ten volumes in 1917.
For a time, she lived at Quillcote
, her summer home in Hollis, Maine
. Quillcote is around the corner from the town's library, the Salmon Falls Library, which Wiggin founded in 1911. Wiggin founded the Dorcas Society
of Hollis & Buxton, Maine in 1897. The Tory Hill Meeting House in the adjacent town of Buxton
inspired her book (and later play), The Old Peabody Pew (1907).
edited an edition of Jane Porter
's 1809 novel of William Wallace
, The Scottish Chiefs, for the Scribner's Illustrated Classics series, which was illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
. During the spring of 1923 Kate Wiggin traveled to England as a New York delegate to the Dickens Fellowship. There she became ill and died, at age 66, of bronchial pneumonia. At her request, her ashes were brought home to Maine and scattered over the Saco River
. Her autobiography, My Garden of Memory, was published after her death.
Wiggin was also a songwriter and composer of music. For "Kindergarten Chimes" (1885) she created some of the lyrics, music, and arrangements. For "Nine Love Songs and a Carol" (1896) she created all of the music.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her two stern aunts in the village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy for life inspires her aunts, but she faces many trials in her young life, gaining...
. She started the first free kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
in San Francisco in 1878 (the Silver Street Free Kindergarten). With her sister during the 1880s, she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Kate Wiggin devoted her adult life to the welfare of children in an era when children were commonly thought of as cheap labour.
Early life
Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of lawyer Robert N. Smith, and of WelshWales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
descent. Kate herself experienced a happy childhood, even though it was saddened by the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and her father's death. Kate and her sister Nora were still quite young when their widowed mother moved her little family from Philadelphia to Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
, then, three years later, upon her remarriage, to the little village of Hollis
Hollis, Maine
Hollis is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,281 at the 2010 census. Hollis is a rural bedroom community of Portland and is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.-History:...
. There Kate matured in rural surroundings, with her sister and her new baby brother, Philip.
Education
Her education was spotty, consisting of a short stint at a "dame schoolDame school
A Dame School was an early form of a private elementary school in English-speaking countries. They were usually taught by women and were often located in the home of the teacher.- Britain :...
", some home schooling under the "capable, slightly impatient, somewhat sporadic" instruction of Albion Bradbury (her stepfather), a brief spell at the district school, a year as a boarder at the Gorham Female Seminary, a winter term at Morison Academy in Baltimore, Maryland, and a few months' stay at Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...
, where she graduated with the class of 1873. Although rather casual, this was more education than most women received at the time.
Early career
During 1873, hoping to ease Albion Bradbury's lung disease, Kate's family relocated to Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, where Kate's stepfather died three years later. A kindergarten training class was opening in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
under Emma Marwedel (1818-1893), and Kate enrolled. After graduation, in 1878, she headed the first free kindergarten in California, on Silver Street in the slums of San Francisco. The children were "street Arabs of the wildest type", but Kate had a loving personality and dramatic flair. By 1880 she was forming a teacher-training school in conjunction with the Silver Street kindergarten.
Marriage and first writings
Still devoted to her school, she began to raise money for it through writing, first The Story of Patsy (1883), then The Birds' Christmas Carol
The Birds' Christmas Carol
The Birds' Christmas Carol is a novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin written and published in 1887 and illustrated by Katharine R. Wireman. The story is about Carol Bird, a Christmas-born child, who as a young girl is unusually loving and generous, having a positive effect on everyone with whom she comes...
(1887). Both privately printed books were issued commercially by Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
in 1889, with enormous success.
Ironically, considering her intense love of children, Kate Wiggin had none. She moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1888. When her husband died suddenly during 1889, Kate relocated to Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. For the rest of her life she grieved, but she also traveled as frequently as she could, dividing her time between writing, visits to Europe, and giving public reading for the benefit of various children's charities.
Second marriage, scholarly works, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Nora Archibald Smith
Nora Archibald Smith was an American children's author of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and sister of Kate Douglas Wiggin. Nora and Kate co-authored and co-edited a series of children's books....
, she published scholarly work on the educational principles of Friedrich Froebel: Froebel's Gifts (1895), Froebel's Occupations (1896), and Kindergarten Principles and Practice (1896); and she wrote the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her two stern aunts in the village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy for life inspires her aunts, but she faces many trials in her young life, gaining...
(1903), as well as the 1905 best-seller Rose o' the River. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm became an immediate bestseller; both it and Mother Carey's Chickens (1911) were adapted to drama. Houghton Mifflin collected her writings in ten volumes in 1917.
For a time, she lived at Quillcote
Kate Douglas Wiggin House
Kate Douglas Wiggin House or Quillcote is a historic house in Hollis, Maine, home of the writer Kate Douglas Wiggin.It was built in 1797 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.-References:...
, her summer home in Hollis, Maine
Hollis, Maine
Hollis is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,281 at the 2010 census. Hollis is a rural bedroom community of Portland and is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.-History:...
. Quillcote is around the corner from the town's library, the Salmon Falls Library, which Wiggin founded in 1911. Wiggin founded the Dorcas Society
Dorcas Society
A Dorcas Society is a local group of people, usually based in a church, with a mission of providing clothing to the poor.The original society was founded in Douglas, Isle of Man on December 1, 1834, as part of the community's thanksgiving for being spared from an outbreak of cholera...
of Hollis & Buxton, Maine in 1897. The Tory Hill Meeting House in the adjacent town of Buxton
Buxton, Maine
Buxton is a town in York County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 7,452...
inspired her book (and later play), The Old Peabody Pew (1907).
Later life and death
During 1921, Wiggin and her sister Nora Archibald SmithNora Archibald Smith
Nora Archibald Smith was an American children's author of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and sister of Kate Douglas Wiggin. Nora and Kate co-authored and co-edited a series of children's books....
edited an edition of Jane Porter
Jane Porter
Jane Porter was a Scottish historical novelist and dramatist.-Life and work:Jane Porter was an avid reader. Said to rise at four in the morning in order to read and write, she read the whole of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene while still a child...
's 1809 novel of William Wallace
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....
, The Scottish Chiefs, for the Scribner's Illustrated Classics series, which was illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
N. C. Wyeth
Newell Convers Wyeth , known as N.C. Wyeth, was an American artist and illustrator. He was the pupil of artist Howard Pyle and became one of America's greatest illustrators...
. During the spring of 1923 Kate Wiggin traveled to England as a New York delegate to the Dickens Fellowship. There she became ill and died, at age 66, of bronchial pneumonia. At her request, her ashes were brought home to Maine and scattered over the Saco River
Saco River
The Saco River is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Saco Bay, from its source. It supplies drinking water to roughly 250,000...
. Her autobiography, My Garden of Memory, was published after her death.
Wiggin was also a songwriter and composer of music. For "Kindergarten Chimes" (1885) she created some of the lyrics, music, and arrangements. For "Nine Love Songs and a Carol" (1896) she created all of the music.
Selected works
- The Story of Patsy (1883)
- The Birds' Christmas CarolThe Birds' Christmas CarolThe Birds' Christmas Carol is a novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin written and published in 1887 and illustrated by Katharine R. Wireman. The story is about Carol Bird, a Christmas-born child, who as a young girl is unusually loving and generous, having a positive effect on everyone with whom she comes...
(1887) - The Diary of a Goose Girl (1902)
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook FarmRebecca of Sunnybrook FarmRebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her two stern aunts in the village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy for life inspires her aunts, but she faces many trials in her young life, gaining...
(1903) - Rose o' the River (1905)
- The Old Peabody Pew (1907)
- Mother Carey's ChickensMother Carey's Chickens (novel)Mother Carey's Chickens is a novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin published in 1911 by Houghton Mifflin. It tells the story of a poor but happy family of four children who, in spite of being fatherless, make the lives of others better. Their home life becomes complicated when Julia, a snobbish cousin,...
(1911) - The Romance of a Christmas Card (1916)
- My Garden of Memory (autobiography, published posthumously in 1923)
External links
- Bowdoin collection and brief biography
- The Dorcas Society of Hollis & Buxton, Maine
- free online sheet music of Nine Love Songs and a Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin
- MIDI sequences of 29 songs by Kate Douglas Wiggin with access to free online sheet music for all 29 of them
- Full text of The Diary of a Goose Girl, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1902.