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The Lowell Offering, 1840-1845, was written and published by working women. This monthly magazine was organized by the Reverend Abel Charles Thomas (1807-1880), pastor of the First Universalist Church. From October 1840 to March 1841, it consisted of articles that emerged from many of the improvement circles or literary societies. Later, it then became broader in its scope and received more spontaneous contributions. From October 1842 until December 1845, it was edited by Harriot F. Curtis (1813-1889), and Harriet Farley (1817-1907). Farley, manager and proprietor, published selections from the Offering under the title Shells from the Strand of the Sea of Genius (1847).
Note: The following sources have been used for identifying the actual names behind some writers’ pseudonyms: Names and Noms de Plume of the Writers in The Lowell Offering, 1902 [Lowell, Mass.?]
Harriet Hanson Robinson, (Reprinted in Women and Children of the Mills: An Annotated Guide to Nineteenth-Century American Textile Factory Literature, Judith Ranta, [Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999], p. 299-300)
Harriet Hanson Robinson, Loom and Spindle; or, Life among the Early Mill Girls (1898)
Harriet Jane Farley, Shells from the Strand of the Sea of Genius (Boston: Munroe, 1847)
Harriot F. Curtis, (Lowell: Merrill & Heywood, 1847) S.S.S. Philosophy
Research by Martha Mayo and Judith A. Ranta
Changes in title information, cover epigraphs, etc., are noted for the issues in which they first appear. The colors of the covers of individual issues include blue, yellow, orange, beige, and green.
Abbreviations:
“m.” = married
“n.m.” = never married
Series 5 (January-December 1845), 284 pp.