Center for Lowell History/ 2019

V. 1 (September 1847), p. 1-48
 

• P. 1: “Introductory” by H.F., July 5, 1847 [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley expresses hope “that ‘The New England Offering’ will be welcomed by the old patrons of ‘The Lowell Offering.’”  She gives the reasons for the Lowell Offering’s publication and demise as follows: “The Lowell Offering was established to prove that goodness and intelligence could and did exist in a factory community, and to remove the prejudice which had affixed itself to the cognomen of ‘Factory Girl.’  Assuming that these objects were accomplished, and wearied with cares attendant upon the publication of a Magazine, we discontinued it in December, 1845, but with the expressed hope that it might be resumed in some more favorable form, and under some more favorable circumstances.”  She maintains that she has been “solicited through the press and through many a private channel” to publish another magazine.  It will include writings by both factory operatives and “females who have gone from ‘the mills’ to be teachers and missionaries.”  “We pledge ourselves to nothing but endeavors for improvement, and to respect always the rights and feelings of others.”
• P. 3-8: “The Uncommitted Sin” by H. Farley, “Stone House,” Lowell [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Allegorical religious fiction.  The angel of Justice and the angel of Charity consider the nature of human sin.
• P. 8-17: “Pentucket” by M.R. Green [Miriam R. Green (divorced from Cromwell Kimball)].  Serial historical essay about the early history of Pentucket (now Haverhill, Massachusetts).
• P. 18-24: “Reminiscences of Childhood” by J.L. Baker, Middlesex Corporation [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Autobiographical essay.  The narrator recalls the “cottage home” in New Hampshire (18), where she lived with her grandmother and Aunt Polly.  The text includes some detailed description of the home’s interior and exterior.  The narrator’s grandmother tells stories of leaving Long Island after her marriage to settle in New Hampshire (22).
• P. 24: “Musings” by M.F.F., Merrimack Corporation [Margaret F. Foley (n.m.)].  Poem expressing sadness, weariness, and wishes for the “bright eternal home.”
• P. 25-30: “True Greatness” by L.A.B., Middlesex Corporation [Lucy Ann Baker (m. George Choate)].  Historical essay about great historical figures, including Achilles, Homer, Xerxes I, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, and George Washington.  Baker also praises several great American women: Ann Hasletine, Harriet Atwood, Mrs. Newell, and Mrs. Judson.  In conclusion, Baker asserts, “One man only . . . possessed the perfection of true greatness; and that man was the man Jesus Christ.” 
• P. 31-32: “Farewell to New England” by L.S. Hall, Eagletown, Arkansas [Lydia Sears Hall (m. Isaiah Graffam)].  Ballad written as Hall was “leaving Lowell for Arkansas as a missionary to the Choctaws” (H.H.R.).  The final stanza: “Good bye! -- I go to culture, / Flowers of immortal bloom, / I leave thee sadly, gladly, / My dearer, dearest home.”  An appended editor’s note explains, “This poem was written impromptu by Miss Hall upon leaving New England.”
• P. 33-36: Prose Poems. By L. Larcom, Looking Glass Prairie, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  I. The Broken Icicle.  II. The Prairie Violets.  III. The Flown Birds.  IV. The Song before the Storm.  As Larcom noted, “2, 3, and 4 were written while teaching a prairie district school, at noon-recess” (H.H.R.).
• P. 36-38: “Reflect!” by Maria, Wentworth, NH. [Maria/Marcia Currier (m. Ferdinand C. Keyser)].  Essay about the importance of reflection.  In conclusion Currier notes, “Our jails and prison-houses are filled with men, who, had they stopt to reflect upon the crime they were about to commit, and the consequences that would result therefrom, might still be holding an honorable rank among men, living a useful and a happy life” (38).
• P. 38-39: “The Vision of Life” by E. Kidder, Appleton Corporation.  Religious ballad.  The speaker admonishes youth to “Prepare! Prepare! Thy footsteps tend / To unseen worlds; – then upward bend / Thy willing soul, – and life shall be / A vision of eternity” (39).
• P. 40-47: “Extracts from a Journal.” At her parents’ request, a factory woman has written these journal entries recounting her “first impressions of Lowell.”  She describes her boardinghouse, her companions, the Lowell streets and churches, the various rooms in the mill, the hospital, and the cemetery.
• P. 47-48: “The Voice of the Past” by J.S.W., Boott Corporation [Jane S. Welch].  Essay.  The narrator argues that the voice of the past is “intimately . . . connected with our present happiness, and how important to make a proper use of the present, is its voice of monition and warning” (47-48).
• P. 48: “Invitation to Writers” by Ed. [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  “We extend our cordial invitation to the former contributors of the Lowell Offering, wherever they may be, to unite with us in the New England Offering.  Nor would we confine our invitation to former writers, but extend it to all who are or have been factory operatives, whether previous contributors or not: reserving of course the editorial right and necessity to judge of the fitness of every offered contribution.”

Vol. 1, No. 1 (January 1849), p. 1-24
 

• Cover i: The New England Offering: A Magazine of Industry. Written by Females Who Live by Their Labor
• Cover ii: Advertisement for Merrill & Heywood, booksellers, 23 Central Street, Lowell.
• P. 1: “Introductory” by Ed. [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  In this new volume, which expands its contributors and readers to include all working women, Farley hopes to show that the lady’s “refinement, accomplishments, and intellectual cultivation . . . are shared in a degree by their toiling sisters of the needle, shears, and loom.”  She advises working women, “We must still be intelligent, virtuous, and discreet, if we would still be respected.”  She welcomes “articles upon any subject.” 
• P. 2-5: “Aunt Deborah and Her Protege” by Helen [Helen E. Smith].  Serial domestic fiction.
• P. 5: “The Lady and the Maid” by L.L., Alton, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Ballad showing that “The love of the beautiful may unfold / In the soul of the humblest creature.”
• P. 6-7: “A Dialogue between My Rug and Me. Gratefully Inscribed to A[lexander] Wright, Esq.” by Adelaide, Choctaw Mission, Arkansas [Lydia Sears Hall (m. Isaiah Graffam)].  Part-humorous poem.  Religious theme.
• P. 8-10: “A Prairie-Race” by “Ruth Rover” [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Regionalist sketch.
• P. 11: “Song.”  Love ballad.
• P. 12-14: “Melvina Howard” by J.L.B., Hooksett, New Hampshire [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Serial sensational fiction.  Includes some passages of poetry.
• P. 14-15: “The Meadow Grass. A New Hampshire Tale.”  Regionalist sketch.  A mother and children braid straw to educate several of the sons.
• P. 16-17: “Invocation to the Muse” by M.R. Green, Haverhill, Massachusetts [Miriam R. Green (divorced from Cromwell Kimball)].  Humorous ballad.
• P. 17-18: “Aunt Charity” by J.M.M.  Regionalist sketch set in New Hampshire.  Aunt Charity works in the small village’s mills.  Unmarried, she possesses “quiet self-respect and independence” (18).
• P. 19-20: “‘Look into Thy Heart and Write’” by Flora, Nashua, New Hampshire.  Didactic essay.
• P. 20: “The Broken-Hearted” by Rebecca, Bangor, Maine.  Ballad.  The speaker asks to be placed in her grave, forgotten by all but her mother.
• P. 21-23: “Roxy and Dorcas: or, All Faith and No Faith” by the Author of “Abby’s Year in Lowell,” Pawtucket Falls [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Serial didactic fiction contrasting two heroines: happy, cheerful Roxy and sullen, fearful Dorcas.  When both begin working in the Lowell mills, Roxy is contented with conditions, while Dorcas becomes the leader of a workers’ organization protesting against a wage reduction.  Roxy’s virtue proves her superiority.
• P. 23: “Lines to Nora” by Ellen L. Smith [m. Hilburn], South Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad.  The speaker “yearn[s] to find the deep repose and quiet of the tomb.”
• P. 24: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)]. Farley favorably reviews two books, Poems by Anne C. Lynch and The Women of the Revolution by Elizabeth Ellet.
• Cover iii: “Hudson’s Panorama of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Brief description of this panorama on display in Lowell.  List of local agents, including Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father] and E.J. Cate, Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].
• Cover iv: “Publisher’s Record” by T.W. Harris.  Harris relates that he has been “visiting the numerous mills in and around Kingston, Richmond, and Westerly, Rhode Island, and those in and near Norwich, Connecticut.”  He acknowledges workers’ oppression, contending that “intelligent laborers will have, eventually, a just reward.  They will oppose a barrier to the excessive claims of capital, that not even golden levers can overthrow.”  He appeals for written contributions from workers outside the mills and suggests some of the kinds of writings they might produce.

Vol. 1, No. 2 (February 1849), p. 25-48
 

• Cover ii: Advertisement for Merrill & Heywood, booksellers, 23 Central Street, Lowell.
• P. 25: “To Readers and Correspondents” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley informs correspondents “that, as a general thing, we prefer short articles.”  She discusses The New England Offering’s purpose as follows: “While so many publications are earnestly endeavoring to convince society what may and can be done for laborers, we propose to ourselves the more lonely, but not less useful, task of teaching them, by precept and example, what they may and should do for themselves.” 
• P. 26-29: “Duties and Rights of Mill Girls.” By the Author of “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life,” Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Serial didactic essay.  The subjects of this installment are Scandal, Ridicule, Use of Pet Words and Phrases, and Deportment in Public.
• P. 29: “Oh! Why Do Mortals Fear to Die?” by S.K.  Religious ballad.
• P. 30-31: “Imagination” by Matilda, Ontega Springs, Ohio.  Schoolgirl’s orientalist dream vision.
• P. 32-33: “Pentucket” by M.R. Green [Miriam R. Green (divorced from Cromwell Kimball)].  Ballad about the moral decline of Haverhill, Massachusetts, since its founding.
• P. 33-35:  “Melvina Howard” [by Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Serial sensational fiction.  Includes some passages of poetry.
• P. 35: “Why is a man’s love . . .” Brief satiric observation.
• P. 36: “Winter at Stockbridge” by Fannie.  Poem.
• P. 37-38: “Sketches of a Midsummer Excursion Seven Hundred Miles in the Southwest” by an Equestrian [Lydia Sears Hall (m. Isaiah Graffam)].  Serial travel narrative.  Includes some information about Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians.
• P. 38: “As fickle as a woman . . .” Brief commentary on the perception of female fickleness.
• P. 39-42: “Roxy and Dorcas: or, All Faith and No Faith” by the Author of “Abby’s Year in Lowell,” Pawtucket Falls [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Serial didactic fiction contrasting two heroines: happy, cheerful Roxy and sullen, fearful Dorcas.  When both begin working in the Lowell mills, Roxy is contented with conditions, while Dorcas becomes the leader of a workers’ organization protesting against a wage reduction.  Roxy’s virtue proves her superiority.
• P. 42: “The Voice of Winter” by Jane B. Hamilton, Dwight Corporation, Chicopee, Massachusetts.  Nature ballad.
• P. 43-44: “Aunt Deborah and Her Protege” [by Helen E. Smith].  Serial domestic fiction.
• P. 45: “New England Winter” by L.L., Alton, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Nature ballad extolling the virtues of New England homes.
• P. 46-47: “The Holidays” by H.F. [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Essay about Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, including a dream vision.
• P. 48: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley reviews three books: The Haunted Man or the Ghost’s Bargain by Charles Dickens, The Housekeeper’s Receipt Book [Farmer’s Almanac and Housekeeper’s Receipt Book?] and Thoughts of a Lifetime [Verses of a Life Time?] by Caroline H. Gilman.
• Cover iii: “Publisher’s Record” by T.W. Harris.  Harris reports on his visits to Connecticut factory villages canvassing for subscriptions.  He comments on the struggle between Labor and Capital as follows: “[T]here needs to be a more general, a more thorough, a more practical education among the working classes.  Labor must compete with capital in intelligence.  And then, and never before, will Labor have and exercise a suggestive and a directive influence over Capital.”  He appeals for more subscribers.
• Cover iv: “To Correspondents.”  List of local agents, including Rev. S. Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Rev. Stephen Farley, Harriet Farley’s father] and E.J. Cate, Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].

• Vol. 1, No. 3 (March 1849): p. 49-72
   
  • Cover ii: Advertisement for Merrill & Heywood, booksellers, 23 Central Street, Lowell.
  • P. 49: “Prose Poems” by L. Larcom [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Two prose poems, “The Boy and the Leaf” and “Flowers after Frost.”
  • P. 50-52: “The Spirit’s Conflict” by L.A.C., Lowell [Lucy Ann Baker (m. George Choate)].  Religious fiction.
  • P. 52: “An Invitation. -- Dedicated to Maria” by Caroline M. Whitney, South Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad about friendship.
  • P. 53-56: “Duties and Rights of Mill Girls.” By the Author of “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life” [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Serial didactic essay.  The topics of this installment are Deportment at Table, Anna G.’s Picture, and Treatment of Overseers.  Cate defends factory agents and overseers as men of good sense and virtue.  She portrays a vulgar, ill-natured mill girl, Anna G.  There is reference to prejudice against Irish immigrants. 
  • P. 57: “Good-Night” by Fannie.  Ballad.
  • P. 58-60: “Sketches of a Midsummer Excursion Seven Hundred Miles in the Southwest” by an Equestrian [Lydia Sears Hall (m. Isaiah Graffam)].  Conclusion of this serial travel narrative.  The narrator explains that “the Editress of the Offering asked for sketches of Western life, scenes, and manners” (60).
  • P. 60: “To Elsie” by Sarah, Hinckley, Ohio [Sarah M. Hough (m. Henry Holbrook)?].  Nostalgic ballad expressing wishes to see cousin Elsie and her parents’ “dear old cot [cottage].”
  • P. 61-63: “Roxy and Dorcas: or, All Faith and No Faith” by the Author of “Abby’s Year in Lowell,” Pawtucket Falls [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Conclusion of serial didactic fiction contrasting two heroines: happy, cheerful Roxy and sullen, fearful Dorcas.  When both begin working in the Lowell mills, Roxy is contented with conditions, while Dorcas becomes the leader of a workers’ organization protesting against a wage reduction.  Roxy’s virtue proves her superiority.  As Roxy dies, she tells Dorcas, “Love everybody” (63).
  • P. 64: “Lines to Miss Ruth Amidown” by “Ida St. Nicholas,” Southbridge, Massachusetts.  Ballad expressing condolence to her bereaved friend.  Religious theme.
  • P. 65-67: “Aunt Deborah and Her Protege” by Helen [Helen E. Smith]. Serial domestic fiction.
  • P. 67: “Life’s Dreams” by J.L. Baker, Manchester, New Hampshire [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Ballad.  The speaker’s sublime dreams of her carefree childhood and of drinking “from wisdom’s gushing fount” contrast with her difficult waking life.
  • P. 68-70:  “Melvina Howard” by J.L.B., Hooksett, New Hampshire [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Serial sensational fiction.
  • P. 70: “To a Friend” by Clarissa, Hopkinton, Rhode Island [Clara Moxon].  Ballad.  The speaker asks her friend to remember and pray for her.
  • P. 71-72: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley reports that The New England Offering has met assistance and patronage but also with “calumny, opposition, and efforts to injure ourself and our work.”  They have been called “‘milk-and-water,’ ‘tools of aristocrats,’ ‘cowards,’ ‘dupes,’ and other appellations of the sort” (71).  She comments on an article from the Cincinnati Daily Sunbeam expressing disbelief that factory women could afford to buy a piano.  The Cincinnati writer asks “what services, other than working in the factory, were rendered to the millionaire proprietors?” (71).  Farley responds by giving examples of factory women’s financial comfort.  She reviews The Artist’s Married Life; Being That of Albert Durer by Leopold Scheffer.
  • Cover iii: “Publisher’s Record” by T.W. Harris.  Harris mentions visiting the mills in Saco and Biddeford, Maine.  There he found that “a greater interest was taken in the Offering by the agents, clerks, and overseers.”  He regrets that “we have but comparatively few subscribers in Lowell.”  Yet he “feel[s] conscious of being engaged in a good cause in publishing the Offering.”
  • Cover iv: “To Agents and Subscribers” by T.W. Harris.  List of local agents, including Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father] and E.J. Cate, Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].

Vol. 1, No. 4 (April 1849): p. 73-96
 

• Cover i: Harriet Farley, editor and publisher.  Published at No. 23 Central Street.
• Cover ii: Editor’s notes and extracts from correspondence.  Text of a letter sent by a young man looking for a wife.
• P. 73: “To Our Subscribers” by H.F. [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  “The past year has been one of struggle against adverse circumstances – the difficulties which beset all business adventurers – the blight resting upon manufacturing interests, and the cloud overshadowing all efforts and enterprises . . . Already has our publisher withdrawn from the work; and we must struggle alone, or the magazine be discontinued . . . But we will do what we can.  We will give reading which shall be inferior, in literary merit, to no other one dollar magazine; and superior in interest to those engaged in female manual employments.”
• P. 74-76: “Epistolary Extracts from Familiar Letters” by “R.R.” [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  The author relates some of her experiences in her Illinois community.
• P. 76: “An Acrostic” by L.A.C., Lowell [Lucy Ann Baker (m. George Choate)].  Ballad expressing hopes for The New England Offering.  The speaker asks “all sister spirits in love to bind / New garlands, that through the heart will wind, / Giving strength and vigor to true effort combined.”
• P. 77-78: “Life’s Changes” by R.G., Rockville, Connecticut [Rebecca C. Thompson].  Serial fiction about a rural farm family living near the Connecticut River and Mount Holyoke.
• P. 78: “Memorial of My Mother” by “Myrtis Milwood,” Lawrence Corporation.  Ballad expressing sadness for the speaker’s mother’s death.
• P. 79-82: “Aunt Deborah and Her Protege” by Helen [Helen E. Smith].  Serial domestic fiction.
• P. 82: “Moonward Gushings” by “Angelina Abigail,” Vine Lodge, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Humorous ballad.
• P. 83: “Immortality” by J.L. Baker, Hooksett, New Hampshire [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Religious essay.
• P. 83: “Death; – we call it only sleep . . .” Stanza of poetry.
• P. 84: “Youth Is a Happy Period” by H.F.****, Appleton Street [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Brief essay.
• P. 84: “The Flowers” by Lucy, Manchester, New Hampshire.  Ballad expressing sadness for the loss of friends.
• P. 85-87: “Retrospective Glimpses of Recent Travel” by H.F. [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley recounts her recent travels to Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Alexandria, Virginia; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Paterson, New Jersey, where she visiting many mills.
• P. 88: “Diary of a Stormy Evening” by Maria, Wentworth, New Hampshire [Maria/Marcia Currier (m. Ferdinand C. Keyser)].  Brief nature essay.
• P. 88: “Lines Written on Seeing the Ruins of the Methodist Chapel, Burned February 13, 1849” by Ella Maria, South Berwick, Maine.  Ballad.
• P. 89: “A Reverie” by Enad, Merrimack Corporation [Miss Lane].  Nature essay.
• P. 90: “Lines on April” by E.W. Jennings, Lowell [Eliza W. Jennings (n.m.)].  Humorous ballad.
• P. 90-91: “A Night in My Native Village” by “Grace Gayfeather,” Waltham [Harriot F. Curtis (n.m.)?].  Brief essay.
• P. 91: “To the Offering” by Caroline M. Whitney, South Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad expressing appreciation for The New England Offering.  “I hail thee with gladness, / Thou fair little book . . . Heaven aid each endeavor / Of our sisterly class . . .”
• P. 92: “Away with Care” by “Ida St. Nicholas,” Southbridge, Massachusetts.  Ballad.
• P. 92-93: “Extracts from a Journal,” Lowell.  Serial prose.  The text is nearly the same as that published as “Extracts from a Journal: Friday evening” in the September, 1847, issue.  At her parents’ request, a factory woman has written these journal entries recounting her “first impressions of Lowell.”
• P. 94: “Call Not Woman Weak” by Mary Jane M’Afee, Lebanon, New Hampshire [Mary Jane McAffee].  Ballad.
• P. 94: “The Voice of Nature” by E.F.D., Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Brief essay explaining that “[n]ature is ever calling us . . . to reverence her God.”
• P. 95-96: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Book notices and reviews for publications including John Greenleaf Whittier’s Poems and a new periodical, The Plough, the Anvil, and the Loom.
• Cover iii-iv: “Publisher’s Record” by T.W. Harris. Harris describes his and Harriet Farley’s travels to Virginia, Maryland, and New York, visiting mills and canvassing for subscribers.  He will turn over the periodical’s publication to Farley.
• Cover iv: List of local agents in six states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey), including E.J. Cate, Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)] and Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father].

Vol. 6, No. 5 (May 1849), p. 97-120
 

• Cover ii: The text of a letter from a man seeking a wife in Lowell is reproduced.  Other notes.
• P. 97: “To Readers” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley explains that she has “assumed the labors of publisher, with those of travelling agent, mail distributor, &c.”  She addresses the objection brought against the magazine that the publisher is trying “to get a living by it.”  She asserts this is true “the publisher of almost every other periodical.”
• P. 98-101: “Duties and Rights of Mill Girls.” By the Author of Lights and Shadows of Factory Life. Manchester, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Serial didactic essay.  Cate recalls her early, pleasant experience eight or ten years earlier working in the mills of Amoskeag, New Hampshire.  Then she discusses “Care of rooms in boarding-houses.”
• P. 102-03: “The Watcher” by L.A.C., Lowell [Lucy Ann Baker (m. George Choate)].  Poem about a young maiden betrayed by her lover.
• P. 103: “Death” by Ellen, Lowell.  Brief essay beginning “What power is thine, O, Death, for joy or terror!”
• P. 104-07: “Melvina Howard” [by Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Serial sensational fiction.
• P. 107: “Spring” by E.W. Jennings, Hooksett, New Hampshire [Eliza W. Jennings (n.m.)].  Nature ballad.
• P. 108: “Similitudes” by L. Larcom, Alton, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Two brief prose compositions, “The Moon” and “Light on the Clouds.”
• P. 109-110: “Address to a Young Friend” by M.R.G. [Miriam R. Green (divorced from Cromwell Kimball)].  Didactic ballad.  The speaker concludes by urging her friend to “Remember that a virtuous heart / Is sure of gaining Heaven.”
• P. 110: “The Cholera.”  Brief prose composition.
• P. 111-13: “Aunt Deborah and Her Protege” by Helen [Helen E. Smith].  Serial domestic fiction.
• P. 114-15: “A Picture” by Ellen L. Smith [m. Hilburn], North Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad.
• P. 115: “Lines” by Caroline [M.] Whitney, South Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad expressing longing for “Heaven’s own blissful shore.”
• P. 116-18: “Life’s Changes” by Rebecca, Rockville, Connecticut [Rebecca C. Thompson].  Serial fiction about a rural farm family living near the Connecticut River and Mount Holyoke.  After many of them are lost to sickness and death, one “for the last few months . . . has spent her time within the noisy din of a factory’s walls.”  In conclusion, the narrator advises, “Be kind to all, and your life will be happy, and its end pleasant and peaceful” (118).
• P. 118: “‘Perseverance conquers all obstacles’ . . .”  Brief commentary.
• P. 119: “Our Mill” by L.M.T., Hopkinton, Rhode Island.  Ballad describing the Bethel Mill, where “The girls are all united / To labor heart and hand.”
• P. 120: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  The editor briefly comments on publications received, including Poems by James T. Fields, the Lady’s Book, and Sartain’s Union Magazine.
• Cover iii: “Publisher’s Record” by H.F. [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley describes her recent visits to New Hampshire mill towns, including Manchester, Nashua, and Franklin (where she visited with Eliza Jane Cate).  She urges operatives to “pledge themselves to a generous effort in behalf of their own magazine.”
• Cover iv: “A Note” by E.J. Cate [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Cate addresses her own “subscribers for the ‘New England Offering.’”  List of local agents, including Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father], and E.J. Cate, Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].

Vol. 7, No. 6 (June 1849), p. 121-44
 

• Cover ii: Extracts from correspondence include a former mill operative’s letter quite critical of factory life.  As she writes, “During my brief and vexatious stay in the ‘city of spindles,’ (of eighteen months only) I truly pitied that class of females who had no other means of gaining a livelihood than watching machinery; and I must say I returned to Vermont not only with ill health, but ill thoughts pertaining to a mill, or mill life.  And though I may never again be ‘entangled in that yoke of bondage,’ yet the ‘Offering’ will long live in my memory.”
• [Facing p. 121]: Engraving of the Massachusetts and Prescott Mills.
• P. 121: “Engravings” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley discusses her efforts to furnish engravings for the periodical.  She appeals for more written contributions.
• P. 122-28: “Old Jew Barnard; and How He Lost His Heart, but Found a Substitute” by the editor [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Serial regionalist fiction about a stingy rich man who changes and becomes generous.
• P. 128: “Kindred Spirits” by L.E.L., Salmon Falls, New Hampshire [Levinda E. Leavitt].  Brief essay.
• P. 129-32: “Belshazzar’s Feast” by M.R. Green, Haverhill, Massachusetts [Miriam R. Green (divorced from Cromwell Kimball)].  Orientalist poem.
• P. 132: “The Rose-Bud” by Clara, Hopkinton, Rhode Island [Clara Moxon].  Prose allegory about a baby’s death.
• P. 133-35: “Duties and Rights of Mill Girls.” By the Author of “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life,” Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Serial didactic essay.  In this installment, Cate discusses the structure of the skin, bathing, and the bathing-rooms at Manchester, New Hampshire.
• P. 136-39: “Aunt Deborah and Her Protege. [Concluded.]” by H.E.S., Lowell [Helen E. Smith].  Serial domestic fiction.  At the conclusion, Aunt Deborah exhorts her relatives “never to trample upon virtue and worth, though it was robed in the simple garb of poverty” (139).
• P. 139: “A Scrap from the ‘Classics’” by “R.R.,” Hazel Academy, Sunset [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Humorous sketch of a school teacher’s experience.
• P. 140-43: “A Week in New York” by the Editor [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Travel narrative.  Farley describes some of New York City’s churches, public buildings, and street scenes.
• P. 143: “The Violets” by L. Larcom, Vine Lodge, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Nature ballad.
• P. 144-cover iii: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley discusses the widely publicized infanticide of her own baby committed by an eighteen-year-old Manchester, New Hampshire, factory girl, Letitia S. Blaisdell.  “Through the length and breadth of the land, it is known that this girl has committed a murder, and is condemned to die.  It is known, too, that she was a factory girl; was one of our New England operatives at the time of this dreadful deed . . . we will allow it to be horrible, shocking, terrible in one so young, and she a woman.”  People assume she had “become loose and immoral,” but Farley defends her.  She was in love, and needed money in order to marry, “that disgusting requisite to connubial aspirations, ‘the tin,’ which a woman is desired to bring to the altar.”  Farley hopes for Blaisdell’s reformation: “We should not fear to sit by her side, or even to share her bed” (144).
• Among several book notices is one for Miss Leslie’s story “Professor Nimmons” in last month’s Godey’s Lady’s Book.  Farley objects to the story’s factory girl character, who is “one of the silliest pretenders to literary ability.”  She concludes, “As most of the literary pretension of the mill girls is embodied in the Offering, we quietly receive Miss Leslie’s hit” (iii).
• Cover iv: “Publisher’s Record” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley mentions her recent visits to Amesbury and Newburyport, Massachusetts.  The list of local agents includes Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father], and Eliza Jane Cate [n.m.], Franklin, New Hampshire.

Vol. 7, No. 7 (July 1849), p. 145-68
 

• Cover ii: “Exchanges” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Two letters are reproduced, one from a Southern gentleman quite critical of Northern factories (continued on cover iii).
• P. 145: “Republicanism” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)?].  Brief essay arguing that “[w]e should be more American, more democratic.”  The author contends that The New England Offering “is purely American.”
• P. 146-49: “Naked Truth” by “Grace Gayfeather,” Lowell [Harriot F. Curtis (n.m.)?].  Humorous allegorical fiction.
• P.149: “Speak Not Harshly” by “Myrtis Milwood,” Lawrence Corporation, Lowell.  Didactic ballad.
• P. 150-52: “Melvina Howard” by J.L. Baker [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Serial sensational fiction.
• P. 153-58: “Rights and Duties of Mill Girls.” By the Author of “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life,” Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Serial didactic essay.  The topic of this installment is “Reduction of Wages for Factory Labor.”  Cate concludes: “All who know the rates of wages in Lowell, Manchester, and other large manufacturing towns, know that there never has been a time when the girls have been earning so much as in the few years preceding the late reduction.  That they will earn as much again, and at no very distant period, I have no doubt.  To say nothing of the patriotism, the humanity of Abbott Lawrence, the Lowells, and others of our most influential capitalists, their self-interest alone must lead them to the adoption of such measures as will induce the better portion of our New England girls, the vigorous, the moral, and the intelligent, to resort to the mills as their place for gains” (158).
• P. 158: “Churning Song” by “Angelina Abigail,” Vine Lodge, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Ballad.
• P. 158: “When the eagle’s wing flags . . .”  Stanza of poetry.
• P. 159-60: “The Inauguration” by the Editor [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Brief sketch of a presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C.
• P. 160: “Home” by Z.H., Manchester, New Hampshire.  Brief essay on the importance of home.
• P. 160: “Why is it so often . . .” by L.  Couplet of poetry.
• P. 161-62: “Our Mill at Laureldale” by Clara, Hopkinton, Rhode Island [Clara Moxon].  Ballad expressing a cheerful view of work in the mill of J. Wilcox and Co.  The speaker contends, “If you wish to find a happy band / And cheerful, do not fail, / If ever you should come this way, / To call at Laureldale” (161).
• P. 162: “And is the effort crowning with success? . . .” Stanza of poetry.
• P. 163-66: “Old Jew Barnard; and How He Lost His Way, but Found His Heart” by H.F., Lowell [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Serial regionalist fiction about a stingy rich man who changes and becomes generous.
• P. 167-68: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley addresses “The Present Crisis” of manufactures and wages, as well as the observation that “our Lowell girls are degenerating.”  She reiterates Cate’s observation (see p. 156) that Irish immigrant women are “untidy, ignorant, and passionate” (167).  Several book notices follow.
• Cover iii-iv: Continuation from cover ii of a letter from a Southern gentleman contending that Northern factory workers have a harder life than Southern slaves.  As he writes, “I have often wept bitter tears for the situation of the young ladies of the north who are compelled to work in the factories to such a great extent to build up fortunes for others.  It is well known that they are very subject to consumption . . .” (iii). 
• Cover iv: The list of local agents includes Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father], and Eliza Jane Cate [n.m.], Franklin, New Hampshire.

Vol. 7, No. 8 (August 1849), p. 169-92
 

• Cover ii: “Exchanges” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley lists and briefly comments upon the periodicals she receives.  Titles include The Plough, Loom, and Anvil, The Child’s Friend, and The Prisoner’s Friend.
• P. 169: “A Prairie Pastoral” by L.L., Vine Lodge, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Ballad appreciatively portraying “Sweet Kate of the prairie.”
• P. 170-71: “Our Meeting-House” by M.R.G., Haverhill, Massachusetts, July, 1849 [Miriam R. Green (divorced from Cromwell Kimball)].  Prose sketch of a local church.
• P. 171: “Consolation for the Friendless. From the German” by L.L., Woodburn, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Poetry.
• P. 172-75: “The Unexpected Bridal” by L.A.C. [Lucy Ann Baker (m. George Choate)].  Domestic fiction.
• P. 176: “My Birth-Day” by Maria, Wentworth, New Hampshire [Maria/Marcia Currier (m. Ferdinand C. Keyser)].  Brief personal essay.
• P. 176: “Lines” by Caroline M. Whitney.  Ballad.
• P. 177: “A Mother’s Lament” by Mrs. Anna E. Wilson, St. Louis, Missouri [Anna Elizabeth Holman (m. Nathan F. Wilson)].  Poetry.  A mother’s elegy for her young deceased daughter.
• P. 177: “Contemplation of the Heavenly Bodies” by Enad [Miss Lane].  Brief essay.  Religious message.
• P. 178-80: Melvina Howard” by J.L. Baker [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Serial sensational fiction.
• P. 180: “The Spell is O’er Me Now” by Caroline M. Whitney, South Adams, Massachusetts.  Poem.
• P. 181-82: “Extracts from a Journal,” Lowell.  Serial prose.  In diary entries, a factory woman describes her early impressions of Lowell.  The text is nearly the same as a portion of that published under “Saturday evening” in “Extracts from a Journal” in the September, 1847, issue.
• P. 182: “Where Shall Our Sister Sleep?” by P.H., Lawrence Corporation, Lowell.  Elegiac ballad about a woman’s death.  The speaker expresses hope that “white-winged seraphs [will] come, / Bear the freed spirit home, / Home to its God.”
• P. 183-86: “Our Town. No. 2. Our Meeting-House” [by Betsey Guppy (m. Josiah Chamberlain, Thomas Wright, Charles Boutwell, I.A. Horn)].  Autobiographically-based regionalist sketch set in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.  Humor.
• P. 186-89: “The Little Washerwomen” by H., Lowell.  Regionalist sketch about two girlfriends.
• P. 189: “Lines to a Friend on Leaving New England” by J.M.M., Lowell.  Ballad expressing regret for her friend’s departure.  The speaker advises the friend, “Think not in all that land to find, / A fountain rill, or lake, / Whose chrystal waves, divinely pure, / The thirst for gold can slake.”
• P. 190: “Retrospective Glimpses of Recent Travel. The Ball and the President” by the Editor [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley describes her impressions of the recent Inauguration Ball in Washington, D.C.
• P. 191-92: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley discusses the Lowell Post Office.  She describes Lowell as “a city of females, at least a city whose wealth and prosperity has been greatly owing to females” (192).
• Cover iii: Continuation of text from cover ii.  An extract from a letter written by J**** is reproduced.  Book notice of The Pictorial Lowell Almanac, for 1850.
• Cover iv: “Publisher’s Record” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley addresses and briefly refutes “[t]he objections we occasionally meet with . . . but we have not room to do it in other than a laconic style.
•        First: The work is in the interest of the employers.
•        Read and see if it is.
•        Second: It is not written by the mill-girls.
•        Yes it is: by those who are, or have been, factory operatives.
•        Third: It does not belong to us to support it more than to others.
•        Yes it does: for its literature is prepared with a special aim at what will please, inform, or improve you.
•        Fourth: If it is a good magazine for us, it is good enough for anybody.
•        Very true: but for the answer given to the preceding question, it is better for you than for others. School-teachers, odd-fellows, temperance associations, artisans and other bodies, have their particular organs, and why should not the mill-girls have theirs, and if they have it, they should feel an interest in sustaining it.”
•        The list of local agents includes Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father], and Eliza Jane Cate [n.m.], Franklin, New Hampshire.

Vol. 7, No. 9 (September 1849), p. 193-216

• Cover ii: “Book Notice” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley favorably reviews Eliza Cook’s Journal (a British periodical), expressing hope for the appearance of an American equivalent.
• The constitution of the Merrimack Division of the Mutual Improvement Circle (1841) is reproduced.
• P. 193: “Girlhood” by L.L. [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Ballad.  The speaker exhorts girls to “Be happy, and be pure! / For Purity’s white plumes are charmed / Against the tempter’s lure.”
• P. 194-96: “Rights and Duties of Mill Girls.” By the Author of “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life,” Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Serial didactic essay.  The subjects of this installment are “Mary and Anna” and “Elevation of Mind versus Outward Display.”  Cate shows the moral dangers of some factory women’s inordinate love of fine dress.  She concludes, “So that, whether we be rich or poor, in all cases it is better for us that simplicity abound” (196).
• P. 197-98: “Extracts from a Journal.”  Serial prose.  In diary entries, a factory woman describes her early impressions of Lowell.  The entries labeled “Sunday,” “Sabbath Eve,” and “Monday Eve” are nearly the same as passages in “Extracts from a Journal” published in the September, 1847, issue. In a new entry, “Monday Eve,” the narrator describes her first “wearisome” day working as a weaver (197). 
• P. 198-99: “The Caterpillar and the Rose-Bush. A Fable” by H.E.S., Lowell [Helen E. Smith].  Ballad with commentary on class inequality.  One of the four stanzas explaining the poem’s “moral” chides the rich: “Ye who bask in the sunshine of wealth, / With worldly honors blessed, / Weigh well your voice and words to those / By poverty oppressed” (199).
• P. 199-200: “Letter from Illinois” by “Ruth Rover” [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Correspondence describing some of Larcom’s experience in Illinois.
• P. 201: “Tribute. From a Correspondent” by R.B., Globe Mill, Southbridge, Massachusetts.  Ballad commending The New England Offering.  Lines such as the following address class differences: “And, while the purse-proud ones of earth / Bow low at pleasure’s shrines, / Teach us, while toiling with our hands, / To labor with our minds.”
• P. 201-03: “Visit to a Prairie” by A.H. Winship, Iyanibbi Seminary, Choctaw Mission [Adaline H. Winship (m. David H. Winship)].  Travel narrative.
• P. 203: “Dirge” by “Valerie,” Lebanon, New Hampshire [Margaret F. Foley (n.m.)].  Elegiac ballad for a woman who has died young.
• P. 204-05: “The Mourner” by J.L.B., Lowell [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Sensational prose sketch.  A mother mourns for her criminal son as he is hanged.
• P. 205: “My Mountain Home” by Caroline [M.] Whitney, South Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad concluding “Dearer, far, my mountain home, / Than a castle’s gilded dome.”
• P. 206: “The Dream Fulfilled” by J.L.B. [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Ballad about a child’s death.
• P. 207-08: “An Allegory” by L.A. Choate, Lowell, May, 1849 [Lucy Ann Baker (m. George Choate)].  Prose allegory on death, “the King of Terrors” (207).
• P. 208: “A Fragment. Translated from Richter.”  Praise of American freedom.
• P. 209-210: “Lines Inscribed to a Friend, on His Departure for New England” by Adelaide, Choctaw Mission, Arkansas [Lydia Sears Hall (m. Isaiah Graffam)].  Poem in iambic pentameter.  Religious theme.
• P. 210-11: “Our Town, No. 3. Our Pulpit,” Lowell [by Betsey Guppy (m. Josiah Chamberlain, Thomas Wright, Charles Boutwell, I.A. Horn)].  Regionalist sketch set in New Hampshire.
• P. 212: “Days of My Childhood” by “Myrtis Milwood,” Lawrence Corporation, 1849.  Ballad expressing nostalgia for the “Happy days of my childhood” that have “indeed passed away.”
• P. 212: “Lines on the Death of K.M.” by E.L.S., North Adams, Massachusetts [Ellen L. Smith (m. Hilburn)].  Elegiac ballad.
• P. 213-14: “Retrospective Glimpses of Recent Travel. Mrs. Madison” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)?].  The author recounts her visit with Mrs. Madison in Washington, D.C., expressing great admiration for her.
• P. 214: “Progress” by M.R. Green, Haverhill, July, 1849 [Miriam R. Green (divorced from Cromwell Kimball)].  Satiric ballad about reformers.
• P. 215-16: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley recounts some of the history of the Improvement Circle that gave birth to the Lowell Offering.  She notes “that many speak of [The New England Offering] now as entirely disconnected from the interests and sympathies of manufacturing operatives” (216).  She also mentions that she has received no written contributions from working women other than mill operatives. 
• Cover iii: Continuation from cover ii of the Merrimack Division of the Mutual Improvement Circle’s constitution (1841).
• Cover iv: Continuation from cover ii-iii of the Merrimack Division of the Mutual Improvement Circle’s constitution (1841).  The list of local agents includes Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father], and Eliza Jane Cate [n.m.], Franklin, New Hampshire.

Vol. 7, No. 10 (October 1849), p. 217-240
 

• Cover ii: Engraving of the Principal Entrance, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts.
• P. 217: “Life” by L.L. [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Ballad.  Life is “[m]ade of light and showers.”
• P. 218-19: “Mount Auburn” by the Editor [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  History of Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts.  Includes an engraving of the Chapel at the cemetery’s entrance.
• P. 220-22: “The Oak Leaf and the Morning-Glory” by A.H. Winship, Choctaw Mission, Eagletown, Arkansas [Adaline H. Winship (m. David H. Winship)].  Ballad about a child’s death.
• P. 223-26: “Rosaltha, the Shepherdess; or, The Castle of Pearl” by H.F., Lowell [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Didactic allegorical essay.
• P. 226: “The Auction” by Jessie Joselyn, Lawrence Corporation, Lowell.  Humorous ballad about the auction of a bachelor.
• P. 227-30: “Rights and Duties of Mill Girls” by the Author of “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life” [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Serial didactic essay.  In this installment, Cate’s topics are “On a Just Appreciation of the Mill Girl’s Character and Condition” and “Lydia and Jane, &c. &c.”  She insists that “the whole class [of factory women] be not thrown off from our charities and sympathies, on account of the irregularities of a few” (227).
• P. 230: “Moonlight on the Waters” by “Mary May,” “Green Isle.”  Nature ballad on the ocean’s beauty.
• P. 231-33: “Capt. T., or Second Love” by L.C.L., Lawrence, Massachusetts, August, 1849.  Autobiographically-based regionalist fiction set in Maine.
• P. 233-34: “Familiar Letter” from “Ruth Rover,” Woodburn, Illinois, September 8, 1849 [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Larcom describes her visit to St. Louis.
• P. 234-35: “Advertisement” by “Bethiah,” Bay State, Lawrence, Massachusetts.  Humorous ballad.  The speaker seeks a husband.
• P. 235: “Meditation” by L.M.T., Hopkinton, Rhode Island, July, 1849.  Religious ballad.  The speaker hopes that after death, her soul will “rise to God” and that she will wear “robes of white.”
• P. 235: “To Jane G—” by M—, Lowell [Maria/Marcia Currier (m. Ferdinand C. Keyser)?].  Ballad.  The speaker attempts to comfort her grieving friend.
• P. 236-37: “Obituary Notice” by J.L.B., Hooksett, New Hampshire, October 2, 1849 [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  The text is a letter written by Baker to Harriet Farley about the death of Eliza W. Jennings (an Offering writer) in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, on September 8, 1849.  She died of consumption at age twenty-seven.  Following Baker’s text is a note from Farley mentioning that Jennings worked for the Middlesex Corporation and praising her. 
• P. 238-40: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley discusses the visit of the Frenchman Vattemare to the United States.  She hopes to give him copies of the Offering, etc., to display at the Vattemare Institute in Paris.  Several books are reviewed: Selections from the Writings of Mrs. Sarah C. Edgarton Mayo: with a Memoir by Her Husband; Reviews and Essays by Elihu G. Holland; Lectures on Subjects Connected with Literature and Life by Edwin P. Whipple; and History of All Nations by Samuel G. Goodrich.
• Cover iii: “A Letter to the Yankee Belles, Yclept Factory Girls, of Lowell, Massachusetts” by Solomon Beau, Chairman of the Rock Co. Auxiliary of the Wisconsin Desolate Bachelors’ Association, Rock Co., Wisconsin, August, 1849.  Humorous prose.
• Cover iv: “Our Post Office.” “Exchanges.”  Farley comments that in Sartain’s Magazine “is a sweet poem from Miss [Alice] Carey, entitled ‘The Mill Maid’ . . . Godey’s Lady’s Book, for October, contains the continuation of Miss Leslie’s story of  ‘The Cleyborne’s;’ in which she alludes to the appearance of factory-girls in a tableaux, with tenpenny Lowell calico gowns and bonnets of the same.  If Miss L. should come among them, perhaps she would be surprised to see how few adhere to the uniform.  And the Lowell calico is ninepenny, Miss Leslie, only ninepenny!”

Vol. 7, No. 11 & 12 (November & December 1849), p. 241-78
 

• Cover ii: “Notice to Agents” and “Exchanges” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].
• Facing p. 241: Engraving, “Isometrical View of the Bay State Mills and Boarding Houses, Lawrence, Massachusetts.”
• P. 241: “Lawrence” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  The author discusses the Bay State Mills and Boarding Houses of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
• P. 242: “What Is Life?” by “Myrtis Milwood,” Lawrence Corporation, May, 1849.  Ballad about the passage of a life.
• P. 242: “The Call to Prayer” by Rosamond.  Religious ballad.
• P. 243-46: “Rights and Duties of Mill Girls” by the Author of “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life” [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Serial didactic essay.  The topic is care of the sick.
• P. 246: “The Spirit Guest” by Caroline M. Whitney, South Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad.  The speaker recounts her visit from a “loving spirit.”
• P. 247-49: “Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland” by A.A.S.  The text is a letter to Farley describing Ellicott’s Mills.
• P. 249: “Flowers on Graves” by “Ida St. Nicholas,” Southbridge, Massachusetts.  Ballad.
• P. 250-51: “A Leaf from Life” by Rosamond, Lowell.  Fictional sketch about a family devastated by death.
• P. 251: “False or True” by L[evinda] E. Leavitt, Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, December 9, 1848.  Ballad about courtship. 
• P. 252: “No Time for Improvement” by J.L. Baker, Hooksett, New Hampshire [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Brief essay advocating self-improvement.
• P. 253-55: “My Childhood’s Home” by L.A.C. [Lucy Ann Baker (m. George Choate)].  Regionalist sketch describing the “humble cottage” where the author was raised.
• P. 256: “My Heart is Sad” by “Rebecca,” Globe Mill, Newburyport, Massachusetts [Rebecca C. Thompson].  Ballad.
• P. 256: “Sunshine” by H.F., November 7, 1849 [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Ballad.  A psalm and prayer bring happiness to the speaker.
• P. 257-60: “A Day in Arkansas” by Enilada, Choctaw Mission, Arkansas [Adaline H. Winship (m. David H. Winship)].  Regionalist sketch.
• P. 260: “The Time When I Would Die” by Caroline M. Whitney, South Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad.  The speaker hopes to “die in my youth.”
• P. 260: “Dead Rose-Buds” by L.L., July, 1849 [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Nature ballad.
• P. 261-62: “Science” by A., Lowell [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Essay about the great value of science.
• P. 263-66: “Extracts from a Journal.”  Serial prose.  At her parents’ request, a factory woman has written these journal entries recounting her “first impressions of Lowell.  The narrator describes her early days working as a weaver and life in the boardinghouses.
• P. 267: “Dirge” by “Valiere,” Lebanon, New Hampshire [Margaret F. Foley (n.m.)].  Elegiac ballad.
• P. 267: “Ode to the Departed” by L[evinda] E. Leavitt, Salmon Falls, New Hampshire.  Ballad expressing the sadness of bereavement.
• P. 268: “Speak Gently of the Dead” by M.F.F., Lebanon, New Hampshire [Margaret F. Foley (n.m.)].  Brief didactic essay.
• P. 268: “The Departed” by Caroline M. Whitney, South Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad set in a graveyard.
• P. 269-71: “The Uncommitted Sin” by H. Farley, “Stone House,” Lowell [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Allegorical religious fiction.  The angel of Justice and the angel of Charity consider the nature of human sin.
• P. 272: “To Emily” by J.L.B., Lowell [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Elegiac poem.
• P. 272: “The Broken Icicle” by L. Larcom [Lucy Larcom (n.m.].  Didactic prose composition.
• P. 273: “Reflect!” by Maria, Wentworth, New Hampshire [Maria/Marcia Currier (m. Ferdinand C. Keyser)].  Brief didactic essay about the importance of reflection.
• P. 274: “Lines to Mary D. P***” by “Myrtis Milwood,” Lawrence Corporation, Lowell.  Ballad.  The speaker expresses her love for her friend, from whom she must soon part.  “Mary, the thought is o’er me stealing, / That you and I must shortly part,-- / Must cease this interchange of feeling, / Which floweth now from heart to heart. . . . / I ask but this of thee-- . . . / ‘Wilt thou remember me?’”
• P. 274: “The Flown Birds.”  Brief essay.
• P. 275-78: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  For the last nine months, Harriet Farley has been “sole editor, proprietor, publisher, travelling agent, &c., &c.”  She indicates several of her aims as editor: “Firstly, to present to our operatives a cheerful, healthful, useful, and attractive magazine; . . . Secondly, we have wished to furnish a medium through which the one, who is now a mill-girl, and novice in the walks of literature, might send forth some token of her capacities and aspirations . . . Thirdly, it has been our wish, in this little one-sheet periodical, to lay upon the altar of our country’s literature an ‘offering’ worthy of that shrine . . .
• ‘Milk-and-water’ editorials, and ‘meek-eyed’ affairs, have been some of the epithets bestowed by our enemies upon our own efforts (275) . . . The charges of ‘corporation tool,’ and like epithets, must have already been refuted by the difficulty, visible to all who are willing to see, of even maintaining our existence . . . What we desire, we are willing to request openly and publicly; and it is this, that through the agents, and the overseers, the operatives may receive their copies, and transmit their subscriptions . . .
• In April last the magazine was abandoned by its publisher, and left with a heavy debt and ruined credit. . . . With the issue of this number we feel that the worst is over; and if, as a publisher, we have gone on with a slow and uncertain step, it will be excused, we trust, when it is known that so heavy a burden has been upon us (276) . . .
• To our writers, we will say that, in future, when at a loss for a theme for your pens, do as our new contributor from ‘Ellicott’s Mills’ has done -- describe your place of residence, your town, corporation or mill; or read the history of some great and good man, or woman, and then give, in your own words, an account of their lives.  We would not discourage poetical genius, but to rhyme, we fear, is becoming sometimes a substitute for to think” (277).  In “Book Notices,” Farley reviews Greenwood Leaves by Grace Greenwood [Sara J.C. Lippincott] and Friends in Council by Sir Arthur Helps.
• Cover iii-iv: Extracts from letters received by Harriet Farley.  After reading the Offering, a Belgian woman observes, “Truly, the factory girls of America are an honor to the sex.”

Vol. 8, No. 1 (January 1850), p. 1-24
 

• Cover i: The New England Offering.  Harriet Farley, Editor and Publisher. Published at Lowell, 22 Appleton Block. S.J. Varney, Printer.  The cover is illustrated with an engraving of a mill girl holding a book and gazing at a beehive.  In the background are a factory, church, and schoolhouse.  This engraving was used on the covers of the 1845 Lowell Offering issues.
• Cover ii: “Amusements” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley recounts attending “a large party of the mill girls, at the boarding house which was almost a home to us.”  She also describes her “arrangements for the reception, and distribution of the Offering” in Lowell.  She comments on the Massachusetts School Committee’s Report for the year ending December 31, 1849.
• Facing p. 1: Engraving, “Massachusetts and Prescott Mills.”
• P. 1: “Lowell” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley cites statistics on Lowell manufactures, including average wages, etc.
• P. 2-4: “A Tale of California and Cholera” by “Ruth Rover,” Alton, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Regionalist fiction about the California gold rush.
• P. 4: “A Fragment” by Caroline M. Whitney, Chicopee, Massachusetts.  Ballad.  The speaker looks forward to “a far better world than is this.”
• P. 5-8: “Lights and Shades” by the Author of “Rights and Duties of Mill Girls,” Franklin, New Hampshire [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)].  Didactic domestic fiction.
• P. 8: “The Contented Shepherd Boy” by L.L. [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Ballad about the virtuous poor.  “They are not poor -- this vale supplies / Pearls that are worn in Paradise. ... / Oh! look upon this shepherd boy, / And learn the source of purest joy. / He, scorning wealth, and earth’s renown, / Strives only for a heavenly crown.”
• P. 9-10: “Leaves by the Way-Side” by “Grace Gayfeather,” Lowell [Harriot F. Curtis (n.m.)?].  Serial narrative of travels in New Hampshire.  The narrator visits Sanbornton Harbor, Lake Winnipesaukee, Red Hill, and Wolfeboro.
• P. 10: “The Green before the Door” by H.  Brief childhood reminiscence.
• P. 11-12: “A Few Outlines of the History of Washington” by L.M.T., Hopkinton, Rhode Island.  Biographical essay about George Washington.
• P. 12: “‘Let There Be Light’” by B*, Merrimack Corporation [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Religious ballad.
• P. 13-17: “Ermengarde of the Rhine, and the Diamond King. A German Tale” by H.F. [Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Serial gothic fiction.
• P. 17: “When the eagle’s wing droops . . .” by L. [Lura Currier (m. Augustus Whitney)].  Ballad stanza.
• P. 18-19: “Winter’s Dawn” by “Transcendental Sally,” Sara of Glen Viola [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)?].  Nature ballad.
• P. 19: “A Scene of Early Days” by H.  Autobiographical reminiscence.
• P. 20: “Burns” by J.L. Baker, Hooksett, New Hampshire [Josephine L. Baker (m. Pierce Porter)].  Ballad in praise of the Scottish poet Robert Burns.  A note explains that “Burns was a ploughman, was born in poverty, lived and died in poverty . . . yet the ploughman was as much superior to the king, as five guineas are to six shillings, and infinitely more so.”
• P. 20: “To Burns.”  Ballad stanza expressing appreciation for the Scottish poet Robert Burns.
• P. 21-24: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley addresses the subject of “Manners, or Minor Morals.”  In the “Book Table,” she notes nine recently published titles, including Old Portraits and Modern Sketches by John Greenleaf Whittier, Robert Browning’s Poems, and The Maiden & Married Life of Mary Powell, afterwards Mistress Milton by Anne Manning, which “has been the story of the past season.”
• Cover iii: Review of the magazine, Littell’s Living Age, and other miscellaneous notes.
• Cover iv: “Notice to Agents.”  Table of contents.  List of local agents, including Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father], and Eliza Jane Cate, Franklin, New Hampshire [n.m.].

Vol. 8, No. 2 (February 1850), p. 25-48
 

• Cover ii: “Our Exchanges” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley discusses recent issues of Sartain’s Magazine and The Union Banner (a temperance periodical from St. Louis).
• P. 25: “Mill Glen in Winter.”  Nature ballad composed in Scottish dialect.
• P. 26-28: “Leaves by the Way-Side” by “Grace Gayfeather,” Lowell [Harriot F. Curtis (n.m.)?].  Serial travel narrative set in New Hampshire.  The narrator visits Wolfeboro, Senter Harbor, Conway, Chocura [sic], Ossipee Lake, and Mount Kearsarge.
• P. 28: “Circumstances.”  Brief didactic essay.
• P. 29-31: “Aunt ‘Dear Soul’” by Betsey [Betsey Guppy (m. Josiah Chamberlain, Thomas Wright, Charles Boutwell, I.A. Horn)].  Regionalist sketch describing a poor widow living in a humble cottage on the outskirts of the narrator’s New Hampshire hometown.
• P. 31: “The Prayer” by H.P., Lawrence Corporation.  Religious ballad.
• P. 32-34: “Emma Weston, or the Mother’s Prayer” by L.E.L., Salmon Falls, New Hampshire [Levinda E. Leavitt].  Serial fiction about a widow’s daughter who leaves home to become a factory operative in order to support herself and her mother.
• P. 34: “Winter Is Here” by Caroline M. Whitney.  Nature ballad.
• P. 34: “Lines Addressed to My Album” by L.M.T.  Ballad.
• P. 35-38: “Ermengarde of the Rhine, and the Diamond King. A German Tale” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Serial gothic fiction.
• P. 38: “Nature” by E.A.N., Contoocook, New Hampshire.  Brief essay on the importance of nature appreciation.
• P. 39-40: “A Rain-Drop” by L.B.D., Hamilton Corporation.  Didactic essay narrated from a raindrop’s point-of-view.
• P. 40: “Good in All Things” by L. Larcom, Alton, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Religious ballad on the importance of hope and faith.
• P. 41-43: “The Antiquated Watch,” Choctaw Mission, Arkansas [Lydia Sears Hall (m. Isaiah Graffam) or Adaline H. Winship (m. David H. Winship)].  Narrative poem.
• P. 44-45: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Further commentary on “Manners, or Minor Morals.”  Didactic, religious essay.
• P. 46-48: “Book Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)]. Farley reviews Lectures and Essays by Rev. Henry Giles; A Letter to Ladies, in Favour of Female Physicians by Samuel Gregory; The Seventeenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester by George Chandler; The American Sentinel (periodical); and The American Artisan (periodical).
• Cover iii: “Our Exchanges” (continued from cover ii) [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Farley discusses recent issues of The Southern Literary Messenger, The Prisoner’s Friend, The Lady’s Book, and The Child’s Friend.  The constitution of the American Medical Education Society is reproduced.
• Cover iv: Notice to Agents, table of contents, and list of local agents, including Rev. Stephen Farley, Amesbury, Massachusetts [Harriet Farley’s father], and Eliza Jane Cate, Franklin, Massachusetts [n.m.].

Vol. 8, No. 3 (March 1850), p. 49-72
 

• Cover ii: The New England Offering, and Mill Girls’ Magazine, Written Entirely by Those Who Are or Have Been Factory Operatives.  The text of a “Letter from a Married Lady” stressing the importance of homemakers’ work is reproduced.
• Facing p. 49: Engraving, “Hagar in the Wilderness.”
• P. 49: “Similitudes. I. The Hidden Cascade” by L.L., Godfrey, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Brief essay about “[t]he poet’s fount of inspiration.”
• P. 50-53: “Reminiscences of a Manufacturing Village. Number I. Lucy Lee” by E.J.H., Georgia, March, 1850.  Autobiographical fiction set in the author’s hometown, a manufacturing village on the Merrimack River.  The heroine, Lucy Lee, begins working in the mills at age twelve.  She studies and labors with her friend, Eliza Jane Cate [n.m.], whose friendship she greatly values.  The narrator comments that “whatever Lucy Lee has of worth or merit within her, much of it she owes to this early intercourse” (52).  Eventually she becomes a teacher, an author, and a wife and mother.  In conclusion, the narrator advises readers, “Toil, my sisters; but think also.  Raise high your standard of moral and intellectual worth.  With energy and perseverance you will reach it at last” (53).
• P. 53: “Night and Its Stars” by L.Y., Lowell.  Nature ballad.
• P. 54: “Prairie Sleigh Ride” by L.L., Alton, Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Nature ballad.
• P. 54: “Earth Is Real but in Seeming” by “Transcendental Sally” [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)?].  Ballad.  Imperfect earthly experience contrasts with the heavenly “Ideal.”
• P. 55-57: “Ermengarde of the Rhine, and the Diamond King. A German Tale” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)].  Serial gothic fiction.
• P. 57: “O, just one verse . . .” Humorous ballad stanza.
• P. 58-59: “No” by Adelaide [Lydia Sears Hall (m. Isaiah Graffam)].  Ballad considering the importance of the word “no.”  Reprinted from the Series 1, No. 3 (February 1841) issue of the Lowell Offering.
• P. 59: “A coquette is Winter . . .”  Humorous ballad stanza.
• P. 60-63: “Letters. Letter the First. Mrs. Field to Anna Taylor” by Emma Jane Clement [Eliza Jane Cate (n.m.)?].  Epistolary domestic fiction.
• P. 63: “Passing Away” by L.Y., Lowell.  Brief essay about the impermanence of earthly things.
• P. 64: “Hagar in the Wilderness.”  Religious poem.
• P. 64: “The Bereaved” by Caroline M. Whitney, South Adams, Massachusetts.  Ballad about a woman bereaved many times.
• P. 65-66: “Aunt Hannah” by “Ruth Rover,” Monticello Sem., Illinois [Lucy Larcom (n.m.)].  Biographical sketch.
• P. 66: “Progress” by M.R. Green, Haverhill, Massachusetts, July, 1849 [Miriam R. Green (divorced from Cromwell Kimball)].  Satiric ballad about reformers.
• P. 67: “Elegiac Lines. Suggested by Seeing the Hearse Pass, Conveying Home the Remains of ‘Miss Caroline E. Hunt,’ of Kilmarnock, Who Died at Old Town, Sept. 22, 1840” by Emma, Orono, Maine, September 23.  Elegiac ballad.
• P. 67: “’Tis said love goes . . .”  Ballad stanza.
• P. 68-72: “Editor’s Table” [by Harriet Farley (m. John I. Donlevy)]. Under the heading “Manners, or Minor Morals,” Farley addresses quarreling, forgiveness, and the Golden Rule.  In the “Book Table” section, Farley discusses a recent issue of The Yankee Blade, in which appears “a story, written by Alice Linwood of Lowell” and in which is announced another story “by a late Lowell editor.”  She considers at length Linwood’s Indian tale, revealing some of her own early writing experience.  Recent issues of The Child’s Friend and Littell’s Living Age are briefly reviewed.
• Cover iii: Continuation from cover ii of letters received by Farley.  The titles of written contributions for the next New England Offering issue are listed.
• Cover iv: Miscellaneous notes by Harriet Farley [m. John I. Donlevy].  Table of contents.  List of local agents, including Rev. Stephen Farley [Harriet Farley’s father] and Eliza Jane Cate [n.m.].