Kate Douglas Wiggin
1856 – 1923
American educator, author, and composer of children’s songs, famous for the children’s classic Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Background – Biographical Information & Connection to Maine
Virtual Visit – Visit Quillcote – Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Historic Home (4)
Wiggin named her home Quillcote which means “House of the Pen” (5)
Click above to see what Wiggin’s home looks like today through this visit with the current owner (25) PDF copy
A vintage postcard of Kate Douglas Wiggin’s house in Hollis, Maine (6)
“Kate Douglas Wiggin: Her Personality, Ways of work, and some of her books…” Article published in the New York Times April 5, 1902 (7)
Like her famous character Rebecca, Wiggin liked to be a bit, well, showy (8)
Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Writings
“Shirley Temple did a lot to make Rebecca famous when she won the world’s heart in the movie we all remember. But the story is more than Temple, the film, or our memory of it: this is the tale of the little showgirl who, sent to the country to live with prim and proper relatives, is forbidden to do anything, well, showy. But Rebecca has other ideas, of course, and you know she’ll win over the hearts and minds of everyone who’ll see her show…” -Goodreads (9)
Wiggin once wrote this inscription inside a copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm she donated to the Maine State Library: “Yours by way of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, all Maine, from head to foot!” (10)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903) – 1st Chapter – “We Are Seven” (11)
Visual Text: What made Rebecca such an endearing character, with the book adapted to Broadway and 3 movies? (12, 13 & 14)
Click here to read Kate Douglas Wiggin’s account of her experience sitting with her idol Charles Dickens on a train bound for Boston in 1868 when she was 11. Dickens was touring America giving readings from his novels (15) Photo credit (16)
Click here to read the article Kate Douglas Wiggin, 11, Charms Charles Dickens, 56 at the New England Historical Society (17)
Letter from Jack London to Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1904 in which London says Rebecca “won my heart” (18)
Reading: “The Rights of the Child” & “What Shall Children Read”
2 Essays in Kate Douglas Wiggin’s book Children’s Rights: A Book of Nursery Logic published in 1893 (Wiggin was a pioneer in the kindergarten movement in the United States and a champion of children). (19)
Reading: The “Introduction” by Kate Douglas Wiggin from Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know, Edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin and published in 1909. (20)
Kate Douglas Wiggin Obituary – The Victoria Daily Times (21)
Kate Douglas Wiggin Obituary – The Star-Gazette (22)
Find-a-Grave Cemetery Record for Kate Douglas Wiggin (23)
If you’d like more to explore…
Read about Kate Douglas Wiggin’s groundbreaking contribution to the development of the first free Kindergartens in California (24)
(hint: Use Control+F or Command+F to find all of the 29 references to Wiggin)
Photo Credits and Sources used from top to bottom of page:
1. Portrait of Kate Douglas Wiggin: https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/author-biography/wiggin-kate-douglas/
2. https://quotefancy.com/quote/1530521/Kate-Douglas-Wiggin-There-is-a-kind-of-magicness-about-going-far-away-and-then-coming
4. https://mainehomes.com/writers-retreat/
5. https://mainehomes.com/writers-retreat/
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Douglas_Wiggin
7. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/04/05/101945461.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
8. https://alchetron.com/Kate-Douglas-Wiggin
9. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17529.Rebecca_of_Sunnybrook_Farm
10. https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1827&context=maine_writers_correspondence
11. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/498/498-h/498-h.htm#chap01
12. https://www.posthypnoticpress.com/product/rebecca-of-sunnybrook-farm
13. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/493496071645073437/?nic_v1=1ahLUntkXScwVTI67x3VP4j%2Bh9Bx3XyIaQC%2B0LaD1ep4%2BGdG3Qhg%2BiR5%2B5vbArQ2jH
14. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rebecca_of_Sunnybrook_Farm.jpg
15. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Child%27s_Journey_with_Dickens
16. http://otago.ourheritage.ac.nz/items/show/7179
17. https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/kate-douglas-wiggin-11-charms-charles-dickens-56/
18. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27746963?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents
19. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10335/pg10335-images.html
20. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19461/19461-h/19461-h.htm
21. http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/bhslibrary/files/2020/04/WigginObituary-2.pdf
22. http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/bhslibrary/files/2020/04/Wiggin-obituary1.pdf
23. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4145/kate-douglas-wiggin
24. http://www.californiakindergartenassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Patricia-deCos.pdf
25. https://mainehomes.com/kate-douglas-wiggin-house-restoration/
