Robinson, Harriet Jane Hanson, 1825-1911

Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson was an author (Loom and Spindle, 1898, etc.), women's suffrage leader, anti-slavery movement supporter, and promoter of women's clubs. She began working in a Lowell mill at the age of 10, and wrote for the Lowell Offering, where one of her poems caught the attention of William Stevens Robinson, an editor at the Lowell Courier. They were married in 1848. For further information see Notable American Women (1971).

Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson (1825-1911) was a former mill girl who wrote on factory labor and mill girls and worked to advance women's rights. In 1881 she wrote a history of "Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement" and was affiliated with Susan B. Anthony's National Woman's Suffrage Association. She was active in promoting women's clubs.

Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson was an author, (Loom and Spindle, 1898, etc.), women's suffrage leader, anti-slavery movement supporter, and promoter of women's clubs. She began working in a Lowell mill at the age of 10. For further information see Notable American Women (1971).

Harriette Lucy Robinson Shattuck, the oldest child of Harriet and William Stevens Robinson, helped her mother organize the National Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts, and was active in the founding of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and other organizations.

Harriet Jane Hanson was born February 8, 1825 in Boston, the only daughter of William Hanson and Harriet (Browne) Hanson. After her father's death in 1831 Harriet moved with her mother to the mill town of Lowell, Mass. and at the age of ten began working in one of the mills. It was during this time that she began writing; some of this early work was published in the Lowell Offering. In 1848 she married William Stevens Robinson, an anti-slavery newspaper editor who used the pen-name "Warrington." Besides helping her husband with his anti-slavery and reform activities, Harriet Robinson became active in the advancement of women's rights. In 1881 she wrote a history of Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement and openly affiliated with Susan B. Anthony's National Woman Suffrage Association. She also continued to write about factory labor and mill girls ("Early Factory Labor in New England," 1889; Loom and Spindle, 1898) and was an enthusiastic promoter of women's clubs. She died at her home in Malden, Mass. December 22, 1911.

Harriette Robinson Shattuck, the first of William and Harriet (Hanson) Robinson's four children, was born December 4, 1850. Beginning in the 1860's she was active in the woman suffrage movement, later helping her mother organize the National Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts. In 1878 she married Sidney Doane Shattuck. Mrs. Shattuck also shared her mother's interest in women's clubs: in 1878 she helped found the "Old and New," a woman's club of Malden, Mass., and she was active in the formation of the General Federation of Women's Clubs in 1890. After her mother's death Mrs. Shattuck moved with her husband to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., later returning to Malden. She died March 24, 1937.

The Harriet Robinson papers include a large body of her family correspondence with her children, her husband, and other family members. Other correspondents include: Lucy Larcom, several Lowell mill girls, and suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone. Annual diaries, dating from 1852 to 1908 with some gaps, and scrapbooks number over seventy volumes and contain early writings (published and unpublished), Lowell mill girl material, and newsclippings dealing primarily with women and suffrage. Seven of the scrapbooks were kept by Harriette Robinson Shattuck, except that the first of them was begun for her by her mother.