Caroline Sturgis Tappan (August 30, 1818 – October 20, 1888), commonly known as Caroline Sturgis, or "Cary" Sturgis, was an American Transcendentalist poet and artist. She is particularly known for her friendships and frequent correspondences with prominent American Transcendentalists, such as

Margaret Fuller Sarah Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movemen ...

and

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

. Sturgis published 25 poems in four different volumes of ''

The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...

'', a Transcendental periodical. She also wrote and illustrated two books for children, ''Rainbows for Children'' (1847) and ''The Magician’s Show Box, and Other Stories'' (1856).

Biography

Caroline Sturgis was born in Boston, Massachusetts to the former Elizabeth Marsten Davis Sturgis, the second daughter of John Davis, a U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts, and

William Sturgis William Sturgis (February 25, 1782 – October 21, 1863) was a Boston merchant in the China trade, the California hide trade and the maritime fur trade. Early life Sturgis was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, to Hannah Mills and William ...

, a former sea captain who rose to become one of the wealthiest and most successful merchants in Boston. Caroline Sturgis was a middle child among six children, including William Watson (1810-1827), Ellen (1812-1848), Anne (1813-1884), Caroline (1818-1888), Mary Louisa (1820-1870), and Susan (1825-1853).Sturgis family Bible, Sturgis Papers, Sturgis Library, Barnstable. William Watson, first-born son and his father's beloved namesake, was killed at sixteen in a boating accident of the coast of

Provincetown Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Province ...

in 1827, when the boom of the boat suddenly gibed, hitting him in the head. William and Elizabeth lived separately for a period after the accident, and although Elizabeth eventually returned to live with her husband, the family never recovered from this tragedy. As a girl, she attended

Bronson Alcott Amos Bronson Alcott (; November 29, 1799 – March 4, 1888) was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and a ...

's Temple School,

Dorothy Dix Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (November 18, 1861 – December 16, 1951), widely known by the pen name Dorothy Dix, was an American journalist and columnist. As the forerunner of today's popular advice columnists, Dix was America's highest paid ...

's school for girls, and became

's private student, and she participated in Fuller's Conversations series with her sister Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1812-1848). Margaret Fuller formally introduced Sturgis to

in the winter of 1837, during his course of lectures on Human Culture at Boston's Masonic Temple. Emerson knew her father from his time working as a minister in Boston and in previous visits to the Sturgis family, so he likely knew Caroline Sturgis when she was a child. Emerson and his then fiancée Lydia Jackson were honored at a party at the Sturgis home on March 5, 1835, following Emerson's lecture on Burke at Boston's Masonic Temple, the sixth in his series on biography given for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The friendship between Emerson and Sturgis grew following her sojourn with the Emersons at their house in Concord, Massachusetts, in June 1839, a visit that was followed by many others. Their correspondence extended their face to face conversations on philosophy and literature, including on such works as

Bettina von Arnim Bettina von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim) (4 April 178520 January 1859), born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist. Bettina (or Bettine) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual art ...

's ''Goethe's Correspondence with a Child''. Sturgis spent the summer of 1845 boarding at

The Old Manse The Old Manse is a historic manse in Concord, Massachusetts, United States, notable for its literary associations. It is open to the public as a nonprofit museum owned and operated by the Trustees of Reservations. The house is located on Monume ...

while

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

and Sophia Peabody lived there, and remained friends with the Hawthornes. This friendship later became strained when the Hawthornes rented the little red house on the Sturgis’ property in the Berkshires. She had purchased this former farm with her husband in 1849, eventually building a stick-style cottage on the land in 1865.Jackson, Jr., Richard S. and Cornelia Brooke Gilder (2006). ''The Houses of the Berkshires, 1870-1930.'' New York: Acanthus Press, p. 28-30. Sturgis named this estate “Tanglewood,” the name that Hawthorne eventually used for his short story collection ''

Tanglewood Tales ''Tanglewood Tales for Boys and Girls'' (1853) is a book by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, a sequel to ''A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys''. It is a re-writing of well-known Greek myths in a volume for children. Overview The book includes t ...

'' (1853), written while in residence in the little red house. In 1847, Sturgis married William Aspinwall Tappan, son of abolitionist

Lewis Tappan Lewis Tappan (May 23, 1788 – June 21, 1873) was a New York abolitionist who worked to achieve freedom for the enslaved Africans aboard the '' Amistad''. Tappan was also among the founders of the American Missionary Association in 1846, which b ...

and Susanna Aspinwall, and they had two daughters, Ellen Sturgis Tappan Dixey (b. 1849) and Mary Aspinwall Tappan (1851-1941). Mary, with her niece Rosamund Dixey Brooks Hepburn (1887-1948), later donated the family summer home,

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...

, in the

Berkshires The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...

to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Portrait of Caroline Sturgis Tappan

Writings and influence

Sturgis began her intellectual career as Margaret Fuller's student, and later became her primary confidante. Together they traveled to secluded destinations to write, draw, and think. Sturgis was a catalyst for many of Fuller's ideas about art, women, mysticism, and more. Both women loved one another in a romantic friendship similar to what

Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Carroll Smith-Rosenberg is an American academic and author who is the Mary Frances Berry Collegiate Professor of History, American Culture, and Women's Studies, Emerita, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Smith-Rosenberg is known for her ...

describes in “The Female World of Love and Ritual.” Sturgis joined Fuller for her extended stay at Fishkill Landing, New York from October through November 1844, during which time Fuller turned her 1843 ''Dial'' essay “The Great Lawsuit. Man versus Men. Woman versus Women” into her important feminist work ''

Woman in the Nineteenth Century ''Woman in the Nineteenth Century'' is a book by American journalist, editor, and women's rights advocate Margaret Fuller. Originally published in July 1843 in ''The Dial'' magazine as "The Great Lawsuit. Man versus Men. Woman versus Women", it w ...

'' (1845). Many of Sturgis's poems and stories contain natural, spiritual, and musical themes. In 1847, she published ''Rainbows for Children'', an illustrated collection of nine stories for children featuring young female protagonists. In 1856, she published a second illustrated collection of seven stories for children, ''The Magician’s Show Box, and Other Stories''. Bowing to the dictates of her class and its restrictions on gender, Sturgis did not reveal her authorship of these two books, attributing them instead to her friend Lydia Maria Child. Recent research has shown that Sturgis had a greater influence on Transcendentalist thought than previously acknowledged, particularly on Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose journals and poems provide evidence of his deep respect for her.

References

External links

Selected poems by Caroline Sturgis Tappan
*
Rainbows for Children
' by Caroline Sturgis Tappan *
The Magician’s Show Box, and Other Stories
' by Caroline Sturgis Tapppan (attributed to Lydia Maria Child) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tappan, Caroline Sturgis 1819 births 1888 deaths American women poets Sturgis family