Cynthia May Westover Alden (May 31, 1862 – January 8, 1931), also known as Cynthia W. Alden and Cynthia M. Westover, was an American journalist, author, inventor, and New York City municipal employee.

Early life and education

She was born in

Afton, Iowa Afton is a city in Union County, Iowa The population was 874 at the time of the 2020 census. Its peak of population was in 1880, at 1,231 residents, when numerous European immigrants and migrants from the eastern United States settled here for the ...

, the daughter of Oliver S. Westover and Lucilda (Lewis) Westover. She was the grand-daughter of Alexander Campbell, a leader of the

Campbellite Campbellite is a mildly pejorative term referring to adherents of certain religious groups that have historic roots in the Restoration Movement, among whose most prominent 19th-century leaders were Thomas Campbell (clergyman), Thomas and Alexander C ...

religious reform movement. Her mother died when she was very young, and during her childhood she often accompanied her father, a geologist and miner, on prospecting expeditions throughout the American west. The second of her three books, ''Bushy'' (1896), was based on these childhood experiences. She graduated from

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

with a teaching degree and also studied at the Denver Business College.

Municipal employment

Alden moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1882 to further her musical education in hopes of becoming an opera singer; she later sang as a soloist in church choirs. In 1887 she was appointed a New York inspector of customs, in which position she was involved in the seizure of smuggled goods. She learned French, German, Italian, and Spanish in order to communicate better with people she came in contact with through her job. Beginning in 1890, Alden worked for two years as secretary to the New York City Commissioner of Street Cleaning. During this period, she invented a street-cleaners' cart, to make life easier for the street sweepers and for their horses, which at that time had to pull heavy wagons. The cart was small enough for the sweepers to handle themselves, and it had a self-dumping feature so that it could be emptied directly onto the trash barges, bypassing the horse-drawn wagons. For this invention, the Parisian Academy of Inventors awarded Alden a gold medal and made her an honorary member. For a time she was also employed at the

New York Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

but left this job to take up journalism.

Journalism and Sunshine Society

Alden entered journalism in 1894 as editor of the woman's department at the ''New York Recorder''. In 1897 she moved to the ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

'', where she held the same position. During her three years with the ''Tribune'', she planned and founded the International Sunshine Society, serving as its president-general for the rest of her life. It started with Alden's practice of sending Christmas cards and gifts to shut-ins, and she slowly expanded it, first to her circle of fellow writers, and later to a membership that peaked at half a million. The focus also shifted to establishing institutions to serve the blind, funded mainly by donations from members as there were no membership dues. The Sunshine Society set up a sanatorium in

Bensonhurst Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd ...

for blind children in 1902 (which became Harbor Hospital fifteen years later), a nursery and kindergarten for blind children in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

(1905), and the Sunshine Arthur Home for blind babies in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...

(1910). It later opened homes for the elderly and operated schools for orphans, lunchrooms for working women, libraries, and summer camps. The society also championed legislation in aid of the blind in a total of 18 states. In 1899, Alden accepted a position on the editorial staff of the ''

Ladies' Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...

'', continuing there until 1909. Although the journal was based in the Midwest, she continued to reside in New York City, where she died.

Publications

* ''Manhattan: Historic and Artistic'' (1892, with Carolyn Faville Ober) * ''Bushy: A Romance Founded on Fact'' (1896, illustrated by J.A. Walker) * ''The First Book of Song and Story'' (1903, introduction only) * ''The Ways of Earning Money: A Book for Women'' (1904) * ''The Baby Blind'' (1915)

Personal life

In 1896 she married John Alden, who would later become the editor of the ''

Brooklyn Eagle :''This article covers both the historical newspaper (1841–1955, 1960–1963), as well as an unrelated new Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting 1996 published currently'' The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''King ...

''. Their house was only 8 feet wide and became known as "the littlest house in Brooklyn". Following her death and cremation, John placed her ashes at the foot of a tree planted in her honor in New York's Central Park.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alden, Cynthia May 1862 births 1931 deaths Editors of New York City newspapers New-York Tribune personnel People from Manhattan People from Union County, Iowa University of Colorado alumni American women journalists Journalists from New York City Women newspaper editors Writers from Brooklyn