My Mother's Grave
Description:
A girl is sitting on a large grave in a cemetery, looking down. Behind her a large tree is depicted, a few tombstones, and a church. From beyond a fence bordering one side of the churchyard, a woman observes a child.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Location:
Accession Number:
PZ 6. C5 1834.
Height (in centimeters):
6
Width (in centimeters):
7
Marks Description
Beneath the drawing a poem is written out, followed by the initials L.H.S: "I had a mother once like you/ who o’er my pillow hung/ kissed from my cheek the briny dew/ and taught my faltering tongue. / But then there came a fearful day/ I sought my mother’s bed/ till harsh hands bore me thence away/ and told me she was dead."Edition and State
UnknownPrinting Context
"The Children In The Wood," to which is added "My Mother’s Grave," a pathetic story. Juvenile Books, New York, Mahlon Day, 374 Pearl Street.Associated Places
The Juvenile Books was a publishing house in New York. In their preface to the story "The Children in the Wood," they claim that the story was first printed in England and then reprinted many times in both England the United States. The poem following the frontispiece and preceding the story "My Mother’s Grave" was written by the American author Sigourney Lydia Howard Huntley; whether the story was originally authored by Huntley as well is difficult to verify, since the same story appears under different titles in several bibliographies. It might, however, be a version of one her numerous stories about abandoned children.Associated Texts
This image is a frontispiece for the story "My Mother’s Grave," which appeared as an addition to a longer story in the same booklet, "The Children in the Wood." The frontispiece is a very detailed etching, as evidenced by the attention paid to the texture of the tree leaves and the ornaments embellishing the church. Beneath the drawing there is a poem, followed by the initials L.H.S:I had a mother once like you
Who o’er my pillow hung
Kissed from my cheek the briny dew
And taught my faltering tongue.But then there came a fearful day
I sought my mother’s bed
Till harsh hands bore me thence away
And told me she was dead.
Subject
This image, a frontispiece for the children's story "My Mother's Grave," shows how the American sentimental writer Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney uses the concept of death in children's literature.Theme
The image depicts the setting of the story. A young woman, coming home to her native village after an absence of thirteen years, tells the story of the night her mother died.Significance
As stated in the preface, "The Children in the Woods" was a popular children’s story at the time. The booklet contains two moral stories for children accompanied by several illustrations. These images include depictions of the many violent and cruel scenes in the text. James Najarian (quoting Judith Plotz, who has written on Romanticism and the evocation of childhood) points out that contemporary works by authors like Maria Edgeworth and Anna Barbauld posit the common belief (of the time) that childhood is continuous with adulthood, "not separate from it" (J. Najarian, “Romanticisms, Histories, and Romantic Cultures” 146). This statement seems to strengthen the argument of this gallery: that the theme of death was used as a marketing device by publishers. If children were treated like adults, they may have been interested in and lured by the same topics; furthermore, publishers would have been marketing children's books with adult parents in mind as well.Function
Unlike story illustrations in general, which appear only rarely in contemporary fictional texts (though they may reappear slowly in an abstract form—think of W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz, for one popular example), illustrations in children’s books have survived. Their basic function is to illustrate the plot and encourage children’s imagination.Bibliography
Blanck Jacob (ed.), later volumes edited and completed by Virginia L. Smyers and Michael Winship.Long Title
The children in the wood : to which is added My mother’s grave, a pathetic story, Sometimes attributed to Clara English, Frontispiece to "My mother’s grave" has poem beginning "I had a mother once like you" by Lydia Sigourney, Cover and title page vignettes, Publisher’s advertisement on back cover, First and last leaves pasted to covers, Two verses titled "The lamb" and "The flowers" on p. 23, New York, Printed and sold by Mahlon Day, 1834, 23 p., ill., 14 cm. Special Collections, University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial LibraryArtist Unknown
Image Date:
1834
