Moral Pieces: In Prose and Verse, 1815

The first book of poetry by a writer hailed in her own time as “the female Milton,” and who became one of the first American women to achieve a successful and lucrative literary career. “From seemingly humble beginnings -- she was born in Norwich, Connecticut where her father was a hired man in the household of a well-to-do Norwich widow -- Lydia parlayed her opportunities and talents into a successful career as a writer of both essays and poetry” (Grolier Club Emerging Voices). Despite her family’s economic hardships, Huntley was the beneficiary of a rigorous education, having been sent to private school by her father’s employer; and she served as a headmistress and principal of a school for girls after her graduation. It was at this time that Huntley began composing her own work, of which Moral Pieces was the first. Its positive reception gave her further encouragement to “devote herself full time to writing...[and] she used the proceeds of her writing to contribute to charitable causes” (Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame). Setting the tone for her later work, Huntley’s Moral Pieces emphasized the importance of hard work, the commitment to one’s duty, and the qualities of a good life and death. The earliest work that established the career of one of America’s first professional female authors.

The establishment of deaf education in the United States has traditionally been seen as the heroic act of one inspired hearing man, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, in Hartford, Connecticut. However, before Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc enrolled their first pupil, Alice Cogswell, in 1817, at what is now known as the American School for the Deaf, Lydia Huntley (Sigourney), under the patronage of the wealthy Daniel Wadsworth and with the support of both of Alice's parents, had taught this deaf girl to read and write English. Sigourney maintained lifelong contacts with the school and its pupils after her own retirement from teaching.