Abigail Goodrich Whittelsey

Abigail Goodrich Whittelsey (born Nov. 29, 1788, Ridgefield, Conn., U.S.—died July 16, 1858, Colchester, Conn.) was an American editor whose mission in her magazine work was to provide information and instruction on the role of mothers.

Abigail Goodrich was the daughter of a clergyman and was an elder sister of Samuel Griswold Goodrich, later famous as Peter Parley, author of scores of books for children. Goodrich received some formal education in local schools. In 1808 she married the Reverend Samuel Whittelsey, and from 1824 to 1828 they lived in Canandaigua, New York, where she served as matron of the Ontario Female Seminary, headed by her husband. The couple moved to Utica, New York, where they established their own girls’ seminary in 1828.

Whittelsey became active in the Maternal Association of Utica and was chosen to edit its new periodical, the Mother’s Magazine, which first appeared in January 1833. Aimed at educating mothers about their responsibilities and potentialities, the magazine quickly proved a success. It was transferred to New York City in 1834 when the Whittelseys moved there, and she continued to edit it (with one absence in 1847–48) until 1849. The circulation of the Mother’s Magazine reached 10,000 in 1837.

After her husband’s death in 1842, Whittelsey was assisted by a brother-in-law, the Reverend Darius Mead, editor of the Christian Parlor Magazine. Soon after a new proprietor merged the Mother’s Magazine with the rival Mother’s Journal and Family Visitant in 1848, Whittelsey resigned. In 1850 she launched Mrs. Whittelsey’s Magazine for Mothers, which she kept up, with the aid of her son Henry, for two years.