Kate Douglas Wiggin

Kate Douglas Wiggin (September 28, 1856 - August 24, 1923) was an educator, author, and composer from the United States. She composed collections of children's songs and penned children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. In 1878, she established the first free kindergarten in San Francisco (the Silver Street Free Kindergarten). During the 1880s, she co-founded a kindergarten teacher training school with her sister. Kate Wiggin dedicated her adult...See more

Kate Douglas Wiggin (September 28, 1856 - August 24, 1923) was an educator, author, and composer from the United States. She composed collections of children's songs and penned children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. In 1878, she established the first free kindergarten in San Francisco (the Silver Street Free Kindergarten). During the 1880s, she co-founded a kindergarten teacher training school with her sister. Kate Wiggin dedicated her adult life to the welfare of children during a time when children were widely regarded as cheap labor. Wiggin traveled to California to research kindergarten practices. She began teaching in San Francisco with the help of her sister Nora, and the two were influential in the construction of over 60 underprivileged kindergartens in San Francisco and Oakland. She relocated from California to New York and, without kindergarten experience, devoted herself to literature. She sent The Story of Patsy and The Bird's Christmas Carol to Houghton, Mifflin, who immediately accepted both. Aside from her storytelling ability, she was a musician who sang well and produced arrangements for her poems. See less