SOURCE: “Lydia H. Sigourney,” in Eminent Women of the Age; Being Narratives of the Lives and Deeds of the Most Prominent Women of the Present Generation, by James Parton et al., S. M. Betts & Company, 1869, pp. 85-101.

In the following essay, Huntington briefly sketches Sigourney's life in an effort to account for her widespread popularity.

Were any intelligent American citizen now asked to name the American woman, who, for a quarter of a century before 1855, held a higher place in the respect and affections of the American people than any other woman of the times had secured, it can hardly be questioned that the prompt reply would be, Mrs. Lydia Huntley Sigourney.

And this would be the answer, not simply on the ground of her varied and extensive learning; nor on that of her acknowledged poetic gifts; nor on that of her voluminous contributions to our current literature...