Dr. Darla Shaw portrays editor, journalist, and publisher Abigail Goodrich Whittlesey who founded The Mother’s Magazine in the 1830s. She grew up in Ridgefield and was the daughter of Reverend Samuel Goodrich and the sister of prolific children’s author Samuel Goodrich (Jr.) also known as Peter Parley. Abigail attended the West Lane Schoolhouse until the eighth grade and then studied at Sarah Pierce’s Litchfield Female Academy. She became a teacher and taught school in the Finger Lakes of New York where she met her husband. She had seven children and, given all of her experience as a mother and a teacher, Abigail created and published the first resource for women and parents.






