Alice Morse Earle

Born Mary Alice Morse in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1851, she later became known as Alice Morse Earle after her marriage to Henry Earle. She began publishing in the 1890s and became widely known for writing about the everyday life, customs, and material culture of colonial New England and early America.

Her best-known books include Customs and Fashions in Old New England, Home Life in Colonial Days, Colonial Dames and Good Wives, and Old Time Gardens. Rather than focusing mainly on presidents or battles, she wrote about domestic life, clothing, food, children, holidays, and household traditions, helping readers imagine how ordinary people once lived.

Earle died in 1911 after injuries from a carriage accident in Egypt. Her work reflects the interests and attitudes of her era, but it also helped preserve a huge amount of historical detail that later readers and researchers have continued to find useful.