Anna Green Winslow

Born on November 29, 1759, into the prominent Winslow family of Boston, she is remembered for the letters she wrote to her mother between 1771 and 1773. In them, she described school, fashion, social visits, manners, and family life with unusual detail and a lively, observant voice.

Those letters have become an important firsthand record of elite life in Boston on the eve of the American Revolution. What makes them especially engaging is their mix of youthful personality and careful attention to the world around her, from small daily routines to the larger tensions of the time.

She died young, on July 19, 1780, but her writing has endured as a rare and intimate window into colonial America. Readers today often discover in her work not just historical detail, but the unmistakable presence of a real, curious, and expressive young person.