author

G. Ellingwood (Grace Ellingwood) Rich

1872–1959

Best known for lively early-20th-century craft books for children, this American writer and art teacher turned ordinary household materials into invitations to play, build, and imagine. Her work has stayed appealing because it treats making things by hand as both practical and joyful.

1 Audiobook

When mother lets us make paper box furniture : A book which shows children just how to make most attractive toy furniture out of materials which cost practically nothing--toys which give as much pleasure as those from expensive toy shops

When mother lets us make paper box furniture : A book which shows children just how to make most attractive toy furniture out of materials which cost practically nothing--toys which give as much pleasure as those from expensive toy shops

by G. Ellingwood (Grace Ellingwood) Rich

About the author

Born in 1872, Grace Ellingwood Rich wrote under the name G. Ellingwood Rich. Library and public-domain records connect her with children's how-to books including When Mother Lets Us Make Paper Box Furniture and When Mother Lets Us Make Toys, works that taught children to create playthings from simple, inexpensive materials.

A SUNY Oswego page for Rich Hall identifies her as a graduate of the class of 1895 who went on to teach art, which fits neatly with the clear, instructive, visual style of her books. Her writing reflects an era that valued hands-on learning, thrift, and imaginative play, and she presented craft-making as something children could approach with confidence.

Rich died in 1959. Although she is not widely known today, her books have endured through library collections and Project Gutenberg, where modern readers can still find her practical, cheerful approach to making toys and miniature furniture by hand.