Mary Hazelton Blanchard Wade

Born Mary Hazelton Blanchard in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on March 23, 1860, she was educated in Malden and later studied with private tutors. She began her working life as a teacher in 1877 and married Louis Francis Wade in 1882.

She went on to become a notably productive writer, especially for children. Many of her best-known books were part of the Our Little Cousin series, alongside titles about historical figures and American history, including books on George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Benjamin Franklin.

Today, she is remembered as a writer who blended storytelling with education. Because much of her work aimed to explain other countries and cultures to young American readers of her time, modern readers may also see it as a window into the attitudes and teaching styles of the early 1900s.