Submitted by kamonk18 on Mon, 04/08/2019 - 15:25

Louis Gilman Loring (1797-1868) appears in the diary by donating money to The Home. Hopper reports that:

“Miss Loring of Boston made a donation of five dollars to the Home which handed to the Treasure of the Female department.”

The donation shows Loring’s support for Prison reform, in general, and the rehabilitation of incarcerated women in particular.

Louisa Gilman Loring was the wife of the famous Massachusetts lawyer and abolitionist, Ellis Grey Loring. After their marriage in 1827, their home was filled with abolitionist meetings and activities. Loring was a good friend of Hopper's biographer, Lydia Maria Child.

In The First Woman in the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child, author Carolyn L. Karcher explores Loring and Child’s life-long friendship. Both Childs and Loring made abolitionist and feminist strides together. For example, Loring was a possible reference in Lydia Maria Child’s, The Mothers Book. Another initiative they undertook together was organizing a Christmas fundraiser fair for the the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. Their fundraiser raised $300 (218). Lydia Maria Child and Loring's relationship even extended to Child and her husband, David,  living with the Lorings for some time during 1838 or 1839 (249). 

Sources:

Gougeon, Len. "1838: Ellis Gray Loring and a Journal for the Times."Studies in the American Renaissance, 1990, 33-47.      http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 30227587.

Karcher, Carolyn L. The First Woman in the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child. N.p.: Duke University Press, 1994.

Massachusetts Historical Society Editors, ed. "Louisa Gilman Loring (Mrs. Ellis Gray Loring)." Massachusetts Historical Society.  Accessed April 8, 2019.

Note Type
Image
Mrs. Ellis Gray Loring

A portrait of Louisa Gilman Loring by William Page around 1844 - 1849

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Diary References