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Louisa May Alcott is born
Louisa was born in Germantown (now a part of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania. -
Alcott moves to Boston
Alcott and her family move to Boston, Massachusetts, a setting that would inspire the New England setting of Little Women. -
Alcott moves again
Alcott and her family move again, this time to Concord, Massachusetts. -
Samuel Morse sends first telegraph message
Video on Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail This new way of communication was invented just twelve years after Alcott was born. Technology brought about a change in America that would have, no doubt, affected Alcott's life. -
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Mexican-American War
Compilated Pictures of Mexican-American War In her youth, Alcott would have heard about the war going on in the South West. Themes of war recurr in her major works including Little Women and Hospital Sketches. -
Declaration of Sentiments
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a well known feminist writer, together with 67 other women and 32 men came together to sign this document at Seneca Falls, New York. There were 300 people in attendance, and this convention came together to discuss and promote the rights of women. Alcott was an advocate for women's rights. -
Flower Fables published
Flower Fables was written for Ellen Emerson, daughter of Alcott's neighbor and idol Ralph Waldo Emerson. -
Alcott begins Little Women
PBS's segment on AlcottAt the age of 24, Alcott begins to write Little Women after being asked to write a "book for girls" by her publisher. -
Abraham Lincoln inagaurated into office
Lincoln is best known for his involvement in the Civil War and the Great Emancipation Proclamation. Issues of equality would have been present in Alcott's mind throughout her lifetime. -
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American Civil War
Little Women is set in New England during the American Civil War. Alcott would have been using her own life experiences and understandings of this war during her lifetime to include this in her novels. -
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Alcott enlists as nurse during Civil War
*Exact dates unknown
"I became an Abolitionist at an early age but have never been able to decide whether I was made so by seeing the portrait of George Thompson hidden under a bed in our house during the Garrison riot . . . or because I was saved from drowning in the Frog Pond some years later by a colored boy. However that may be, the conversion was genuine; and my greatest pride is in the fact that I lived to know the brave men and women who did so much for the cause..." -
First of Hopsital Sketches published
Based on her time as a nurse during the war, Alcott published letters that she sent home from her post as a nurse in Washington, DC during the Civil War. -
Little Women published
At the age of 36, Alcott publishes Little Women. -
Territory of Wyoming passes first women's suffrace law
This would have been a huge achievement for Alcott and her contemporaries. A year later, women were serving in juries in the territory of Wyoming. -
Alcott dies
Two days after her father dies, Alcott dies and is buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetary in Concord, Massachusetts.
