Lamb, Martha J.R. (1826–1893)
Lamb, Martha J.R. (1826–1893)
American historian. Born Martha Joanna Reade Nash at Plainfield, Massachusetts, on August 13, 1826; died in New York City on January 2, 1893; attended schools in Goshen, Easthampton, and Northampton, Massachusetts; married Charles A. Lamb, in September 1852 (possibly divorced 1866).
After her marriage in 1852, Martha Lamb moved to Chicago with her husband. There she became friends with Jane Hoge and Mary A. Livermore and helped found the Home for the Friendless and the Half-Orphan Society. Possibly after divorcing her husband, Lamb moved to New York in 1866 where she became popular socially. She was secretary of the first Sanitary Fair and held membership in many learned societies. From 1883 until her death, she edited the Magazine of American History, in which she published many of her own essays. Her chief book, The History of the City of New York (two volumes, 1877–81), was the result of about 15 years of labor and research and is said to surpass Mary L. Booth 's pioneering history of 1859. Other volumes of note are The Homes of America and Wall Street History.