Martha J. Lamb

Martha Joanna Reade Nash Lamb (August 13, 1826 – January 2, 1893) was an American author, editor and historian.

Early life Martha J. Nash was born in Plainfield, Massachusetts on August 13, 1826, the third of the four children of Arvin Nash and Lucinda Vinton. Her mother died when Martha was a child and her father remarried and with his second wife had two more children. Martha Nash was educated at several schools in Massachusetts: in Goshen, at the Williston Seminary in Easthampton (1844–45), and at the Northampton High School. She did especially well in mathematics and taught that subject at schools in Newark, New Jersey and Maumee, Ohio.

On September 8, 1852 she married Charles A. Lamb in Maumee. He was a mechanic who had two daughters from an earlier marriage. The Lambs moved to Chicago in 1857 and Martha became involved in charity work. She was a founder, with Jane C. Hoge, of the Home for the Friendless and the Half-Orphan Asylum. In 1863 she served as secretary of Chicago's first Sanitary Fair, held to raise money for soldiers' relief.

Literary career Lamb published her first article, "A Visit to My Mother's Birthplace", in her local newspaper, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1847. She devoted herself to editing the magazine for the last decade of her life, producing over fifty signed articles and more that were unsigned. She also published articles by others, original documents, book reviews, and other standard components of a professional historical journal at a time when there was little precedent for such an endeavor. The magazine ceased publication shortly after Lamb's death in 1893.

Lamb was elected to membership in fifteen historical and learned societies in the United States and Europe. Issue 334 (March 1878), pp. 481–500. "The Coast Survey," Harper's Magazine, 1879 The Homes of America (New York, 1879) Memorial of Dr. J. D. Russ, a philanthropist (New York, 1880) The Christmas Owl: A Budget of Entertainment, editor, collection of poems shaped like an owl (New York, 1881) The Christmas Basket Holiday Entertainment, editor, shaped like an basket

She wrote about 50 shorter stories, and more than 100 historical and other papers in magazines.

Death Martha Lamb died of pneumonia in New York on January 2, 1893. Her funeral service was held at the Madison Square Presbyterian Church and she was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Florence, Massachusetts.