1811 Earth & sky take attention, as the New Madrid earthquake shifts the course of a river & a Great Comet (aren’t they all?) is visible into 1812.

• Comet Donati and others

1821 A hurricane hits Philadelphia & New York City; & Samuel Griswold Goodrich looks to nature for chapbook stories.

• The Gale
• The Two Doves and the Owl

1831 Francis Wayland shows some unnatural parental tendencies; the Youth’s Companion tries to change the natural tendencies of its readers; Nathaniel Hawthorne debuts some stories; the printer of a collection of anecdotes shows an unnaturally poor grasp of proofreading; & Samuel Griswold Goodrich publishes a charming illustration of the mastodon skeleton displayed in Charles Willson Peale’s natural history museum.

• The Token
• Truth, 1st ed., William J. Snelling
• Beauties of Sentiment
• “Case of Conviction,” by Francis Wayland
• “Books,” Lydia Maria Child
• “The Busy Bee” (Youth’s Companion, August 10)
• “The Choice of Companions” (Youth’s Companion, October 12)
• “Heroism” (Youth’s Companion, October 12)
• “Lucy Nelson, the Boy-Girl,” by Eliza Leslie (Youth’s Companion, November 30)
• Peale’s mastodon skeleton, in The Child’s First Book of History

1841 Robert Merry’s Museum gives readers a look at natural history & human frailties; Youth’s Cabinet joins the Museum in explaining prehistoric creatures; a lady from Boston show us the life of an unnaturally well-bred girl; & Samuel Griswold Goodrich proves that you can never have too much of a really good picture of a mastodon skeleton.

• The Well-Bred Girl (rev 1850)
• “Natural history plates” (Robert Merry’s Museum)
• “My Own Life & Adventures,” by “Robert Merry” (Robert Merry’s Museum; -1842)
• “Story of Philip Brusque” (Robert Merry’s Museum; -1842)
• “Prospectus of Robert Merry’s Museum” (Robert Merry’s Museum; February)
  
• “Address to the Reader” (Robert Merry’s Museum; February)
• “My First Whistle,” by Samuel Griswold Goodrich (Robert Merry’s Museum; February)
• “About Labor & Property” (Robert Merry’s Museum; February)
• “Death of the President” (Robert Merry’s Museum; April)
• “The Moon” (Robert Merry’s Museum; June)
• “The Horse & the Bells” (Robert Merry’s Museum; June)
• “Yankee Energy” (Robert Merry’s Museum; September)
• “The Mammoth” (Robert Merry’s Museum; November)
• “The Squirrel” (Robert Merry’s Museum; December)
• “The Picture Gallery: Organic Remains” (Youth’s Cabinet; December 9)
• Peale’s mastodon skeleton, in Peter Parley’s Visit to the City of New-York (1841-1844?)

1851 Gilbert begins his headlong travels through Asia; & Woodworth’s Youth’s Cabinet makes the case for central heating.

• Stories by Jack Mason, the Old Sailor, Francis Woodworth
• “The Adventures of Gilbert Go-ahead” (Robert Merry’s Museum)
• “January” (Robert Merry’s Museum, January)
• “The Spelling Lesson” (Woodworth’s Youth’s Cabinet, February)
• “Hieroglyphical Letter to the Editor” (Woodworth’s Youth’s Cabinet, February)
• “The Busy Knitter,” by William Oland Bourne (Woodworth’s Youth’s Cabinet, August)
• “A Siberian Winter” (Woodworth’s Youth’s Cabinet, August)
• “Join in the Recreation of Your Children,” Stephen T. Allen

1861 As the U. S. falls headlong into civil war, American periodicals for & by children sharpen their readers’ sense of patriotism.

• “The Literary Gazette”
• Animals in the Civil War (Youth’s Companion)
• “The Union” (Student & Schoolmate; January)
• “Rules for Winter” (Youth’s Companion; January 3)
• “How to Make Boys Love Home” (Arthur’s Home Magazine; February)
• “The Opera Cloak” (Youth’s Companion; June 6)
• “Crooked Spines in Girls,” Helen C. Lewis (Arthur’s Home Magazine; July)
• “The Stars and Stripes,” by John A. Andrews (Student & Schoolmate; July)
• “Baby Education” (Arthur’s Home Magazine; August)
• “Hail, Columbia!” (Student & Schoolmate; August)
• “How a Man Feels When He is Shot” (Youth’s Companion; October 3)
• “Children, from One to Three Years of Age” (Arthur’s Home Magazine; December)
• “The Knitters” (Youth’s Companion; December 26)

1871 A new American writer begins her career as the planets align, Chicago burns, former slaves create new lives, & New York City begins to shape a new environment underground; and—yay!—more about mammoths!

• “The Spendthrift Doll,” by Sarah Orne Jewett (Robert Merry’s Museum; February)
• “What a Bore!,” by Helen C. Weeks (Youth’s Companion; February 2)
• a planetary alignment (Robert Merry’s Museum; June)
• “Declamation—Relief for Chicago,” by Edward Everett Hale (Robert Merry’s Museum; November)
• editorial on the Chicago Fire (Robert Merry’s Museum; November)
• “Freed Children in Washington,” by “Elizabeth Kilham” (Our Young Folks; November)
• “What Ben and the Twins Did for Chicago,” Sara Conant (Robert Merry’s Museum; December)
• Thomas Nast honors The Little Corporal (Little Corporal; December)
• “Routed But Not Conquered” (Little Corporal; December)
• Letters in The Little Corporal about the Chicago Fire
• “More About the Fire” (Little Corporal; December)
• “The Mammoth” (Children’s Friend [West Chester, Pennsylvania]; Twelfth month)