Abstract
The details of Delia Woodruff Godding’s fascinating and bittersweet life have remained unstudied until now. In fact, very little information on Delia has been located; prior to the author’s interest in Godding’s geological writing, published information on the author was limited to what was found on the cover of her 1847 children’s book published in Hartford, CT, First Lessons in Geology by a “Miss D.W. Godding” (eg. Ogilvie and Harvey 2000). Published here for the first time is a comprehensive biographical sketch of this author, as well as an analysis of her popularized work in geology.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The three letters referenced in this section are held by the Connecticut Historical Society and comprise the entire collection labeled Delia Godding correspondence, 1847–1855 (Ms 101610).
- 2.
The Godding family’s preference for the names Delia and William has proven to be a challenge when reconstructing their history.
- 3.
Unless otherwise specified, all of the information in this section is derived from digitized marriage, birth, death, gravestone, and census records located through www.ancestry.com
- 4.
Martha died on May 13, 1850 while her husband died a month later on June 16.
- 5.
The parish moved to West Hartford in 1907 and the Hartford property was sold to the neighboring Wadsworth Atheneum for its expansion. A summary of the church’s history is found at http://www.sjparish.net/About_us/Church_history/
- 6.
Bill Uricchio, parish historian for St. John’s Church, was unable to provide further information, explaining that the parish’s historical records are quite incomplete (private communication March 26, 2017). His assistance in locating some of the newspaper references cited in this chapter was of immeasurable benefit.
- 7.
The gravestone for Carlos, Sabrina, and Thankful Godding can be viewed at https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi/http%25252522//fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=32797527
- 8.
Many thanks to Bill Uricchio, parish historian for St. John’s Church, for bringing this item to my attention.
- 9.
After his college graduation, Niles had taught school in Tennessee for several years before becoming a lawyer. He eventually settled in Mississippi where he was a judge and served as Congressman from 1872–5 (The Kosciusko 1894).
- 10.
Delia Godding ’s grave was recently visited by Bruce Beford and the inscription on the headstone was covered in lichen, rendering it impossible to clearly photograph. A legible rendition is found at https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=22631049
- 11.
See, for example, Parley (1857).
- 12.
For a detailed analysis of The Botanic Garden , see Emery (1941).
- 13.
For more analysis of the geology of “Beachy Head ,” see Heringman (2009).
References
Aikin J (1777) An essay on the application of natural history to poetry. Johnson, London
Bakewell R (1820) A geological primer in verse. Longman, Hurst, Rees et al., London
Browne HM (1839) Memoir of the life and writings of Mrs. Hemans. Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia
Burrill K (1904) School-books old and new. Chamber’s J 8:6–9
Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register (1848) First lessons in geology. By Miss D.W. Godding. 1(2): 288
Cleveland CD (1859) A compendium of American literature. Biddle and Biddle, Philadelphia
Cobbold E (1825) Poems of Mrs. Elizabeth Cobbold. Raw, Ipswich
Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society (1880) First annual circular and catalogue of the Sigourney Boarding School, St. Anthony, Minnesota. 1860–1. 3:52
Collin GL (1902) Lydia Huntley Sigourney. N Engl Mag 27(1):15–30
Connecticut Historical Society. Delia Godding correspondence, 1847–1855. Ms 101610, Folder 1 of 1
Darwin E (1798) The botanic garden. Swords and Swords, New York
Emery C (1941) Scientific theory in Erasmus Darwin’s ‘The botanic garden’. Isis 33(3):315–325
Fawcett LM (1933) Frontier education. Minn Hist Mag 14(2):142–149
Godding DW (1847) First lessons in geology. Parsons, Hartford
Godding R (1867) East Burke. Vermont Historical Gazetteer 1:210–311
Gould HF (1850) New poems. Reynolds, Boston
Greenlee RS, Greenlee RL (1908) Genealogy of the Greenlee families. Greenlee, Chicago
Greer (1857) Greer’s Hartford City Directory for 1857–8. Greer, Hartford
Haight GS (1930) Mrs. Sigourney: the sweet singer of Hartford. Yale UP, New Haven
Hartford Daily Courant (1844) Classified ad. Dec 21:3
Hartford Daily Courant (1852) List of premiums: awarded by the Hartford County Agricultural Society. Oct 25:2
Hemenway AM (ed) (1867) Delia Godding. Ver Hist Gaz 1:312–313
Heringman N (2004) Romantic rocks, aesthetic geology. Cornell UP, Ithaca
Heringman N (2009) ‘Very vain is science’ proudest boast: the resistance to geological theory in early nineteenth-century England. In: Rosenberg GD (ed)The revolution in geology from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Geol Soc Am Mem 203:247–257
Higgins JR (2011) Fossil poetry, the birth of geology, and the romantic imagination, 1790–1860. Dissertation, University of South Carolina
Hitchcock E (1845) Elementary geology, 3rd edn. Newman, New York
Hitchcock E (1851) The religion of geology and its connected sciences. Collins, Glasgow
Jermyn L (1825) Memoir of Mrs. Elizabeth Cobbold. In: Jermyn L (Ed) Poems of Mrs. Elizabeth Cobbold. Raw, Ipswich, p 3–42
Lee E (2004) Wortley, Lady Emmeline Charlotte Elizabeth Stuart- (1806–1855). Rev. Gill Gregory. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford UP, Oxford. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26728. Accessed 4 Apr 2017. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26728
Monthly Magazine (1807) Memoirs of eminent persons: Mrs. Charlotte Smith. 23: 244–248
Moseley C (1978) Henry David Thoreau and Felicia Dorothea Hemans. The Concord Saunterer 13(2):5–8
Niles J (1864) Diary. http://www.usgennet.org. Accessed 17 Mar 2017
O’Connor R (2007) Young-Earth creationists in early nineteenth-century Britain? towards a reassessment of ‘scriptural geology’. Hist Sci 45:357–403
O’Connor R (2013) The earth on show. Chicago UP, Chicago
Ogilvie M, Harvey J (eds) (2000) The biographical dictionary of women in science, vol 1. Routledge, New York
Parley P (1857) Thousand and one stories of fact and fancy, wit and humor, rhyme, reason, and romance. Derby and Jackson, New York
Primer I (1964) Erasmus Darwin’s Temple of nature: progress, evolution, and the Eleusinian mysteries. J Hist Ideas 25(1):58–76
Robinson J (1990) Wayward women: a guide to women travelers. Oxford UP, Oxford
Scafe J (1820a) Court news; or, The peers of King Coal: and The Errants; or A survey of British strata. Longman, Hurst, Rees et al., London
Scafe J (1820b) King Coal’s levee or geological ettiquette, 4th edn. Longman, Hurst, Rees et al., London
Sigourney L (1862) The man of Uz and other poems. Williams, Wiley and Waterman, Hartford
Smith C (1795) Rural walks: in dialogues. Wogan et al, Dublin
Smith C (1807) Beachy Head with other poems. Johnson, London
Sowerby J (1818) The mineral conchology of Great Britain, vol 2. Sowerby, London
St. John’s Parish (n.d.) http://www.sjparish.net/About_us/Church_history/. Accessed 2 Apr 2017
Stanton JP (ed) (2003) The collected letters of Charlotte Smith. Indiana UP, Bloomington
Stuart-Wortley E (1837) Impressions of Italy. Saunders and Otley, London
The Kosciusko Star (1894) The eminent dead—death of Judge Jason Niles last Saturday. July 13. 1:8
The Monthly Review (1821) King Coal’s levee, or geological etiquette. 94: 265–277
The Philosophical Magazine (1810) Linnaean Society. 35:384–385
Welsh JK (1832) Familiar lessons in mineralogy and geology, vol 1. Clapp and Hull, Boston
Willson CC (1894) Edgar P. Inglee vs. Hebert T. Welles et al. Minnesota Reports v 53: 197–198
Wilson JG, Fiske J (1900) Gould, Benjamin. In: Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American biography, vol 2. Appleton, New York, p 693
Zimmerman SM (2004) Smith, Charlotte (1749–1806). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford UP, Oxford. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25790. Accessed 4 Apr 2017. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25790
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Larsen, K. (2017). Delia Woodruff Godding (1812–61): Poetry and Perseverance. In: The Women Who Popularized Geology in the 19th Century . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64952-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64952-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64951-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64952-8
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)