Rebecca Harding Davis (1831-1910)
Washington, Washington County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Journalist, editor, and literary pioneer, Davis was influential in the Realist movement. She wrote hundreds of works related to social issues, including the renowned Life in the Iron Mills. Born in the nearby Bradford House, she attended Washington Female Seminary, once on this site.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Born in 1831 in the Bradford House and schooled at the Washington Female Seminary that once stood here, Rebecca Harding Davis became one of America's earliest literary realists. Her 1861 story Life in the Iron Mills exposed the grinding lives of industrial laborers at a time when most fiction looked away from them. Over a long career she wrote hundreds of works pressing on the social wounds of her era.
Why it matters
Davis helped pioneer American literary realism and put the industrial working class on the page decades before it became fashionable, opening a path later female writers and social reformers would follow.
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Related people
- · Rebecca Harding Davis
Themes & tags
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