Humanities › History & Culture The Women of Transcendentalism Participants in and Influences on the American Romantic Movement Share Flipboard Email Print History & Culture Women's History History Of Feminism Important Figures Key Events Women's Suffrage Women & War Laws & Womens Rights Feminist Texts American History African American History African History Ancient History and Culture Asian History European History Genealogy Inventions Latin American History Medieval & Renaissance History Military History The 20th Century View More By Jone Johnson Lewis Jone Johnson Lewis Women's History Writer B.A., Mundelein College M.Div., Meadville/Lombard Theological School Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late 1960s. She is a former faculty member of the Humanist Institute. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on October 27, 2019 When you hear the word "Transcendentalism," do you immediately think of Ralph Waldo Emerson or Henry David Thoreau? Very few think as quickly of the names of the women who were associated with Transcendentalism. Margaret Fuller and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody were the only two women who were original members of the Transcendental Club. Other women were part of the inner circle of the group who called themselves Transcendentalists, and some of them played key roles in that movement. 01 of 11 Margaret Fuller Stock Montage / Getty Images Introduced to Ralph Waldo Emerson by English writer and reformer Harriet Martineau, Margaret Fuller became a key member of the inner circle. Her Conversations (educated women of the Boston area discussing intellectual issues), her editorship of The Dial, and her influence on Brook Farm were all key parts of the Transcendentalist movement's evolution. 02 of 11 Elizabeth Palmer Peabody CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images The Peabody sisters, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, and Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne, were the eldest of seven children. Mary was married to educator Horace Mann, Sophia to novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Elizabeth remained single. Each of the three contributed or were connected to the Transcendentalist movement. But Elizabeth Peabody's role in the movement was central. She went on to become one of the biggest promoters of the kindergarten movement in America, as well as a promoter of Indigenous rights. 03 of 11 Harriet Martineau Stock Montage / Getty Images Identified with the American Transcendentalists, this British writer and traveler introduced Margaret Fuller to Ralph Waldo Emerson during her brief 1830s stay in America. 04 of 11 Louisa May Alcott Bettmann / Culture Club / Getty Images Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a key Transcendentalist figure, and Louisa May Alcott grew up in the Transcendentalist circle. The family's experience when her father founded a utopian community, Fruitlands, is satirized in Louisa May Alcott's later story, "Transcendental Wild Oats." The descriptions of a flighty father and down-to-earth mother probably reflect well the family life of Louisa May Alcott's childhood. 05 of 11 Lydia Maria Child Archive Photos / Getty Images Part of the general Unitarian circle around the Transcendentalists, Lydia Maria Child is better known for her other writing and her abolitionism. She's the author of the well-known "Over the River and Through the Wood" aka "A Boy's Thanksgiving Day." 06 of 11 Julia Ward Howe Hulton Archive/Getty Images Howe's involvement in Transcendentalism was more tangential and less central than that of the other women highlighted. She was influenced by the religious and literary trends of Transcendentalism and involved in the social reforms which were part of the Transcendentalist circle. She was a close friend of Transcendentalists, both male and female. She was an active participant, particularly in carrying Transcendentalist ideas and commitments through the American Civil War and into the next decades. 07 of 11 Ednah Dow Cheney Warren / Materialscientist / Wikimedia / Public Domain Born in 1824, Ednah Dow Cheney was part of a second generation of Transcendentalists around Boston, and she knew many of the key figures in that movement. 08 of 11 Emily Dickinson Three Lions / Getty Images While she was not directly involved in the Transcendentalist movement—her introversion would likely have kept her from such involvement, anyway—her poetry was arguably influenced quite heavily by Transcendentalism. 09 of 11 Mary Moody Emerson Jone Johnson Lewis Though she broke with her nephew's ideas that evolved into Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson's aunt played a crucial role in his development, as he testified. 10 of 11 Sarah Helen Power Whitman John Nelson Arnold / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain A poet whose husband brought her into the Transcendentalist sphere, Sarah Power Whitman became, after she was widowed, a romantic interest of Edgar Allen Poe. 11 of 11 Participants in Margaret Fuller's Conversations Ann Longmore-Etheridge / Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Women who were part of the Conversations included: Elizabeth Bliss BancroftLydia Maria ChildCaroline Healey DallPhebe GageSally Jackson GardnerLucy GoddardSophia Peabody HawthorneElizabeth HoarSarah HoarCaroline Sturgis HooperMaryann JacksonElizabeth Palmer PeabodyEliza Morton QuincySophia Dana RipleyAnna Shaw (later Greene)Ellen Sturgis Tappan Mary Moody Emerson commented in correspondence on having read transcripts of some of the Conversations. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Lewis, Jone Johnson. "The Women of Transcendentalism." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/women-of-transcendentalism-3530594. Lewis, Jone Johnson. (2023, April 5). The Women of Transcendentalism. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/women-of-transcendentalism-3530594 Lewis, Jone Johnson. "The Women of Transcendentalism." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/women-of-transcendentalism-3530594 (accessed May 29, 2023). copy citation