Copyright Notice: This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Colored engraving of the title illustration for A Wreath from the Woods of Carolina. Image from Google Books.
Colored engraving of the title illustration for A Wreath from the Woods of Carolina. Image from Google Books.
Painter, musician, sculptor, and writer Mary Ann Bryan Mason (1802-81) was the first woman in North Carolina known to have written and illustrated a children's book, titled A Wreath from the Woods of Carolina (1859). Nine colored lithographs of native wildflowers distinguish the volume from the children's literature of the late antebellum period, and the first ten chapters begin with a Bible verse. The book's ten stories attempt to teach piety and morals to children through relatively heavy-handed didacticism. The book was published in New York by the General Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union and Church Book Society.

Additional Resources:

Mason, Mary Ann Bryan. A Wreath from the Woods of Carolina. General Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union and Church Book Society. New York: Pudney and Russell. 1859. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/item.aspx?id=maa (accessed August 17, 2012).

Whitford, John D. "Rambles about Town: Pollock Street from Queen to Middle." The Daily Journal [New Bern, N.C.], January 7, 1883. http://newbern.cpclib.org/research/whitford/bhn18830107.htm (accessed August 17, 2012).

Carroll, Yvonne. "Applying Critical Thinking Skills Utilizing “A Wreath from the Woods of Carolina."

Image Credits:

Colored engraving of the title illustration. Mason, Mary Ann Bryan. A Wreath from the Woods of Carolina. General Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union and Church Book Society. New York: Pudney and Russell. 1859. http://books.google.com/books?id=ARZAAAAAYAAJ&ots=Tf_xuMmePR&dq=Wreath%20from%20the%20Woods%20of%20Carolina&pg=PP15#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed August 17, 2012).

Citation

Williams, Wiley J. "Wreath from the Woods of Carolina." NCpedia. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. Accessed on February 20th, 2025. https://www.ncpedia.org/wreath-woods-carolina.