Kirsten. 1854.
Meet Samantha Parkington
Samantha is an orphan who lives with her well-to-do grandmother in upstate New York. She’s being raised as a proper young lady with the best of everything—but would rather climb a tree than sip tea.
Grandmary
Samantha’s maternal grandmother, a widow, is raising Samantha to be a well-mannered young lady. Grandmary is an excellent judge of character and supports Samantha’s ideas, even when Samantha bends the social rules to do the right thing.
Uncle Gard
Uncle Gard is Samantha’s mother’s brother. He adores his niece and visits her and Grandmary often. His jokes, puns, and silly riddles always make Samantha laugh. After he marries Cornelia, he adopts Samantha.
Jessie
Jessie is Grandmary’s skillful seamstress and dressmaker. When Samantha gets into a scrap and tears a sticking or petticoat, she can depend on Jessie to “patch her up” and mend her torn clothing with invisible stitches.
Hawkins
Hawkins is Grandmary’s butler and carriage driver. He is very fond of Samantha, and he often finds ways to help her.
Mrs. Hawkins
Grandmary’s kindly cook. She prepares three meals a day for the household, and she always has a tasty treat in the kitchen for Samantha.
Elsa
Elsa is Grandmary’s housemaid. She is grumpy and unsympathetic, and she treats Samantha as if she is an obstacle to her work.
Eddie Ryland
Eddie Ryland is Samantha’s neighbor. He loves to bother Samantha and poke fun at her. Sometimes he even sneaks into her yard and causes trouble.
Nellie O'Malley
Nellie O'Malley is a new servant girl in the house next door. She used to live with her family in New York City and work in a factory, but now she works as a maid in Mount Bedford, where she becomes Samantha’s friend.
Cornelia Pitt
Cornelia Pitt is the elegant, progressive young woman from Manhattan that Uncle Gard loves. Cornelia believes that women should have the right to vote. She is fun-loving, kind, and playful, but respectful of Grandmary. After marrying Gard, she adopts Samantha.
Agnes & Agatha Pitt
Agnes & Agatha Pitt are identical twins and Cornelia’s younger sisters. The ten-year-olds become fast friends with Samantha and go on vacation with her at Piney Point. They are bridesmaids, along with Samantha, at Gard and Cornelia’s wedding.
Admiral Archibald Beemis
Admiral Archibald Beemis is a good-natured Englishman and retired admiral of the British Navy who has known Grandmary for 30 years. He visits Grandmary at Piney Point every summer, and later he marries her.
Samantha Parkington™ Doll & Book
Samantha’s outfit embodies the ladylike clothing of the early 1900s, featuring frilly details like ruffles, lace, puffy sleeves, and ribbons.
Shop Samantha Parkington™ Doll & Book
Authors
Many writers have contributed to Samantha’s series, including Pleasant Rowland, Susan Adler, Valerie Tripp, and Jennifer Hirsch.
Illustrator Dan Andreasen
Dan Andreasen always wanted to be an artist. As a child he copied drawings by Leonardo da Vinci from art books. He lives in Florida.
Samantha’s favorite book is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which debuted in 1900 and was a bestseller, popular with children and adults.
Nicknames weren’t considered proper in Samantha’s time, but her uncle still calls her “Sam.”
Samantha is very much a tomboy and loves climbing trees. She opts to be outside and enjoys visiting Grandmary’s lake home.
Samantha was one of the first three characters launched in 1986 by American Girl®, then called The Pleasant Company.
Agnes and Agatha lose Cornelia’s dog Jip during a walk but find him in a park where they see their sister advocating for women’s voting rights.
Women won the right to vote in 1920, and Samantha would have been 25 years old for her first presidential election that year.
In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest-ever U.S. president at 42. Not everyone was confident he could lead America into the new century!
In Samantha’s time, teachers thought etiquette was just as important to teach girls as reading and writing.
Orville Wright made the first successful airplane flight across the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903.
In Samantha’s time, to go swimming, girls and women wore large bathing dresses made of alpaca wool. These helped keep swimmers warm in cold water.
In 1904, more than 20 million visitors from around the world came to the World’s Fair in St. Louis, MO, to see the latest inventions, including the world’s largest Ferris Wheel.
Even though child labor laws existed, some poor children continued to work in factories to earn money to help their families.
