At the age of 52, Asenath Nicholson, teacher, reformer and abolitionist, left New York aboard the Brooklyn in May 1844 for what would be a fifteen-month trip to Ireland to 'personally investigate the condition of the Irish poor'.

The result of her travels between 1844 - 45 was Ireland's Welcome To The Stranger, a brilliant social history of an Ireland on the eve of famine. She returned to Ireland in 1846, and spent the winter of '47 in Mayo. The suffering she witnessed first hand led her to write the Annals of the Famine (1851), the singular most important account of the Irish famine.

Nicholson's compassion and determination, as well as her skill as a writer, means that the stories of the dead will never be forgotten.

'Asenath Hatch Nicholson (1792-1855)' illustrated by Anna Maria Howitt