Caroline Sturgis Tappan, often known as Caroline or "Cary" Sturgis, was an American Transcendentalist poet and artist active during the mid-nineteenth century. Born in 1818, she became a core member of the Transcendentalist circle, maintaining close friendships and extensive correspondences with prominent figures of the movement, most notably Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller.\n\nTappan's literary contributions were primarily published in The Dial, a leading Transcendentalist periodical, which featured twenty-five of her poems across four volumes. In addition to her poetry, she wrote and illustrated literature for children, publishing Rainbows for Children in 1847 and The Magician’s Show Box, and Other Stories in 1856. She passed away in 1888, leaving behind a legacy closely tied to the intellectual and creative flowering of New England Transcendentalism.