Adelia B. Beard

Adelia Belle Beard was an American illustrator and writer of craft books for children. She belonged to a family of artists: her father, James Henry Beard, was a painter, and her brother Daniel Carter Beard became a founder of the Boy Scouts of America. With her sister Lina she wrote The American Girls Handy Book (1887), a guide to games, crafts and outdoor pastimes for girls, followed by further books of the same kind. In The Children's Kraft Shop (1914) she invented and illustrated toys that young children could make from spools, clothespins and other household odds and ends.