--- title: Louisa May Alcott: Google Doodle Celebrates 184th Birthday description: Google has rolled out a new doodle to celebrate what would have been the 184th birthday of Louisa May Alcott. canonical: https://time.com/4584668/google-doodle-louisa-may-alcott/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-29T15:22:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:59.366Z og:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Louisa May Alcott’s 184th Birthday og:description: The Little Women author was born in Pennsylvania in 1832 og:url: https://time.com/4584668/google-doodle-louisa-may-alcott/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7f46e2022a21648/6988afe1a988ca7b896ba4b9/louisa-may-alcott.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Louisa May Alcott og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Louisa May Alcott’s 184th Birthday twitter:description: The Little Women author was born in Pennsylvania in 1832 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7f46e2022a21648/6988afe1a988ca7b896ba4b9/louisa-may-alcott.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Doodle Celebrates Louisa May Alcott’s 184th Birthday by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Nov 29, 2016 3:22 PM UTC  Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888). Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888).Hulton Archive—Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Nov 29, 2016 3:22 PM UTC Google has rolled out a [new doodle](http://time.com/4505683/new-google-doodle-honors-el-santo/) to celebrate what would have been the [184th birthday of Louisa May Alcott](https://www.google.com/doodles/louisa-may-alcotts-184th-birthday), the beloved U.S. author who penned the classic children’s novel, _Little Women_. Alcott, a suffragist, abolitionist and feminist as well as a writer, was born in Pennsylvania in 1832\. She volunteered as a nurse during the American Civil War and was active in the women’s suffrage movement; she became the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Mass. As a novelist, _Little Women_ was her first success. The book is a semi-autobiographical account of the lives of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March, from childhood to womanhood. Written in two parts in 1880, the novel was so successful initially that it sold out and it has remained a popular children’s classic more than 100 years later. The Google doodle, designed by Sophie Diao, portrays the sisters, as well as Jo’s best friend Laurie, their neighbor. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4584668/google-doodle-louisa-may-alcott/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4584668/google-doodle-louisa-may-alcott/"},"headline":"Google Doodle Celebrates Louisa May Alcott’s 184th Birthday","datePublished":"2016-11-29T15:22:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:59.366Z","description":"The Little Women author was born in Pennsylvania in 1832","url":"https://time.com/4584668/google-doodle-louisa-may-alcott/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Books","Google Doodle"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7f46e2022a21648/6988afe1a988ca7b896ba4b9/louisa-may-alcott.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7f46e2022a21648/6988afe1a988ca7b896ba4b9/louisa-may-alcott.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Louisa May Alcott","caption":"Louisa May Alcott","creditText":"Hulton Archive—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4584668/google-doodle-louisa-may-alcott/","name":"Google Doodle Celebrates Louisa May Alcott’s 184th Birthday"}}]}] ```