Woolson (1840–1894), a member of a prominent Cleveland family of means, as a girl summered on Mackinac Island in a now-vanished building located directly below the overlook. The experience inspired her to become a professional writer, and in 1875 she published her first volume of short stories, Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches, based on her experiences on Mackinac Island and in surrounding shorelines of the Great Lakes. The work was followed by Woolson's first novel, Anne. Also set on Mackinac Island, the work was published in 1880.
Woolson's success at conveying the dilemmas faced by young Victorian-era women in a regionalist setting inspired further works from the increasingly successful author set in new homes in St. Augustine, Florida and in Venice. Unfortunately, the popular writer's personal attachment to Henry James was not fully reciprocated, and the depressed author fell from a Venetian window in 1894.
As Woolson was buried in Italy, there was no location in the United States where her American-born readers could pay their respects. The Anne's Tablet installation was constructed as a gift from Samuel Mather, a successful iron ore mineowner and nephew of the writer.
