Martha Joanna Reade Nash Lamb (August 13, 1826 – January 2, 1893)[1] was an American author, editor and historian.

[3] Lamb published her first article, "A Visit to My Mother's Birthplace", in her local newspaper, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1847.

[2] She moved to New York City and acted upon her belief that a woman "with any brains or any sort of intellectual capacity" should work at a significant occupation.

In the 1870s she also wrote Spicy, a romance novel featuring the Sanitary Fair and the Chicago Fire; several Christmas annuals; and articles on a wide array of subjects for Harper's and other periodicals.

She also published articles by others, original documents, book reviews, and other standard components of a professional historical journal at a time when there was little precedent for such an endeavor.

[9] Her funeral service was held at the Madison Square Presbyterian Church and she was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Florence, Massachusetts.