Cynthia May Westover Alden (May 31, 1862 – January 8, 1931), also known as Cynthia W. Alden and Cynthia M. Westover, was an American journalist, author, inventor, and New York City municipal employee. Early life and education She was born in Afton, Iowa, the daughter of Oliver S. Westover and Lucilda (Lewis) Westover. She was the grand-daughter of Alexander Campbell, a leader of the Campbellite religious reform movement. Her mother died when she was very young, and during her childhood she often accompanied her father, a geologist and miner, on prospecting expeditions throughout the American west. The second of her three books, Bushy (1896), was based on these childhood experiences. She graduated from Colorado State University with a teaching degree and also studied at the Denver Business College. Municipal employment Alden moved to New York City in 1882 to further her musical education in hopes of becoming an opera singer; she later sang as a soloist in church choirs. In 1887 she was appointed a New York inspector of customs, in which position she was involved in the seizure of smuggled goods. She learned French, German, Italian, and Spanish in order to communicate better with people she came in contact with through her job. Beginning in 1890, Alden worked for two years as secretary to the New York City Commissioner of Street Cleaning. During this period, she invented a street-cleaners' cart, to make life easier for the street sweepers and for their horses, which at that time had to pull heavy wagons. The cart was small enough for the sweepers to handle themselves, and it had a self-dumping feature so that it could be emptied directly onto the trash barges, bypassing the horse-drawn wagons. For this invention, the Parisian Academy of Inventors awarded Alden a gold medal and made her an honorary member. For a time she was also employed at the New York Museum of Natural History but left this job to take up journalism. Journalism and Sunshine Society Alden entered journalism in 1894 as editor of the woman's department at the New York Recorder. In 1897 she moved to the New York Tribune, where she held the same position. During her three years with the Tribune, she planned and founded the International Sunshine Society, serving as its president-general for the rest of her life. It started with Alden's practice of sending Christmas cards and gifts to shut-ins, and