24 Jan | Women: Words & Works

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Catherine Elizabeth Brewer Benson (24 Jan 1822 – 27 Feb 1908 | Augusta GA – Macon GA) first US female to earn Bachelor degree, awarded by Wesleyan College [Macon GA].

Catharine [Cate] Merrill (24 Jan 1824 – 30 May 1900 | Corydon IN – Indianapolis IN) author, educator, Civil War nurse, second female US university professor.

Mary Susan Noailles Murfree (24 Jan 1850 – 31 Jul 1922 | Murfreesboro TN – Murfreesboro TN) novelist, short story writer, aka Charles Egbert Craddock.

Katherine [Kate] Harwood Waller Barrett (24 Jan 1857 – 23 Feb 1925 | Falmouth VA – Alexandria VA) physician, sociologist, humanitarian, philanthropist, social activist / reformer, founded first home for unwed mothers / National Florence Crittenton Mission.

Edith Newbold Jones Wharton (24 Jan 1862 – 11 Aug 1937 | New York NY – Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt FR) novelist, designer, short story writer.

23 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Agnes Maule Machar (23 Jan 1837 – 24 Jan 1927 | Kingston ON – Kingston ON) poet, author, novelist, essayist, feminist, biographer, social reformer, pen-name Fidelis.

Amanda Berry Smith (23 Jan 1837 – 24 Feb 1915 | Long Green MD – Sebring FL) singer, teacher, autodidact, missionary, autobiographical author.

Marianne Cope (23 Jan 1838 – 09 Aug 1918 | Hessen DEU – Kalaupapa HI) German-American, aka The Leprosy Nun, school / hospital / orphanage founder, canonized religious sister Saint Marianne of Molokaʻi.

Antoinette Sterling (23 Jan 1850 – 10 Jan 1904 | Sterlingville NY – Hampstead UK) Anglo-American vocalist, teacher, voice teacher, church singer, Christian Scientist.

Lydia Field Emmet (23 Jan 1866 – 16 Aug 1952 | New Rochelle NY – New York NY) artist, portrait painter, stained glass artist.

22 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Catherine Wolfe Bruce (22 Jan 1816 – 13 Mar 1900 | New York NY – New York NY) philanthropist, astronomy patron, namesake for Bruce Medal of Astronomical Society of the Pacific / Bruce moon crater / asteroid 323 Brucia.

Harriet Ward Sanborn Grosvenor (22 Jan 1823 – 07 Sep 1863 | Hampton Falls NH – Newburyport MA) poet, writer, novelist.

 

Jennie Fowler Willing (22 Jan 1834 – 06 Oct 1916 | Burford ON – New York NY) author, temperance reformer, founding member Women’s Christian Temperance Union [WCTU], founded New York Evangelistic Training School.

Marie Manning (22 Jan 1872 – 28 Nov 1945 | Washington DC – Washington DC) novelist, journalist, suffragist, aka Beatrice Fairfax, magazine founder, short fiction writer, autobiographical author, first US newspaper advice columnist.

Elsie Reford (22 Jan 1872 – 08 Nov 1967 | Perth ON – Montreal QC) art collector, pioneer horticulturist, outdoor sportswoman, WWI War Office German/English translator, created one of largest private gardens in Canada [open to public since 1962].

21 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Eliza Roxcy Smith Snow Young (21 Jan 1804 – 05 Dec 1887 | Becket MA – Salt Lake City UT) poet, Mormon historian, married to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Lorenzo Snow.

Anna White (21 Jan 1831 – 16 Dec 1910 | Brooklyn NY – Mount Lebanon NY) Shaker Eldress, religious sister, social / political / peace activist, Mt. Lebanon Shaker Community member.

Helen Hamilton Gardener (21 Jan 1853 – 26 Jul 1925 | Winchester VA – Washington DC) author, lecturer, suffragist, political activist, government functionary, born Alice Chenoweth, Free Thought movement member.

Willie Betty Newman (21 Jan 1863 – 06 Feb 1935 | Murfreesboro TN – Nashville TN) portrait artist, worked / exhibited in Paris salons / in her native Tennessee / throughout the US.

Marguerite Agniel (21 Jan 1891 – 01 Apr 1971 | Indiana US – Washington DC) actress, author, dancer, yoga practitioner, health and beauty guru, nude yoga proponent.

20 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Harriet Eaton Stanton Blatch (20 Jan 1856 – 20 Nov 1940 | Seneca Fall NY – Greenwich CT) writer, speaker, suffragist.

Julia Morgan (20 Jan 1872 – 02 Feb 1957 | San Francisco CA – San Francisco CA) architect, Arts and Crafts Movement supporter, first female AIA Gold Medalist [posthumous award].

Zelda Paldi Sears (20 Jan 1873 – 19 Feb 1935 | Brockway Township MI – Hollywood CA) novelist, actress, lyricist, playwright, screenwriter, businesswoman.

Drusilla Dunjee Houston (20 Jan 1876 – 08 Feb 1941 | Harpers Ferry WV – Phoenix AZ) author, musician, educator, journalist, columnist, screenwriter, independent historian, co-founded Oklahoma City chapters of YWCA / Red Cross / NAACP, one of first leaders of Oklahoma Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, contributing editor to Oklahoma Black Dispatch [first black newspaper in Oklahoma City, founded by brother Roscoe Dunjee].

Irma LeVasseur (20 Jan 1877 – 18 Jan 1964 | Quebec City QC – Quebec City QC) physician, pioneering pediatrician, first French-Canadian female doctor.

19 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Sarah Helen Whitman (19 Jan 1803 – 27 Jun 1878 | Providence RI – Providence RI) poet, author, essayist, Spiritualist, literary figure, transcendentalist.

Alice Hale Hill (19 Jan 1840 – 19 Jul 1908 | Providence RI – Denver CO) political hostess, Colorado State Senator’s wife, social / charitable worker, president of YWCA, charter member of several civic organizations.

Alice Eastwood (19 Jan 1859 – 30 Oct 1953 | Toronto ON – San Francisco CA) Canadian-American author, editor, curator, teacher, journal founder, self-taught botanist, plant collector / discoverer / cataloguer.

Natacha Rambova (19 Jan 1897 – 05 Jun 1966 | Salt Lake City UT – Pasadena CA) actress, ballerina, producer, playwright, memoirist, artistic director, screenwriter, set / costume / fashion designer, elite couture fashion shop owner, born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy.

Anne Schumacher Hummert (19 Jan 1905 – 05 Jul 1996 | Baltimore MD – New York NY) journalist, advertising executive, multimillionaire, radio serials scriptwriter, pioneering soap opera writer.

18 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Virginia Penny (18 Jan 1826 – 04 Apr 1913 | Louisville KY – Wards Island NY) author, economist, suffragist, social reformer, owned employment agency for women, first to study women’s labor markets.

Sarah Blakeslee Chase (18 Jan 1837 – 01 Apr 1914 | New Richmond OH – Toledo OH) birth control activist, homeopathic gynecologist, first female admitted to Medical Society of Cleveland and Homœopathic Association of Ohio.

Alice H. Putnam (18 Jan 1841 – 19 Jan 1919 | Chicago IL – Chicago IL) author, educator, pioneer in Chicago kindergarten education, opened and directed first private kindergarten in Chicago.

Emma Bertha Delany (18 Jan 1871 – 07 Oct 1922 | Fernandina Beach FL – Fernandina Beach FL) African-American missionary fundraiser, first Baptist missionary to Malawai and Liberia in Africa, co-founded Providence Industrial Mission [Malawi] and Suehn Industrial Mission [Liberia].

Irene Osgood Andrews (18 Jan 1879 – 01 Feb 1963 | Big Rapids MI – New York NY) writer, author, relief worker, factory inspector, focus on challenges facing women in American industries.

17 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Mary Jane Whitely Coggeshall (17 Jan 1836 – 22 Dec 1911 | Milton IN – Des Moines IA) writer, speaker, suffragist, first editor Woman’s Standard, aka the Mother of Woman Suffrage in Iowa, first woman west of Mississippi to join the National American Woman Suffrage Association [NAWSA].

Alva Erskine Smith Belmont (17 Jan 1853 – 26 Jan 1933 | Mobile AL – Paris FR) socialite, suffragist, librettist, philanthropist, multi-millionaire, architectural endower / decorator.

Edith Stuyvesant Dresser Gerry (17 Jan 1873 – 21 Dec 1958 | Newport RI – Providence RI) heiress, socialite, social activist, philanthropist, once the wealthiest woman in Rhode Island.

Josie Bassett Morris (17 Jan 1874 – 01 May 1964 | Hot Springs AR – Jensen UT) potter, pioneer, basket maker, cattle rancher, folk figure affiliated with The Wild Bunch Gang, rumored to have been Butch Cassidy’s sweetheart.

Cora Wilson Stewart (17 Jan 1875 – 02 Dec 1958 | Farmers KY – Columbus NC) educator, social reformer, founded Moonlight Schools to teach illiterate adults.

16 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Virginia Caroline Tunstall Clay-Clopton (16 Jan 1825 – 23 Jan 1915 | Nash County NC – Gurley AL) author, memoirist, political wife, suffragist, United Daughters of the Confederacy member.

Ellen Russell Emerson (16 Jan 1837 – 12 Jun 1907 | New Sharon ME – Cambridge MA) author, sketcher, ethnologist.

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (16 Jan 1843 – 19 Jun 1864 | Afton NY – New Orleans LA) US folk figure, aka Lyons Wakeman, letter correspondent, disguised Civil War Union soldier.

Ella Flagg Young (16 Jan 1844 – 26 Oct 1918 | Buffalo NY – Washington DC) author, essayist, theorist, educator, first female superintendent of major school district, first female president of National Education Association [NEA].

Margaret Wilhelmina Wilson (16 Jan 1882 – 06 Oct 1973 | Traer IA – Droitwich UK) novelist, aka G.D. Turner, 1924 Pulitzer Prize for The Able McLaughlins.

15 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Abigail [Abby] Kelley Foster (15 Jan 1811 – 14 Jan 1887 | Pelham MA – Worcester MA) suffragist, speaker, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, radical social reformer.

Constance Faunt Le Roy Runcie (15 Jan 1836 – 17 May 1911 | Indianapolis IN – Winnetka MO) poet, artist, author, pianist, composer, short story writer.

Katharine Bement Davis (15 Jan 1860 – 10 Dec 1935 | Buffalo NY – Pacific Grove CA) author, criminologist, progressive era social reformer, first female NYC Correction Commissioner, science-based prison reformer, groundbreaking female sexuality researcher, first US female PhD in economics and political science.

Loïe Fuller (15 Jan 1862 – 01 Jan 1928 | Fullersburg IL – Paris FR) dancer, memoirist, choreographer, free dance practitioner, stage lighting artist / inventor / patent holder.

Frances Benjamin Johnston (15 Jan 1864 – 16 May 1952 | Grafton WV – New Orleans LA) pioneering photographer, early female photojournalist.