28 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Rhoda Holmes Nicholls (28 Mar 1854 – 07 Sep 1930 | Coventry UK – Stamford CT) English-American, artist, writer, art instructor, oil / watercolor painter.


Minnie Mancelona [Tip] Andress Pratt (28 Mar 1869 – 12 Nov 1962 | Missouri US – Petoskey MI) teacher, namesake of Mancelona MI, early pioneer settler family member.


Grace Gassette (28 Mar 1871 – 1955 | Chicago IL – Woodstock VT) painter, author, sculptor, WWI Honoree, amputee prosthetic / surgical tool inventor, Chicago Women’s Athletic Club founder, aka The Woman Who Remakes Broken Soldiers, American Ambulance Hospital in Paris surgical department organizer.


Anne Douglas Sedgwick (28 Mar 1873 – 19 Jul 1935 | Englewood NJ – Hampstead UK) American-British novelist.


Clara Lemlich Shavelson (28 Mar 1886 – 12 Jul 1982 | Gorodok UA – Los Angeles CA) suffragist, Communist, revolutionary, garment worker, labor organizer, peace / community activist, co-founded ILGWU [International Ladies Garment Workers Union], co-founded UCWW [United Council of Working-Class Women, which became Progressive Women’s Council].

27 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Jane Franklin Mecom (27 Mar 1712 – 08 May 1794 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) milliner, innkeeper, letter writer, political family member, autobiographical author.


Jane Colden Farquhar (27 Mar 1724 – 10 Mar 1766 | New York NY – New York NY) botanist, illustrator, letter writer, first female botanist recognized in the New World.


Elleanor Eldridge (27 Mar 1784 – c. 1862 | Warwick RI – unknown) memoirist, landlord, property owner, pioneering African-American entrepreneur.


Virginia Louisa Minor (27 Mar 1824 – 14 Aug 1894 | Caroline County VA – St Louis MO) suffragist, social activist, co-founder / first president Woman’s Suffrage Association of Missouri.


Catherine [Kate] Fox (27 Mar 1837 – 02 Jul 1892 | Consecon ON – Brooklyn NY) folk figure, controversial spiritualist medium, considered one of the founders of modern spiritualist movement.

26 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Sophia McIlvaine Bledsoe Herrick (26 Mar 1837 – 09 Oct 1919 | Gambier OH – Greenwich CT) editor, science writer, literary critic.


Jessie Catherine Kinsley (26 Mar 1858 – 10 Feb 1938 | Oneida NY – Oneida NY) diarist, painter, folk artist, memoirist, letter correspondent, braided tapestry maker, Oneida Community member.


Alice Lee Hornor Snelling Moqué (26 Mar 1861 – 16 Jul 1919 | New Orleans LA – Washington DC) poet, essayist, lecturer, travel writer, suffragist, photographer, sportswoman, newspaper correspondent, early US female bicyclist, founding member / vice-president of National Congress of Mothers.


Bertha Van Hoosen (26 Mar 1863 – 07 Jun 1952 | Stony Creek MI – Romeo MI) essayist, physician, medical illustrator, women’s health advocate, autobiographical author, president / founding member American Medical Women’s Association.


Agnes Gertrude Regan (26 Mar 1869 – 30 Sep 1943 | San Francisco CA – Washington DC) lay leader, women’s activist, federal housing advocate, Latin American female exchange student activist, executive secretary of National Council of Catholic Women.

25 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Jennie Carter Benedict (25 Mar 1860 – 24 Jul 1928 | Louisville KY – Louisville KY) cook, columnist, cookbook author, restaurateur, autobiographical author.


Florence Elizabeth Smith Knapp (25 Mar 1875 – 26 Oct 1949 | Syracuse NY – Marcy NY) author, politician, Secretary of State of New York, Dean of College of Home Economics at Syracuse University, accused of maladministration / convicted of grand larceny, only woman elected to statewide office in New York [1924 – 1974].


Frances Glessner Lee (25 Mar 1878 – 27 Jan 1962 | Chicago IL – Bethlehem NH) artist, heiress, dollhouse expert, aka Mother of Forensic Science, created The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, founded The Nutshell Laboratories in Littleton NH, endowed first Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard University.


Bella Cohen Spewack (25 Mar 1899 – 29 Apr 1990 | Transylvania RO – Manhattan NY) diarist, reporter, lyricist, memoirist, screenwriter.


Ruth Winifred Howard Beckham (25 Mar 1900 – 12 Feb 1997 | Washington DC – Washington DC) social worker, child psychologist, pioneering African-American female PhD in psychology.

24 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Margaret A. E. Parkinson McLure (24 Mar 1811 – 31 Jan 1902 | Parkersburg WV – St Louis MO) aka Mother McLure, American Civil War Confederate sympathizer, founded Missouri Confederate Home, co-founded Daughters of the Confederacy.


Frances Jane [Fanny] Crosby van Alstyne (24 Mar 1820 – 12 Feb 1915 | Brewster NY – Bridgeport CT) poet, lyricist, composer, blind activist, mission worker, autobiographical author.


Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage (24 Mar 1826 – 18 Mar 1898 | Cicero NY – Chicago IL) artist, editor, author, suffragist, Theosophist, freethinker, Native American activist.


Candace Thurber Wheeler (24 Mar 1827 – 05 Aug 1923 | Delhi NY – New York NY) textile / interior designer, women’s arts supporter, aka Mother of Interior Design.


Bertha Hedges Spafford Vester (24 Mar 1878 – 27 Jun 1968 | Chicago IL – Jerusalem ISR) social service activist for girls / women, leader / member of The American Colony in Jerusalem [founded by her parents].

23 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Sarah Ann Lillie Bumstead Hardinge (23 Mar 1824 – 13 Oct 1913 | Boston MA – East Orange NJ) artist, author, teacher, inventor, watercolorist, self-taught painter, one of first females to depict Texas, patented photo-finishing process called Pearletta Pictures.


Sarah Elizabeth Doyle (23 Mar 1830 – 21 Dec 1922 | Providence RI – Providence RI) educator, feminist, women’s education activist, co-founded Rhode Island School of Design, funded Brown University’s Pembroke Hall [became Pembroke College].


Josephine Lazarus (23 Mar 1846 – 03 Feb 1910 | New York NY – Manhattan NY) book critic, essayist, Zionist, lecturer, biographer, transcendentalist, Emma Lazarus’ sister and co-publisher.


Fannie Merritt Farmer (23 Mar 1857 – 15 Jan 1915 | Medford MA – Boston MA) school principal, culinary expert, cookbook author.


Caroline Dale Parke Snedeker (23 Mar 1871 – 22 Jan 1956 | New Harmony IN – Bay St Louis MS) young-adult novelist, pen name Caroline Dale Owen.

22 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Maria Claypoole Peale (22 Mar 1787 – 27 Mar 1866 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) still-life / miniature portrait painter.


Calista Robinson Jones (22 Mar 1839 – 28 Jan 1913 | Chelsea VT – Bradford VT) educator, civic / social activist, president of Woman’s Relief Corps, founding chair / fundraiser for Woods Public Library Book Committee in Bradford.


Laura Jean Libbey (22 Mar 1862 – 25 Oct 1924 | Brooklyn NY – Brooklyn NY) prolific ‘dime’ romance novelist.


Elsie Hart Wilcox (22 Mar 1879 – 30 Jun 1954 | Hanalei HI – Kauai HI) community activist, Grove Farm Homestead preservationist, first woman to serve in Territory of Hawaii Senate.


Jessie Ethel Sampter (22 Mar 1883 – 25 Nov 1938 | New York NY – Givat Brenner IS) poet, educator, lesbian, Zionist pioneer, contracted polio at age 12.

21 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Mary Dixon Kies (21 Mar 1752 – 1837 | Killingly CT – Brooklyn NY) milliner, inventor, first female US patent holder [1809], invented new method of weaving straw with silk and thread.


Lucy Taft Fisher (21 Mar 1805 – 20 Jan 1854 | Wendell MA – Oregon City OR) pioneer, American Baptist Home missionary.


Antonia Maury (21 Mar 1866 – 08 Jan 1952 | Cold Spring NY – Dobbs Ferry NY) author, astronomer, published early catalog of stellar spectra.


Amy Eliza Tanner (21 Mar 1870 – 01 Feb 1956 | Owatonna MN – Worcester MA) author, psychologist, doctor of philosophy, spiritual medium researcher, theater owner / manager, girls / women’s club activist.


Anna Strunsky Walling (21 Mar 1877 – 25 Feb 1964 | Babinots RU – San Francisco CA) author, Socialist, novelist, essayist, social / political activist.

20 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Sophia Fowler Gallaudet (20 Mar 1798 – 13 May 1877 | near Guildford CT – Washington DC) born deaf, lobbyist for deaf education, founding matron of National Deaf-Mute College [later Gallaudet College].


Mary Elizabeth Moore Hewitt (20 Mar 1807 – 17 Sep 1884 | Malden MA – Chicago IL) poet, editor.


Cornelia Phillips Spencer (20 Mar 1825 – 11 Mar 1908 | Harlem NY – Cambridge MA) poet, hymnist, journalist, social historian, first female to receive honorary degree from University of North Carolina.


Lucy Myers Wright Mitchell (20 Mar 1845 – 10 Mar 1888 | Urumiah IR – Lausanne CH) American author, historian, ancient art expert.


Maria Longworth Nichols Storer (20 Mar 1849 – 30 Apr 1932 | Cincinnati OH – Paris FR) potter, patron of arts, Rookwood Pottery Company founder.

19 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Cornelia Grinnell Willis (19 Mar 1825 – 24 Mar 1904 | New Bedford MA – Washington DC) abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, columnist for New York Ledger, protected and purchased freedom for Harriet Jacobs, founding member of first US Woman’s Club, founded school for young women at the Willis Idlewild Estate.


Alice French (19 Mar 1850 – 09 Jan 1934 | Andover MA – Davenport IA) novelist, aka Octave Thanet.


Ellen Gates Starr (19 Mar 1859 – 10 Feb 1940 | Laona IL – Suffern NY) author, teacher, lecturer, bookbinder, child labor activist, anti-industrialist, co-founder of Hull-House, social / political reformer, Arts and Crafts Movement practitioner.


Senda Berenson Abbott (19 Mar 1868 – 16 Feb 1954 | Vilnius LT – Santa Barbara CA ) author, wrote first guide / rule book for women’s basketball, Instructor of Physical Culture at Smith College, aka The Mother of Women’s Basketball.


Edith Nourse Rogers (19 Mar 1881 – 10 Sep 1960 | Saco ME – Boston MA) aviator, politician, social welfare activist, created US GI Bill, veterans advocate, Women’s Army Corps founder, longest tenured US State Representative.