21 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Julia Ann Gleason Stone (21 Dec 1818 – 21 Jul 1900 | Warren MA – Cleveland OH) seamstress, wife of well-known Midwest industrialist / New England bridge builder Amasa Stone.

Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman (21 Dec 1829 – 24 May 1889 | Hanover NH – Boston MA) poet, pioneer deaf-blind student, developed unique tapping alphabet and handwriting system.

Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune (21 Dec 1830 – 03 Jun 1922 | Amelia VA – New York NY) novelist, essayist, cookbook writer, short story writer, social etiquette commentator, pen name Marion Harland.

Henrietta Szold (21 Dec 1860 – 13 Feb 1945 | Baltimore MD – Jerusalem EY) author, memoirist, Jewish-American, women’s US Zionist leader, Hadassah Women’s Organization founder.

20 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Amy Kirby Post (20 Dec 1803 – 29 Jan 1889 | Jericho NY – Rochester NY) abolitionist, suffragist leader, Underground Railroad conductor, American National Women’s Suffrage Movement co-founder.

Laura Smith Haviland (20 Dec 1808 – 20 Apr 1898 | Kitley ON – Grand Rapids MI) abolitionist, suffragist, social reformer, temperance activist, Underground Railroad activist, orphanage founder / director.

Mary Porter Tileston Hemenway (20 Dec 1820 – 06 Mar 1894 | New York NY – Boston MA) philanthropist, children’s education advocate, founded Boston Normal School of Cookery and Normal School of Gymnastics, post-Civil War restorationist.

Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck (20 Dec 1827 – 24 Aug 1910 | Bellvale NY – Delaware County NY) hydrotherapist, newspaper founder / editor, women’s dress reform activist.

19 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Mary Ashton Rice Livermore (19 Dec 1820 – 23 May 1905 | Boston MA – Melrose MA) editor, author, essayist, journalist, memoirist, suffragist, newspaper founder, women’s biographer, Universalist minister, women’s rights activist, temperance advocate, Civil War Sanitary Commission member.

Jane Cunningham Croly (19 Dec 1829 – 23 Dec 1901 | New York NY – Lakewood NJ) suffragist, memoirist, journalist, columnist, Sorosis women’s press club founder, General Federation of Women’s Clubs founder.

Ada Lydia Howard (19 Dec 1829 – 02 Mar 1907 | Temple NH – Methuen MA) educator, first female president of Wellesley College.

Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson (19 Dec 1830 – 12 May 1913 | Old Deerfield MA – Amherst MA) poet, writer, editor, traveler, intimate and sister-in-law of Emily Dickinson.

18 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Phoebe Worrall Palmer Knapp (18 Dec 1807 – 02 Nov 1874 | New York NY – New York NY) author, hymnist, religious pioneer, Christian music advocate.

Sarah Tittle Bolton (18 Dec 1814 – 05 Aug 1893 | Newport KY – Indianapolis IN) poet, author, women’s / property rights activist, aka Indiana’s Pioneer Poet.

Josephine Sophia White Griffing (18 Dec 1814 – 18 Feb 1872 | Hebron CT – Washington DC) suffragist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, Freedmen’s movement member [Note: no images of this woman are known to exist].

Henrietta Muir Edwards (18 Dec 1849 – 10 Nov 1931 | Montreal QC – Fort Macleod AB) author, suffragist, women’s rights reformer.

17 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Deborah Sampson Gannett (17 Dec 1760 – 29 Apr 1827 | Plympton MA – Sharon MA) diarist, memoirist, political activist, Continental soldier.

Delia Ann Webster (17 Dec 1817 – 18 Jan 1904 | Vergennes VT – Jeffersonville IN) teacher, abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, girls’ school founder, aka The Petticoat Abolitionist.

Celia Logan Connelly (17 Dec 1837 – 18 Jun 1904 | Philadelphia PA – New York NY) author, actress, aka L. Fairfax, journalist, playwright, translator, social activist / organizer.

Kate M. Youngman (17 Dec 1841 – 29 Sep 1910 | Kingston NY – Tokyo JP) nurse, missionary, founded Ihaien Leprosy Hospital in Tokyo.

16 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Josephine Shaw Lowell (16 Dec 1843 – 12 Oct 1905 | Roxbury MA – New York NY) Unitarian, nonfiction author, Progressive reform leader, consumers league founder. 

Helen Frances [Fanny] Garrison Villard (16 Dec 1844 – 05 Jul 1928 | Boston MA – Dobbs Ferry NY) author, speaker, suffragist, founding member National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP].

Mary Hartwell Catherwood (16 Dec 1847 – 26 Dec 1902 | Luray OH – Chicago IL) biographer, historical romance novelist, short fiction magazine writer, pen names Mary Hartwell and Lewtrah.

Clara Endicott Sears (16 Dec 1863 – 25 Mar 1963 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, historian, preservationist, founded Fruitlands Museum.

15 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Anne Hollingsworth Wharton (15 Dec 1845 – 29 Jul 1928 | Southampton Furnace PA – Philadelphia PA) author, essayist, genealogist, American Colonial / Revolutionary historian.

Vida Dutton Scudder (15 Dec 1861 – 09 Oct 1954 | Madurai IND – Wellesley MA) author, essayist, lecturer, professor, memoirist, autobiographer, social gospel movement / welfare activist.

Myra Albert Wiggins (15 Dec 1869 – 13 Jan 1956 | Salem OR – Seattle WA) author, painter, pictorial photographer, Photo-Secession member.

Zephine Humphrey Fahnestock (15 Dec 1874 – 1959 | Philadelphia PA – Dorset VT) novelist, anti-war activist.

Eslanda [Essie] Cardozo Goode Robeson (15 Dec 1896 – 13 Dec 1965 | Washington DC – New York NY) African-American actor, author, anthropologist, civil rights activist.

14 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Mary Tappan Wright (14 Dec 1851 – 25 Aug 1916 | Steubenville OH – Cambridge MA) novelist, short story writer.

Lavinia Norman (14 Dec 1882 – 22 Jan 1983 | Montgomery WV – Washington DC) lifelong educator, French / English / Latin teacher, original founding member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority / first sorority founded by African-American women at Howard University.

Helen Steketee (14 Dec 1882 – 23 Aug 1974 | Grand Rapids MI – Grand Rapids MI) artist, still-life / landscape painter.

Jane Bailey Cowl (14 Dec 1883 – 22 Jun 1950 | Boston MA – Santa Monica CA) playwright, stage / film actress, WWII co-director of NYC Stage Door Canteen, wrote in collaboration with Jane Murfin, often used joint pseudonym Allan Langdon Martin.

Ethel Browne Harvey (14 Dec 1885 – 02 Sep 1965 | Baltimore MD – Falmouth MA) author, zoologist, embryologist, women’s educational rights activist / advocate.

13 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln (13 Dec 1788 – 12 Apr 1869 | Elizabethtown KY – Coles County IL) pioneer, educational mentor, political family figure, Abraham Lincoln’s step-mother.

Mary Todd Lincoln (13 Dec 1818 – 16 Jul 1882 | Lexington KY – Springfield IL) political family member, US Presidential First Lady, born 30 years to the day after Abraham Lincoln’s step-mother Sarah Bush Lincoln.

Pauline Jacobus (13 Dec 1840 – 1930 | Chicago IL – Dousman WI) potter, founded Pauline Pottery company, opened first art pottery studio in Chicago.

Emily Carr (13 Dec 1871 – 02 Mar 1945 | Victoria BC – Victoria BC) artist, author, memoirist, landscape painter, Canadian cultural icon.

Eleanor Robson Belmont (13 Dec 1879 – 24 Oct 1979 | Wigan UK – New York NY) actress, patron of arts, philanthropist, British-American.

12 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Martha Jane Coston (12 Dec 1826 – 09 Jul 1904 | Baltimore MD – Philadelphia PA) businesswoman, Coston emergency machine flare inventor / purveyor.

Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper (12 Dec 1835 – 11 Dec 1896 | Cazenovia NY – San Francisco CA) editor, educator, suffragist, philanthropist, women’s rights activist, kindergarten advocate / founder, treasurer for General Federation of Women’s Clubs, founded Jackson Street Kindergarten Association [in 1879, later renamed Golden Gate Kindergarten Association].

Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls (12 Dec 1839 – 20 Apr 1924 | Brookfield WI – De Smet SD) aka Ma Ingalls, folk / literary / mother / pioneer figure.

Charlotte Frances Felt Wilder (12 Dec 1839 – 03 Dec 1916 | Templeton MA – Manhattan KS) author, novelist, Methodist, civic leader, club woman, magazine writer, juvenile religious writer.

Charlotte [Lottie] Digges Moon (12 Dec 1840 – 24 Dec 1912 | Albemarle County VA – Kobe Harbor JP) teacher, evangelist, missionary, one of first US women to earn Master’s Degree in Languages.