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.

18 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Mary Ann Harris Gay (18 Mar 1828 – 06 Nov 1918 | Jones County GA – Decatur GA) poet, author, diarist, memoirist, American Confederate heroine.


Marilla Marks Young Ricker (18 Mar 1840 – 12 Nov 1920 | New Durham NH – Dover NH) author, attorney, suffragist, free-thinker, humanitarian, women’s rights activist.


Sally Berkeley Nelson Robins (18 Mar 1855 – 04 Feb 1925 | Gloucester County VA – Richmond VA) author, suffragist, genealogist, essayist, historian.


Jennie Harris Oliver (18 Mar 1864 – 03 Jun 1942 | Lowell MI – Oklahoma City OK) poet, Poet Laureate of Oklahoma.


Alice Cushing Donaldson Riley (18 Mar 1867 – 09 Aug 1955 | Morrison IL – Pasadena CA) children’s songs /operas / poetry / lullabies author, Drama League of America innovator.

17 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Queen Kaʻahumanu (17 Mar 1768 – 05 Jun 1832 | Maui HI – Mānoa Valley HI) aka The Feathered Mantle, Kingdom of Hawai’i regent / queen consort.


Elizabeth [Eliza] Kirby Withington (17 Mar 1825 – 04 Mar 1877 | New York NY – Ione CA) portrait and landscape photographer.


Emily Sartain (17 Mar 1841 – 17 Jun 1927 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) engraver, portrait painter, mezzo-tint artist.


Cornelia Maria Clapp (17 Mar 1849 – 31 Dec 1934 | Montague MA – Mount Dora FL) author, academic, zoologist, Marine biologist, earned both first and second American PhD degrees awarded to a woman.


E. Alice Munn Austen (17 Mar 1866 – 09 Jun 1952 | Staten Island NY – Staten Island NY) photographer, landscape artist, master tennis player, first Staten Island woman to own a car.

16 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Lucy Virginia French (16 Mar 1825 – 31 Mar 1881 | Accomack County VA – McMinnville TN) poet, author, songwriter, pen name L’Inconnue.


Anna B. Alcott Pratt (16 Mar 1831 – 13 Jul 1893 | Germantown PA – Concord MA) author, folk / literary family figure.


Clara Weaver Parrish (16 Mar 1861 – 11 Nov 1925 | Selma AL – New York NY) painter, illustrator, printmaker, stained glass window designer.


Sara Corning (16 Mar 1872 – 05 May 1969 | Chegoggin NS – Yarmouth NS) nurse, humanitarian, WWI Red Cross nurse, saved wartime orphans, founded orphanage on Island of Syros, graduate of Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Hanover, New Hamsphire.


Loja Saarinen (16 Mar 1879 – 21 Apr 1968 | Helsinki FI – Bloomfield Hills MI) author, sculptor, textile artist, Finnish-American, opened Studio Loja Saarinen, founded weaving department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, born Minna Carolina Mathilde Louise Gesellius.

15 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Harriet [Hattie] E. Wilson (15 Mar 1825 – 28 Jun 1900 | Milford NH – Quincy MA) Spiritualist, public speaker, housekeeper, first recognized female African-American novelist.


Alice Cunningham Fletcher (15 Mar 1838 – 06 Apr 1923 | Havana CU – Washington DC) author, sketch artist, ethnologist, social scientist, anthropologist.


Edith Maud Eaton (15 Mar 1865 – 07 Apr 1914 | Macclesfield UK – Montreal QC) journalist, aka Sui Sin Far, short fiction writer, British-Chinese-Canadian.


Mary Chase Perry Stratton (15 Mar 1867 – 15 Apr 1961 | Hancock MI – Detroit MI) ceramic artist, Pewabic Pottery co-founder, Arts and Crafts Movement member.


Henrietta [Hattie] Kanengeiser Carnegie (15 Mar 1886 – 22 Feb 1956 | Vienna AT – New York NY) milliner, immigrant, entrepreneur, fashion designer / doyenne.

14 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Narcissa Prentiss Whitman (14 Mar 1808 – 29 Nov 1847 | Prattsburgh NY – Waiilatpu [now Spokane] WA) diarist, letter correspondent, Whitman Massacre victim, missionary / mission founder, first white woman known to cross Rocky Mountains.


Lucy Hobbs Taylor (14 Mar 1833 – 03 Oct 1910 | Constable NY – Lawrence KS) women’s rights activist, first graduated / licensed US female dentist.


Eliza Frances Shepard Pumpelly (14 Mar 1840 – 05 Feb 1915 | Dorchester MA – Newport RI) socialite, mother, aka Mrs. Raphael Pumpelly, portrait painted by John Singer Sargent.


Anna Caroline Maxwell (14 Mar 1851 – 02 Jan 1929 | Bristol NY – New York NY) nurse, author, nurse educator, established Army Nursing Corps, aka The American Florence Nightingale.


Emily Gowan Ferguson Murphy (14 Mar 1868 – 27 Oct 1933 | Cookstown ON – Edmonton AB) jurist, author, magistrate, women’s rights activist, one of Canada’s Famous Five.

13 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Abigail Powers Fillmore (13 Mar 1798 – 30 Mar 1853 | Stillwater NY – Washington DC) US Presidential First Lady, book collector, private librarian.


Jane Elizabeth Hitchcock Jones (13 Mar 1813 – 13 Jan 1896 | Vernon NY – Brooklyn NY) author, suffragist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist.


Clara L. Brown Dyer (13 Mar 1849 – 02 Mar 1931 | Cape Elizabeth ME – Portland ME) artist, reader, lecturer, landscape painter, social club woman, one of first members of the Society of Art and the Portland Art League, organizing president of National Society of United States Daughters of 1812 in State of Maine. 


Phebe Estelle Spalding (13 Mar 1859 – 12 Mar 1937 | Westfield VT – Pomona CA) author, art historian, first female professor Pomona College.


Alice Bellvadore Sams Turner (13 Mar 1859 – 10 Jul 1915 | Mingo IA – Colfax IA) diarist, teacher, physician, social activist, public press contributor, co-founded Colfax Free Public Library, co-founded Turner Rest Home and Sanitarium, first female health officer in Iowa, first woman admitted to Iowa Health and Protective Association.

12 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Jane Means Appleton Pierce (12 Mar 1806 – 02 Dec 1863 | Hampton NH – Andover MA) US Presidential First Lady, aka The Shadow of the White House.


Elizabeth Crocker Bowers (12 Mar 1830 – 06 Nov 1895 | Stamford CT – Philadelphia PA) stage actress, theatrical / music academy manager.


Dora Wheeler Keith (12 Mar 1856 – 07 Dec 1940 | New York NY – Brooklyn NY) artist, designer, illustrator, realist painter, aka Mrs. Boudinot Keith.


Alice Harriman Browne (12 Mar 1861 – 24 Dec 1925 | Newport ME – Hollywood CA) poet, editor, novelist, publisher, short story writer, nonfiction author, aka The Only Woman Publisher in the World.


Clara Bowdoin Winthrop (12 Mar 1876 – 15 Mar 1969 | Boston MA – Boston MA) poet, art collector, philanthropist.