12 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Frances Dana Barker Gage (12 Oct 1808 – 10 Nov 1884 | Marietta OH – Greenwich CT) poet, author, activist, reformer, abolitionist.


Augusta Emma Simmons Stetson (12 Oct 1842 – 12 Oct 1928 | Waldoboro ME – Rochester NY) poet, pastor, author, reader, fundraiser, Christian Science leader, excommunicated for alleged false teaching and insubordination.


Julia Richman (12 Oct 1855 – 24 Jul 1912 | New York NY – Paris FR) educator, textbook author, educational reformer.


Mabel Thorp Boardman (12 Oct 1860 – 17 Mar 1946 | Cleveland OH – Washington DC) author, philanthropist, American Red Cross leader.

11 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Ann Eliza Schuyler Bleecker (11 Oct 1752 – 23 Nov 1783 | New York, Colony of New York – Albany NY) poet, short story writer, letter correspondent.


Anna Warner Bailey (11 Oct 1758 – 19 Jan 1851 | Groton CT – Groton CT) folk figure, storyteller, tavern keeper, Revolutionary War heroine, aka Mother Bailey and The Petticoat Patriot.


Margaretta Bleecker Faugères (11 Oct 1771 – 09 Jan 1801 | New York, Colony of New York – Brooklyn NY) poet, editor, author, playwright, political activist.


Harriet Boyd Hawes (11 Oct 1871 – 31 Mar 1945 | Boston MA – Washington DC) nurse, author, archeologist, relief worker, discoverer / director of one of first Minoan archaeological excavation sites.

10 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Sarah Thompson, Countess Rumford (10 Oct 1774 – 02 Dec 1852 | Concord NH – Concord NH) educator, philanthropist, first US woman to be named Countess, founded school for motherless girls.


Harriet Atwood Newell (10 Oct 1793 – 30 Nov 1812 | Haverhill MA – Port Louis MUS) memoirist, first wave US Christian missionary to India, Burma, and Mauritius.


Josephine [J.P.] Pollard (10 Oct 1834 – 15 Aug 1892 | New York NY – New York NY) poet, editor, author, hymn writer, religious / historical children’s writer, founding member of Sorosis professional women’s club.


Caroline M. Hewins (10 Oct 1846 – 04 Nov 1926 | Roxbury MA – Hartford CT) librarian, travel writer, library activist, children’s author, letter correspondent, autobiographical author, founded first Children’s Reading Room in Hartford [CT], aka First Lady of the Library, founded Education Club for Parents and Teachers [later the Parent-Teachers Association], first woman speaker at annual meeting of American Library Association, founded first Connecticut State Library Committee [later CT State Library Commission].


Eleanor Elizabeth Gordon (10 Oct 1852 – 06 Jan 1942 | Hamilton IL – Keokuk IA) author, educator, suffragist, Unitarian minister, women’s rights activist.

09 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (09 Oct 1823 – 05 Jul 1893 | Wilmington DE – Washington DC) lawyer, teacher, publisher, journalist, African-American, anti-slavery / Underground Railroad activist, first black woman publisher in Canada and North America.


Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (09 Oct 1830 – 21 Feb 1908 | Watertown MA – Watertown MA) neo-classical sculptor.


Elizabeth Chase Akers Allen (09 Oct 1832 – 07 Aug 1911 | Strong ME – Tuckahoe NY) poet, author, journalist, pen names: Florence Percy and Elizabeth Akers.


Caroline [Carrie] Olivia Mayhew Speake (09 Oct 1834 – 20 Mar 1906 | Alabama US – Alabama US) poet, artist, musician [note: allegorical image created as no images of this woman or her works were located.


Elaine Goodale Eastman (09 Oct 1863 – 22 Dec 1953 | Mount Washington MA – Hadley MA) poet, author, novelist, educator, Native American Sioux advocate, aka The Sister of the Sioux.

08 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Caroline Howard Gilman (08 Oct 1794 – 15 Sep 1888 | Boston MA – Washington DC) poet, editor, author, publisher.


Abby May Alcott (08 Oct 1800 – 25 Nov 1877 | Boston MA – Concord MA) Unitarian, social activist, journal keeper, literary folk figure, one of first female social workers in Boston.


Emily Blackwell (08 Oct 1826 – 07 Sep 1910 | Bristol UK – York Cliffs ME) physician, professor of obstetrics, sister of Elizabeth Blackwell, second female MD graduate at Case Western Reserve, third female MD graduate in US, organizer of Civil War Women’s Central Relief Association / post-war United States Sanitary Commission, co-founded [with sister] NYC Women’s Medical College.


Louisa Lander (08 Oct 1826 – 1923 | Salem MA – Washington DC) expatriate US sculptor, narrative figure sculptor, American Civil War volunteer nurse.


Zara A. Mahurin Wilson (08 Oct 1840 – unknown | Burnettsville IN – unknown) lawyer, suffragist, women’s activist.

07 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Ann Eliza Brainerd Smith (07 Oct 1819 – 06 Jan 1909 | St Albans VT – St Albans VT) poet, author, novelist, essayist.


Abby Maria Hemenway (07 Oct 1828 – 24 Feb 1890 | Ludlow VT – Chicago IL) Vermont historian, religious convert, pioneering author / editor / publisher of Vermont Historical Gazetteers.


Margaretta [Maggie] Fox Kane (07 Oct 1833 – 08 Mar 1893 | Consecon ON – New York NY) folk figure, Canadian spiritualist, Catholic convert, one of the [in]famous Fox Sisters, co-established Spiritualist movement.


Mary Dana Hicks Prang (07 Oct 1836 – 07 Nov 1927 | Syracuse NY – Melrose MA) author, art educator, kindergarten pioneer, peace activist / reformer, Social Arts Club founder, earned Masters in Education from Harvard University aged 85.


Elizabeth McCourt Tabor (07 Oct 1854 – 07 Mar 1935 | Oshkosh WI – Leadville CO) aka Baby Doe, American folk figure, namesake of The Ballad of Baby Doe opera, aka Best Dressed Woman in the West.

06 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Sarah Pugh (06 Oct 1800 – 01 Aug 1884 | Alexandria VA – Philadelphia PA) teacher, Quaker, suffragist, abolitionist, non-violent activist.


Myra Belle Martin (06 Oct 1861 – unknown | Grafton NH – unknown) author, teacher, financier, social activist, art historian, business executive, founded Patria Club of New York, first female president of Eastern Connecticut Teachers’ Association.


Emily Palmer Cape (06 Oct 1865 – 1953 | New York NY – Florida US) artist, painter, agnostic, co-author, travel writer, freethiker, first female co-ed at Columbia University, co-founded Society of Independent Artists.


Enid Yandell (06 Oct 1869 – 13 Jul 1934 | Louisville KY – Boston MA) author, suffragist, women’s rights advocate, pioneering female sculptor, founded Brancock School for artists on Marchtha’s Vineyard, World War I Red Cross war orphans worker.

05 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Rebecca Mann Pennell Dean (05 Oct 1821 – 05 Mar 1890 | Utica NY – New York NY) artist, professor, Antioch College co-founder.


Sara J. Hatcher Duncan (05 Oct 1869 – 18 Jul 1906 | Cahaba AL – Selma AL) author, schoolteacher, African-American social activist, founded Missionary Searchlight newspaper, president of African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Women’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society.


Elizabeth Coleman White (05 Oct 1871 – 11 Nov 1954 | New Lisbon NJ – Whitesbog NJ) agricultural specialist, child care / child labor educational activist, co-developer of commercialized cultivated blueberry, first female in American Cranberry Association, organized New Jersey Blueberry Cooperative Association.


Berenice Crumb Wyer (05 Oct 1873 – 29 Jan 1960 | St. Louis MO – Brookline MA) pianist, composer, lecturer, art song writer, composed for piano / organ / violin.


Belle Linder Moskowitz (05 Oct 1877 – 02 Jan 1933 | Harlem NY – New York NY) social worker / reformer, press agent / political advisor, women’s rights activist / organizer.

04 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Eliza McCardle Johnson (04 Oct 1810 – 15 Jan 1876 | Telford TN – Greeneville TN) US Presidential First Lady, informal Presidential tutor / educator.


Jane Elizabeth [Jenny] Twichell Kempton (04 Oct 1835 – 13 Mar 1921 | Dublin NH – Los Angeles CA) operatic contralto, operatic voice teacher, concert tour singer, aka The Favorite American Contralto, founding member of Dominant Music Club (LA), aka Mother of Music in Southern California.


Jane Maria Read (04 Oct 1853 – unknown | Barnstable MA – unknown) poet, artist, author, human / animal portrait painter, tAugustht arts / languages / mathematics.


Eliza Kellas (04 Oct 1864 – 10 Apr 1943 | Moores Forks NY – Troy NY) educator, headmistress of Emma Willard School, co-founder of Russell Sage College.


Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau (04 Oct 1867 – 28 Jan 1922 | Exeter NH – Paris FR) artist, academic, portrait painter, first American woman to exhibit at the Paris Salon.

03 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Narcissa Clark Chisholm Owen (03 Oct 1831 – 12 Jul 1911 | Webbers Falls, Cherokee Nation – Washington DC) artist, educator, Cherokee, memoirist, painter, finger weaver, tapestry artist.


Anne Eugenia Felicia Morgan (03 Oct 1845 – 23 Dec 1909 | Oberlin OH – Santa Clara County CA) author, philosopher, professor of classics, focused on philosophical interpretation of literature, invented aesthetic-athletic exercise game called Bellecycle.


Emily Lilian Whiting (03 Oct 1847 – 30 Apr 1942 | Olcott NY – Boston MA) poet, author, journalist, literary editor, art / travel writer, esoteric spiritual thinker / philosopher.


Jeannette Leonard Gilder (03 Oct 1849 – 17 Jan 1916 | Flushing NY – New York NY) writer, pioneering female journalist, autobiographer, literary magazine co-founder.


Eleanora Giulia Amalia Duse (03 Oct 1858 – 21 Apr 1924 | Vigevano IT – Pittsburgh PA) aka Duse, actively / publicly bisexual, first woman featured on cover of Time magazine, honored by First Lady Frances Cleveland with first-ever White House tea held for an actress.