25 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Martha Coffin Wright (25 Dec 1806 – 04 Jan 1875 | Boston MA – Boston MA) Quaker, feminist, abolitionist, writing and painting teacher, Declaration of Sentiments signer, Underground Railroad activist conductor.

Hannah Maria Conant Tracy Cutler (25 Dec 1815 – 11 Feb 1896 | Becket MA – Ocean Springs MS) author, essayist, physician, abolitionist, social reformer, suffrage / temperance movements activist / leader.

Louisa [Lou] Hawkins Canby (25 Dec 1818 – 27 Jun 1889 | Paris KY – Portland OR) humanitarian, Union Army wife, charitable activist, aka The Angel of Santa Fe, converted Santa Fe home into hospital to nurse Confederate soldiers during US Civil War.

Clarissa [Clara] Harlowe Barton (25 Dec 1821 – 12 Apr 1912 | North Oxford MA – Glen Echo MD) teacher, patent clerk, humanitarian, pioneering nurse, founded Red Cross.

24 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Sarah Bradlee Fulton (24 Dec 1740 – 09 Nov 1835 | Dorchester MA – Medford MA) political activist, active member of Daughters of Liberty, aka Mother of the Boston Tea Party, volunteer spy and nurse in American Revolutionary War.

Esther Clark Short (24 Dec 1806 – 28 Jun 1862 | Tioga County PA – Vancouver WA) Algonquin-German-American pioneer landowner, businesswoman, aka The Pioneer Mother, Vancouver, Washington settler / co-founder.

Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (24 Dec 1807 – 02 Nov 1834 | Centre DE – Tecumseh MI) poet, writer, children’s anti-slavery author, first US female writer to focus on abolition of slavery as her principal theme.

Jane Marie Bancroft Robinson (24 Dec 1847 – 29 May 1932 | West Stockbridge MA – Detroit MI) author, scholar, historian, professor, genealogist, philanthropist.

23 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Ada Langworthy Collier (23 Dec 1843 – 06 Aug 1919 | Dubuque IA – Dubuque IA) author writing sketches, short stories, poems, novelist, clubwoman / social activist, pen names Anna L. Cunningham and Marguerite.

Helen Cecilia De Silver Abbot Michael (23 Dec 1857 – 29 Nov 1904 | Philadelphia PA – Boston MA) author, chemist, biologist, physician, hospital founder, plant analysis expert researcher.

Louisa Melvin Delos Mars (23 Dec 1859 – c. 1926 | Providence RI – Boston MA) singer, composer, librettist, first African-American woman to have her opera composition produced, one of first black graduates of New England Conservatory, one of first black women to achieve recognition as a composer [Note: none of her works survive].

Harriet Monroe (23 Dec 1860 – 26 Sep 1936 | Chicago IL – Arequipa PER) poet, editor, scholar, biographer, playwright, literary critic, patron of arts, autobiographical author, Poetry magazine editor / founder / publisher.

Anna Farquhar Bergengren (23 Dec 1865 – unknown | Brookville IN – unknown) editor, author, memoirist, journalist, foreign correspondent, pen name Margaret Allston.

22 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Ann Hasseltine Judson (22 Dec 1789 – 24 Oct 1826 | Bradford MA – Amherst MM) author, translator, essayist, educator, catechism writer, aka Ann of Ava, one of first female American foreign missionaries to India and Burma.

Josephine Brawley Hughes (22 Dec 1839 – 22 Mar 1926 | Meadville PA – Tucson AZ) Western writer, pioneer, suffragist, social activist, women’s advocate, temperance activist, aka Mother of Methodism, managed Arizona Daily Star newspaper, established first girls’ school in Southwest US, first female public school teacher in Arizona, founded Arizona Chapter of Women’s Christian Temperance Union [WCTU].

Maria Teresa Carreño (22 Dec 1853 – 12 Jun 1917 | Caracas VE – New York NY) singer, composer, pianist, conductor, master teacher, Venezuelan-American, aka The Valkyrie of the Piano.

Aline Bernstein (22 Dec 1880 – 07 Sep 1955 | New York NY – New York NY) American author, set / costume designer, novelist, autobiographical author, Museum of Costume Art co-founder, first female member of Designers Union.

21 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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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’s Words & Works

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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’s Words & Works

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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’s Words & Works

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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’s Words & Works

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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’s Words & Works

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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.