15 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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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’s Words & Works

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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’s Words & Works

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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’s Words & Works

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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.

11 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Leonora Sansay (11 Dec 1773 – 12 Nov 1821 | Philadelphia PA – Newent UK) novelist, painter, memoirist, political / literary figure, aka Mary Hassal, née Honora Davern, artificial flower-making business owner.

Clemence Sophia Harned Lozier (11 Dec 1813 – 26 Apr 1888 | Plainfield NJ – New York NY) feminist, suffragist, physician, founded / directed New York Medical College and Hospital for Women, president of New York City Suffrage League and National Women’s Suffrage Association.

Mary Belle King Sherman (11 Dec 1862 – 15 Jan 1935 | Albion NY – Denver CO) author, club woman, national park activist, aka The National Park Lady.

Annie Jump Cannon (11 Dec 1863 – 13 Apr 1941 | Dover DE – Cambridge MA) author, astronomer, pioneer cataloguer / developer of contemporary stellar classification.

Louise Brown Leslie (11 Dec 1869 – 07 Oct 1948 | Perry ME – Detroit MI) editor, journalist, women’s advice columnist, pen name: Nancy Brown, aka Dear Nancy.

10 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Caroline Mehitable Fisher Sawyer (10 Dec 1812 – 19 May 1894 | Newton MA – Somerville MA) poet, author, essayist, translator, social activist, short fiction writer, Universalist’s women’s and children’s societies advocate.

Jane [Jeanie] McDowell Foster (10 Dec 1829 – 17 Jan 1903 | Pittsburgh PA – Pittsburgh PA) diarist, wife of songwriter Stephen Foster, aka Jane Denny McDowell Wiley, inspiration for song “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”.

Emily Dickinson (10 Dec 1830 – 15 May 1886 | Amherst MA – Amherst MA) poet, baker, literary figure.

Mary Louisa Parmalee Peebles (10 Dec 1833 – 25 Apr 1915 | Lansingburgh NY – Lansingburgh NY) children’s author, pen name: Lynde Palmer.

Anna Mebus Martin (10 Dec 1843 – 10 Jul 1925 | DEU – Mason County TX) seamstress, entrepreneur, textile trader, Texas rancher, German-American, bank owner / founder, first female bank president born outside US.

09 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Sarah [Tabitha] Babbitt (09 Dec 1799 – 10 Dec 1853 | Hardwick MA – Harvard MA) Shaker, inventor, weaver, tool-maker, member of Harvard Shaker Community, invented false teeth / circular saw / spinning wheel head [but did not patent any of her inventions].

Elizabeth Buffum Chace (09 Dec 1806 – 12 Dec 1889 | Providence RI – Providence RI) Quaker, abolitionist, social reformer, women’s rights activist, president Rhode Island Suffrage, Pembroke College co-founder.

Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton (09 Dec 1832 – 08 Oct 1909 | Belchertown MA – Seoul SK) Methodist Episcopal missionary, first Woman’s Foreign Missionary in Korea, founded Tal Syeng Day School for Women in Seoul and the Training School for Bible Women.

Emma Abbott (09 Dec 1850 – 05 Jan 1891 | Chicago IL – Salt Lake City UT) operatic soprano, impresario / opera company founder.

Ida Sophia Scudder (09 Dec 1870 – 23 May 1960 | Ranipet IND – Kodaikanal IND) doctor, medical missionary, women’s health activist, treated plague / leprosy / cholera, founded Christian Medical College & Hospital in Vellore, India.

08 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Mary Aloysia Hardey (08 Dec 1809 – 17 Jun 1886 | Piscataway MD – Paris FR) educator, administrator, religious sister, established 25 convents and schools in US, Cuba, and Canada, first American-born Mother Superior of the Society of the Sacred Heart.

Lucy Addison (08 Dec 1861 – 13 Nov 1937 | Upperville VA- Washington DC) African-American educator, school principal.

Mary Kimball Morgan (08 Dec 1861 – 13 Oct 1948 | Janesville WI – Elsah IL) Christian Science educator, founding president of Principia Schools and College in St. Louis MO.

Nellie Verne Walker (08 Dec 1874 – 10 Jul 1973 | Red Oak IA – Colorado Springs CO) sculptor.

Stella George Stern Perry (08 Dec 1877 – 07 Nov 1956 | New Orleans LA – Brooklyn NY) poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, nonfiction author.

07 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Abigail Hopper Gibbons (07 Dec 1801 – 16 Jan 1893 | Philadelphia PA – New York NY) teacher, abolitionist, social activist / reform leader, Civil War Union field nurse / hospital matron, co-founded Women’s Prison Association of NYC.

Rachel Littler Bodley (07 Dec 1831 – 15 Jun 1888 | Cincinnati OH – Philadelphia PA) author, archivist, university leader, Dean of Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, first female professor of chemistry at US medical college.

Myrta Lockett Avary (07 Dec 1857 – 14 Feb 1946 | Halifax VA – Atlanta GA) author, journalist, memoirist.

Sibyl Sanderson Terry (07 Dec 1864 – 16 May 1903 | Sacramento CA – Paris FR) operatic soprano, autobiographical author.

Willa Cather (07 Dec 1873 – 24 Apr 1947 | Gore VA – New York NY) editor, author, novelist, teacher.

06 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Susanna Strickland Moodie (06 Dec 1803 – 08 Apr 1885 | Bungay UK – Toronto ON) English-Canadian poet, artist, novelist, memoirist, children’s author.

Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm (06 Dec 1815 – 22 Jul 1884 | Pittsburgh PA – Lawrenceville PA) lecturer, feminist, social reformer, Civil War nurse, autobiographer, anti-slavery advocate, first woman founder / publisher of US newspaper.

Nina [Bonina] Morais Cohen (06 Dec 1855 – 19 Feb 1918 | Philadelphia PA – Minneapolis MN) magazine writer, English literature teacher, leader in Minneapolis’ woman’s club movement, founding member of National Council of Jewish Women.

Minerva Josephine Chapman (06 Dec 1858 – 14 Jun 1947 | Sand Bank [Altmar] NY – Palo Alto CA) artist, author, still life / landscape / miniature portrait painter.

Clara Lipman Mann (06 Dec 1864 – 22 Sep 1952 | Chicago IL – New York NY) playwright, stage actress.