04 Nov | Women’s Words & Works

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Sarah Hall Benham Boardman (04 Nov 1803 – 01 Sep 1845 | Alstead NH – Saint Helena Island SC) author, hymnist, translator, missionary to Burma.

Grace Greenwood Bedell Billings (04 Nov 1848 – 02 Nov 1936 | Westfield NY – Delphos KS) folk figure, letter correspondent with then-future US President Lincoln suggesting he grow a beard.

Anita Newcomb McGee (04 Nov 1864 – 05 Oct 1940 | Washington DC – Washington DC) author, physician, biographer, medical pioneer, expert professional organizer, author of manual on military nursing, military women’s rights activist / advocate, wrote the Army Reorganization Act of 1901 / founded US Army Nurse Corps, first female Acting Assistant US Army Surgeon General.

Jean McKishnie Blewett (04 Nov 1862 – 19 Aug 1934 | Scotia ON – Chatham ON) poet, author, journalist, pen name Katherine Kent.

Gena Brascombe Tinney (04 Nov 1881 – 26 Jul 1977 | Picton ON – New York NY) pianist, composer, music educator, choir conductor, founded Branscombe Chorale.

21 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

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Caroline Carmichael McIntosh Fillmore (21 Oct 1813 – 11 Aug 1881 | Morristown NJ – Buffalo NY) heiress, eccentric, second wife of US President Millard Fillmore.

Martha [Mattie] Whitney Summerhayes (21 Oct 1844 – 12 May 1926 | Nantucket MA – Schenectady NY) memoirist, travel writer, world traveler, pioneer Army wife, autobiographical author.

Margaret Eleanor Theodora Addison (21 Oct 1868 – 18 Dec 1940 | Horning’s Mills ON – Toronto ON) diarist, educator, first dean of women at Victoria College, Ontario.

Josephine Lovett (21 Oct 1877 – 17 Sep 1958 | San Francisco CA – Rancho Santa Fe CA) stage actress, adapter, screenwriter, riding club co-founder.

Julia Lynch Olin (21 Oct 1882 – 11 Mar 1961 | Glen Cove NY – New York NY) author, publisher, member of Bahá’í faith [later expelled], autobiographical author, co-founded New History Society NYC, formed educational association / monthly magazine The Caravan of East and West.

20 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

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Ellen Hardin Walworth (20 Oct 1832 – 23 Jul 1915 | Jacksonville IL – Washington DC) poet, author, editor, attorney, historian, biographer, social activist, domestic violence survivor / advocate, historic preservationist, Daughters of the American Revolution co-founder.

Elizabeth [Bessie] Bradwell Helmer (20 Oct 1858 – 10 Jan 1927 | Chicago IL – Chicago IL) attorney, publisher, Great Chicago Fire survivor, women’s rights activist / advocate.

Frances Alice Kellor (20 Oct 1873 – 04 Jan 1952 | Columbus OH – New York NY) author, essayist, social reformer / investigator, focus on women and immigrants.

Nellie Mooney McClung (20 Oct 1873 – 01 Sep 1951 | Chatsworth ON – Victoria BC ) novelist, legislator, suffragist, social activist, non-fiction author, one of Canada’s Famous Five.

Inglis Fletcher (20 Oct 1879 – 30 May 1969 | Alton IL – Wilmington NC) novelist, playwright.

07 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

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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.

26 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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Eliza Maria Posey Street (26 Aug 1792 – 02 Feb 1847 | Fredericksburg VA – Agency IA) pioneer, folk / historical figure, settler wife of US Indian Agent, deeded 640 acres of Sac / Fox land.

Sarah [Annie] Turner Wittenmyer (26 Aug 1827 – 02 Feb 1900 | Adams County OH – Sanatoga PA) author, hymnist, historian, relief worker, social reformer, temperance activist.

Isabel Hampton Robb (26 Aug 1860 – 15 Apr 1910 | Welland ON – Cleveland OH) textbook author, first Superintendent of Nurses at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, nurse theorist / advocate / curriculum developer.

May Lamberton Becker (26 Aug 1873 – 27 Apr 1958 | New York NY – Epsom UK) editor, author, journalist, anthologist, literary critic, social / charitable activist, Reader’s Guide columnist, pro-British during WWII, active member of Books Across the Sea, namesake for Library Reading Room dedicated by T. S. Eliot [1960].

Zona Gale Breese (26 Aug 1874 – 27 Dec 1938 | Portage WI – Chicago IL) author, novelist, essayist, playwright, newspaper writer, education / pacifism / women’s rights activist.

03 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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Graceanna Lewis (03 Aug 1821 – 25 Feb 1912 | West Chester PA – Media PA) author, suffragist, naturalist, illustrator, ornithologist, Underground Railroad activist.

Nina Clifford (03 Aug 1851 – 14 Jul 1929 | Chatham ON – Detroit MI) madam, folk figure, brothel owner, born Johanna Crow.

Caroline [Carrie] Celestia Ingalls Swanzey (03 Aug 1870 – 02 Jun 1946 | Montgomery KS – Pennington SD) typesetter, folk / literary / pioneer figure.

Sophia Kindrick Alcorn (03 Aug 1883 – 28 Nov 1967 | Stanford KY – Stanford KY) educator, deaf-blind disability rights activist, invented Tadoma Method and Alcorn Symbols, American Association for the Blind (AFB) advocate, first female elder of Stanford Presbyterian Church.

Margaret [Maggie] Kuhn (03 Aug 1905 – 22 Apr 1995 | Buffalo NY – Philadelphia PA) writer, social activist, elder rights advocate, Gray Panther founder, autobiographical author.

29 Jul | Women’s Words & Works

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Isabella Marshall Graham (29 Jul 1742 – 27 Jul 1814 | Lanarkshire SCT – New York NY) Scottish-American educator, philanthropist, founded Society for Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children / one of first women’s societies to engage in active public benevolence and successfully petition for shares of public welfare funds.

Julia Gardiner Tyler (29 Jul 1820 – 10 Jul 1889 | East Hampton NY – Richmond VA) aka Lady Presidentress, Confederate plantation owner / overseer, first US Presidential First Lady to be photographed.

Caroline Frances Putnam (29 Jul 1826 – 14 Jan 1917 | Warren MA – Lottsburg VA) educator, abolitionist, Unitarian, civil rights activist, lifelong companion of Sallie Holley, co-founded Holley School for freed slaves.

Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt (29 Jul 1861 – 14 Feb 1884 | Chestnut Hill MA – New York NY) political family figure, President Theodore Roosevelt’s first wife.

Theresa Mary Gowanlock Johnson (29 Jul 1863 – 12 Sep 1899 | Tintern ON – Lincoln ON) author, pioneer, Upper Canadian, Indian captive / survivor.

27 Jul | Women’s Words & Works

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Matilda Ann [Linda] Judson Richards (27 Jul 1841 – 16 Apr 1930 | West Potsdam NY – Boston MA) nurse, author, memoirist, nursing educator, first professional trained US nurse, established nursing schools in US and Japan, created first system for keeping individual medical records for hospitalized patients.

Helen Gerrells Stoddard (27 Jul 1850 – 31 Dec 1940 | Sheboygan WI – Dallas TX) educator, politician, community activist, Texas Women’s University co-founder, Women’s Christian Temperance Union leader, first woman to run for Congress in California.

Elizabeth Ann Plankinton (27 Jul 1853 – 1923 | Milwaukee WI – Lucerne CHE) humanitarian, philanthropist, artists / artisans patron, funded illustrated volume of Plankinton Memorial Book, funded first YWCA building in Milwaukee, aka Miss Lizzie and the Municipal Patroness.

Lucy Maynard Salmon (27 Jul 1853 – 14 Feb 1927 | Fulton NY – Poughkeepsie NY) author, historian, professor of history, new social history advocate.

Augusta Stowe Gullen (27 Jul 1857 – 25 Sep 1943 | Mount Pleasant ON – Toronto ON) physician, social reformer, women’s rights activist, first woman to gain a medical degree in Canada, Women’s College Hospital co-founder.

02 Jul | Women’s Words & Works

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Ellen Liddy Watson (02 Jul 1860 – 20 Jul 1889 | Aran Lake ON – Natrona County WY) folk figure, aka Cattle Kate, Ella Watson, Mrs James Averell, accused of cattle rustling, only woman ever lynched in Wyoming.

Grace Raymond Hebard (02 Jul 1861 – 11 Oct 1936 | Clinton IA – Laramie WY) author, historian, suffragist, pioneering scholar, political economist.

Harriet Brooks Pitcher (02 Jul 1876 – 17 Apr 1933 | Exeter ON – Montreal QC) professor, researcher, first female to earn Master’s degree at McGill University, Canada’s first female nuclear physicist, focused on nuclear radioactivity and transmutations.

Lucy Sprague Mitchell (02 Jul 1878 – 15 Oct 1967 | Chicago IL – New York NY) children’s book author, adult non-fiction author, autobiographical author, first female dean UCAL Berkeley, child development / education researcher, founded Bureau of Educational Experiments [became Bank Street College].

Corinne Douglas Robinson Alsop Cole (02 Jul 1886 – 23 Jun 1971 | Orange NJ – Avon CT) state politician, national political family member.

30 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Zilpah Polly Grant Banister (30 May 1794 – 03 Dec 1874 | Norfolk CT – Newburyport MA) educator, pamphleteer, women’s seminary founder.

Persis Foster Eames Albee (30 May 1836 – 07 Dec 1914 | Newry ME – Templeton MA) aka PFE Albee and The First Avon Lady, women’s business trainer / advocate, professional saleswoman for California Perfume Company [later Avon Products].

Katrina Trask (30 May 1853 – 08 Jan 1922 | Brooklyn NY – Saratoga Springs NY) poet, memoirist, playwright, philanthropist, co-founder of Yaddo artists’ retreat, aka Kate Nicholes Trask.

Florence Casler (30 May 1869 – 15 Mar 1954 | Welland ON – Yolo CA) plumber, groundbreaking female architect / contractor / real estate developer of downtown Los Angeles, first female / then sole female director Peoples Bank of Los Angeles.

Josephine Preston Peabody (30 May 1874 – 04 Dec 1922 | New York NY – Cambridge MA) poet, dramatist.