26 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Frances Manwaring Caulkins (26 Apr 1795 – 03 Feb 1869 | New London CT – New London CT) writer, memoirist, historian.

Alice Cary (26 Apr 1820 – 12 Feb 1871 | Mount Healthy OH – New York NY) poet, author, novelist, suffragist, first president of Sorosis.

Martha Farquharson Finley (26 Apr 1828 – 30 Jan 1909 | Chillicothe OH – Elkton MD) author, teacher, prolific serial novelist.

Erminnie Adele Platt Smith (26 Apr 1836 – 09 Jun 1886 | Marcellus NY – Jersey City NJ) author, folklorist, ethnologist, anthropologist.

Elizabeth Conwell Smith Willson (26 Apr 1842 – 13 Oct 1864 | Laurel IN – Cambridge MA) poet, two volumes of poetry published posthumously by husband.


19 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Sarah Kemble Knight (19 Apr 1666 – 25 Sep 1727 | Boston MA – New London CT) diarist, teacher, innkeeper, shopkeeper, traveled from Boston to New York on horseback / kept ongoing journey of the journey.

Sarah George Bagley Duro (19 Apr 1806 – 23 Jun 1883 | Candia NH – Brooklyn NY) labor leader / organizer, newspaper editor / publisher, women’s rights activist / advocate, co-founded Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA).

Calista H. Vinton (19 Apr 1807 – 18 Dec 1864 | Willington CT – Rangoon, BUR [now Myanmar]) Baptist missionary, teacher, preacher, mission school administrator.

Mary Louise Booth (19 Apr 1831 – 05 Mar 1889 | Yaphank NY – New York NY) writer, author, historian, magazine editor, French / English translator.

Ella Broadus Robertson (19 Apr 1872 – 05 Dec 1945 | Greenville SC – Louisville KY) nonfiction author.

16 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Sarah Ann Major Harris Fayerweather (16 Apr 1812 – 16 Nov 1878 | Norwich CT – Kingston RI) African-American activist, abolitionist, school integrationist.

Martha McClellan Brown (16 Apr 1838 – 31 Aug 1916 | Baltimore MD – Dayton OH) newspaper publisher, temperance activist, women’s college vice-president, Ohio Temperance leader.

Ida Elizabeth Smith Noyes (16 Apr 1853 – 05 Dec 1912 | Croton DE – Chicago IL) poet, speaker, club woman, member of Daughters of the American Revolution.

Mary Ellen Britton (16 Apr 1855 – 27 Aug 1925 | Lexington KY – Lexington KY) educator, suffragist, journalist, columnist, civil rights activist, first female African-American physician in Lexington, original member of KY Negro Education Association.

Emily Susan Hartwell (16 Apr 1859 – 02 Oct 1951 | Foochow CN – Oberlin OH) philanthropist, relief worker, orphanage founder, educational missionary, founder / teacher of girls’ school at Ponasang.

Grace Anne Bower anniebower71@gmail.com Hill (16 Apr 1865 – 01 Jan 1947 | Wellsville NY – Swarthmore PA) aka Marcia Macdonald, Christian novelist / short story writer.

11 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Margaret Moffette Houston (11 Apr 1819 – 03 Dec 1867 | Marion AL – Independence TX) political family member, First Lady of the Republic of Texas.

Lurana Waterhouse Sheldon Ferris (11 Apr 1862 – 11 Jun 1945 | Hadlyme CT – York ME) poet, lecturer, novelist, suffragist, freethinker, newspaper editor, anti-prohibitionist, pen names Richard Hackstaff, Stanley Norris, Grace Shirley.

Lillie Plummer Bliss (11 Apr 1864 – 12 Mar 1931 | Boston MA – New York NY) art patron / collector, philanthropist.

Mary White Ovington (11 Apr 1865 – 15 Jul 1951 | Brooklyn NY – Newton Highlands MA) suffragist, journalist, social / civil rights activist, NAACP co-founder.

Annie Dodge Wauneka (11 Apr 1910 – 10 Nov 1997 | Navajo Nation AZ – Flagstaff AZ) Navajo, health / education activist, Navajo Nation Council leader.

10 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Louise Chandler Moulton (10 Apr 1835 – 10 Aug 1908 | Pomfret CT – Boston MA) poet, critic, short-story writer, prose fiction author, literary salon hostess.

Lucy Higgs Nichols (10 Apr 1838 – 25 Jan 1915 | Halifax County NC – New Albany IN) escaped slave, aka Miss Lucy, Civil War Union nurse, sole female honorary member of Grand Army of the Republic.

Mary Emilee Holmes (10 Apr 1850 – 13 Feb 1906 | Chester NY – Rockford IL) geologist, educator, first female fellow of the Geological Society of America, co-founded seminary for young black women.

Helene Carola Nancy Sanford Dow (10 Apr 1874 – 08 Aug 1962 | Brussels BE – Derby CT) author, travel writer, aka Machesa di Poggio.

Margaret [Daisy] Sutermeister (10 Apr 1875 – 30 May 1951 | Milton MA – Milton MA) glass-plate photographer, plant nursery manager, a few years after her death 1800+ photographic works discovered stored in her barn.


01 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Martha Wadsworth Brewster (01 Apr 1710 – c. 1757 | Lebanon CT – Lebanon CT) poet, writer.

Mary Richardson Walker (01 Apr 1811 – 21 Nov 1877 | Baldwin ME – Forest Grove OR) diarist, frontier missionary to Spokan Indians, co-founded Columbia Maternal Association, one of first six women to travel over Rocky Mountains.

Agnes Repplier (01 apr 1855 – 15 nov 1950 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) author, essayist, biographer, cat lover / owner.

Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge (01 Apr 1866 – 30 Jul 1948 | Lexington KY – Chicago IL) author, social activist / scientist, higher education innovator, Progressive Era social reformer.

Aurelia Isabel Henry Reinhardt (01 Apr 1877 – 28 Jan 1948 | San Francisco CA – Palo Alto CA) peace activist, Unitarian moderator, Mills College president [1916 – 1943], prominent member / leader of numerous organizations.

30 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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Eliza Grew Jones (30 Mar 1803 – 28 Mar 1838 | Providence RI – Bangkok, Siam [THAI]) memoirist, Biblical historian, American Baptist missionary to Burma and Siam, created first Siamese-English dictionary, invented Romanized script for writing Siamese language.

Ann Sophia Winterbotham Stephens (30 Mar 1810 – 20 Aug 1886 | Derby CT – Newport RI) poet, author, novelist, essayist, magazine editor and founder.

Julia Elizabeth Christiansen Hoffman (30 Mar 1856 – 30 Nov 1934 | Manti UT – Portland OR) artist, arts patron, Arts and Crafts curator / teacher, eponym of Hoffman Gallery at OCAC, first person to walk across Willamette River Bridge, founded Arts and Crafts Society of Portland [later the Oregon College of Art and Craft].

Mary Whiton Calkins (30 Mar 1863 – 26 Feb 1930 | Hartford CT – Newton MA) author, researcher, philosopher, psychologist, autobiographical author, Wellesley professor, earned Harvard PhD but un-awarded because of gender, first female president of American Psychological Association and American Philosophical Association.

Helen Abbot Merrill (30 Mar 1864 – 01 May 1949 | Llewellyn Park NJ – Wellesley MA) educator, mathematician, textbook author.

21 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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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

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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.

12 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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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.