15 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

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.

03 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Barbara Hauer Fritchie (03 Dec 1766 – 18 Dec 1862 | Lancaster PA – Frederick City MD) folk figure, American Civil War Union activist.


Margaret [Peggy] O’Neal Eaton (03 Dec 1799 – 08 Nov 1879 | Washington DC – Washington DC) folk / political figure, involved in US President Andrew Jackson Petticoat Affair.


Louisa Susannah Cheves McCord (03 Dec 1810 – 23 Nov 1879 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) poet, author, suffragist, playwright, translator, political essayist.


Phoebe Apperson Hearst (03 Dec 1842 – 13 Apr 1919 | Franklin MO – Pleasanton CA) feminist, suffragist, philanthropist, anthropology museum founder, founding member of National Congress of Mothers, benefactor / director of Golden Gate Kindergarten Association, co-founded all-girls National Cathedral School in Washington, DC.


Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (03 Dec 1842 – 30 Mar 1911 | Dunstable MA – Boston MA) author, professor, environmental chemist, safety / industrial engineer, experimental researcher in domestic science, first to apply chemistry to study of nutrition, first American woman to obtain a degree in chemistry, first female student and professor at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology], first American woman accepted to any school of science and technology.

15 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

Ellen Louise Curtis Demorest (15 Nov 1824 – 10 Aug 1898 | Schuylerville NY – New York NY) milliner, fashion arbiter, magazine founder, tissue paper sewing pattern inventor / innovator.


Elizabeth [Lily] Benton Frémont (15 Nov 1842 – 28 May 1919 | Washington DC – Los Angeles CA) memoirist, letter correspondent, political family member.


Mary Emma Byrd (15 Nov 1849 – 13 Jul 1934 | Le Roy MI – Lawrence KS) author, educator, astronomer, photographer.


Margaret Amanada Haley (15 Nov 1861 – 05 Jan 1939 | Joliet IL – Chicago IL) teacher, unionist, teachers’ organizer, anti-corporate tax evasion, aka Lady Labor Slugger, first female / teacher to speak to National Education Association, first business representative of Chicago Teachers’ Federation.


Sara Josephine Baker (15 Nov 1873 – 22 Feb 1945 | Poughkeepsie NY – Princeton NJ) author, physician, essayist, lesbian, feminist, autobiographer, children’s public health activist / reformer, twice tracked down Typhoid Mary for quarantine.

07 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

Elizabeth Johns Neall Gay (07 Nov 1819 – 09 Dec 1907 | Hingham MA – Hingham MA) poet, writer, Quaker, pacifist, abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, delegate to first World Anti-Slavery Convention [1840].


Ann Eliza Worcester Robertson (07 Nov 1826 – 19 Nov 1905 | Brainerd TN – Muskogee OK) author, editor, teacher, missionary, translator, Muscogee / English linguistics scholar.


Charlotte [Lotta] Mignon Crabtree (07 Nov 1847 – 25 Sep 1924 | New York NY – Boston MA) actress, comedian, entertainer, philanthropist, theatrical company owner / manager, aka Nation’s Darling and Gold Rush Girl.


Leonora Speyer (07 Nov 1872 – 10 Feb 1956 | Washington DC – New York NY) poet, violinist, aka Lady Speyer, awarded 1927 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.


Eleanor Hague (07 Nov 1875 – 25 Dec 1954 | Los Angeles CA – Los Angeles CA) author, folklorist, Southwest US / Latin American music expert.

04 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

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.

03 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

Martha Laurens Ramsay (03 Nov 1759 – 10 Jun 1811 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) diarist, geneaologist, letter correspondent, private memoirs published by husband six weeks after her death.


Isabella Macdonald Alden (03 Nov 1841 – 05 Aug 1930 | Rochester NY – Palo Alto CA) author, editor, diarist, aka The Pansy, short story writer, adult education activist.


Mary Hannah Krout (03 Nov 1851 – 27 May 1927 | Crawfordsville IN – Crawfordsville IN) editor, author, journalist, suffragist, international lecturer.


Rosalie Barrow Edge (03 Nov 1877 – 30 Nov 1962 | New York NY – Kempton PA) birder, socialite, suffragist, national parks proponent, avian preservationist, founded Hawk Mountain and Emergency Conservation Committee.


Grace Hubbard Bell Fortescue (03 Nov 1883 – 24 Jun 1979 | Washington DC – Arlington VA) socialite, convicted of kidnapping-murdering an innocent man for allegedly raping her daughter.

15 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Elizabeth Van Lew (15 Oct 1818 – 25 Sep 1900 | Richmond VA – Richmond VA) diarist, memoirist, aka Crazy Bet, Civil War Union spy / ring leader, post-War postmistress.


Helen Hunt Fiske Jackson (15 Oct 1830 – 12 Aug 1885 | Amherst MA – San Francisco CA) poet, novelist, historian, pen name: H.H., Native American rights activist.


Fannie Jackson Coppin (15 Oct 1837 – 21 Jan 1913 | Washington DC – Philadelphia PA) educator, missionary, African-American, Bethel Institute co-founder.


Florence Adelaide Fowle Adams (15 Oct 1863 – 31 Jul 1916 | Chelsea MA – Pierce WA) orator, author, gesture / pantomime researcher, educator at Boston School of Oratory, focus on Delsarte method of dramatic expression, founded Boston Ideal Tableaux Company for young women staging tableaux vivants.


Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (15 Oct 1872 – 28 Dec 1961 | Wytheville VA – Washington DC) First Lady, memoirist, unofficial acting US President.

29 May | Herstorical.Reflections

Elizabeth Waties Allston Pringle (29 May 1845 – 05 Dec 1921 | Pawley’s Island SC – Charleston SC) author, diarist, publisher, rice farmer, slave holder, aka Patience Pennington.


Susan Elizabeth Frazier (29 May 1864 – 03 Feb 1924 | New York NY – New York NY) activist, African-American, public school educator, women’s issues / civil rights thought leader, president WWI Women’s Auxiliary of Old Fifteenth National Guard black troop.


Elizabeth Cutter Morrow (29 May 1873 – 24 Jan 1955 | Cleveland OH – Englewood NJ) poet, children’s book writer, first female Head of Smith College, grandmother of kidnapped baby Charles Lindbergh Jr.


Leila Mechlin (29 May 1874 – 04 May 1949 | Washington DC – Washington DC) author, art critic, manager, editor of The American Magazine of Art.


Helen Woodard Atwater (29 May 1876 – 26 Jun 1947 | Somerville MA – Washington DC) editor, author, home economics specialist, full-time editor of the Journal of Home Economics, aka The First Lady of American Nutrition.

24 May | Herstorical.Reflections

Ynés Mexia (24 May 1870 – 12 Jul 1938 | Washington DC – Berkeley CA) artist, botanist, essayist, lecturer, photographer, independent scholar.


Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth (24 May 1878 – 02 Jan 1972 | Oakland CA – Phoenix AZ) author, engineer, biographer, memoirist, psychologist, inventor / innovator.


Elsa Maxwell (24 May 1883 – 01 Nov 1963 | Keokuk IA – New York NY) author, columnist, songwriter, scriptwriter, professional hostess, treasure hunt / scavenger hunt innovator.


Mary Madeleva Evaline Wolff (24 May 1887 – 25 Jul 1964 | Cumberland WI – Boston MA) poet, abbess, medieval scholar, non-fiction author, aka Lady Abbess of Nun Poets.


Lois Fitzhugh Foster Blount (24 May 1896 – 02 Sep 1980 | Huntsville TX – Nacogdoches TX) teacher, historian, librarian, museum curator.

25 Mar | Herstorical.Reflections

Jennie Carter Benedict (25 Mar 1860 – 24 Jul 1928 | Louisville KY – Louisville KY) cook, columnist, cookbook author, restaurateur, autobiographical author.


Florence Elizabeth Smith Knapp (25 Mar 1875 – 26 Oct 1949 | Syracuse NY – Marcy NY) author, politician, Secretary of State of New York, Dean of College of Home Economics at Syracuse University, accused of maladministration / convicted of grand larceny, only woman elected to statewide office in New York [1924 – 1974].


Frances Glessner Lee (25 Mar 1878 – 27 Jan 1962 | Chicago IL – Bethlehem NH) artist, heiress, dollhouse expert, aka Mother of Forensic Science, created The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, founded The Nutshell Laboratories in Littleton NH, endowed first Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard University.


Bella Cohen Spewack (25 Mar 1899 – 29 Apr 1990 | Transylvania RO – Manhattan NY) diarist, reporter, lyricist, memoirist, screenwriter.


Ruth Winifred Howard Beckham (25 Mar 1900 – 12 Feb 1997 | Washington DC – Washington DC) social worker, child psychologist, pioneering African-American female PhD in psychology.