25 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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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.

25 Feb | Women.Words.Work

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Idawalley [Ida] Zorada Lewis-Wilson (25 Feb 1842 – 25 Oct 1911 | Newport RI – Newport RI) folk figure, lighthouse keeper, heroic lifesaver.

Anna Fisher Beiler (25 Feb 1848 – 01 Apr 1904 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne UK – Buffalo NY) lecturer, missionary, newspaper editor, philanthropist, temperance activist, Methodist Episcopal Secretary of the Bureau for District of Alaska.

Margaret Howell Davis Hayes (25 Feb 1855 – 18 Jul 1909 | Washington DC – Colorado Springs CO) Daughters of the Confederacy leader, Confederate political family member.

Daisie Adelle Davis (25 Feb 1904 – 31 May 1974 | Lizton IN – Palos Verdes Estates CA) author, nutritionist, cookbook writer, aka Jane Dunlap, LSD experimenter, natural food activist / advocate.

Mary Coyle Chase (25 Feb 1906 – 20 Oct 1981 | Denver CO – Denver CO) journalist, playwright, screenwriter, children’s novelist, 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, born Mary Agnes McDonough Coyle.

22 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Catherine Wolfe Bruce (22 Jan 1816 – 13 Mar 1900 | New York NY – New York NY) philanthropist, astronomy patron, namesake for Bruce Medal of Astronomical Society of the Pacific / Bruce moon crater / asteroid 323 Brucia.

Harriet Ward Sanborn Grosvenor (22 Jan 1823 – 07 Sep 1863 | Hampton Falls NH – Newburyport MA) poet, writer, novelist.

 

Jennie Fowler Willing (22 Jan 1834 – 06 Oct 1916 | Burford ON – New York NY) author, temperance reformer, founding member Women’s Christian Temperance Union [WCTU], founded New York Evangelistic Training School.

Marie Manning (22 Jan 1872 – 28 Nov 1945 | Washington DC – Washington DC) novelist, journalist, suffragist, aka Beatrice Fairfax, magazine founder, short fiction writer, autobiographical author, first US newspaper advice columnist.

Elsie Reford (22 Jan 1872 – 08 Nov 1967 | Perth ON – Montreal QC) art collector, pioneer horticulturist, outdoor sportswoman, WWI War Office German/English translator, created one of largest private gardens in Canada [open to public since 1962].

30 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Josefa [Chipita] Rodriguez (30 Dec 1799 – 13 Nov 1863 | Mexico, New Spain – San Patricio TX) Mexican-American innkeeper, convicted / hanged for murder, first and only woman hanged in Texas, subject of books / operas / newspaper and magazine articles, Texas Legislature resolved [100+ yrs later in 1985] “Josefa did not receive a fair trial and should not have been hanged”.

Agnes Irwin (30 Dec 1841 – 05 Dec 1914 | Washington DC – Philadelphia PA) author, editor, educator, girls’ school founder, political family member, first dean at Radcliffe College, principal at West Penn Square Seminary for Young Ladies [later renamed Agnes Irwin School].

Katharine Jeannette Bush (30 Dec 1855 – 19 Jan 1937 | Scranton PA – New Haven CT) author, essayist, zoologist, dictionary editor, first to earn PhD in Sciences at Yale.

Rachel Foster Avery (30 Dec 1858 – 26 Oct 1919 | Pittsburgh PA – Philadelphia PA) suffragist, journalist, political activist, adoptive and natural mother, organized International Council of Women, secretary for National American Woman Suffrage Association.

26 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte [E. D. E. N.] Southworth (26 Dec 1819 – 30 Jun 1899 | Washington DC – Washington DC ) novelist, short fiction writer.

Emily Wilder Leavitt (26 Dec 1836 – 02 Nov 1921 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, historian, professional genealogist, first female member New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Clara Southmayd Ludlow (26 Dec 1852 – 28 Sep 1924 | Easton PA – Washington DC) author, musician, scientist, aka C. S. Ludlow, music teacher, medical entomologist, first woman known to publish on taxonomy of mosquitoes and the incidence of mosquito-borne diseases.

Eva March Tappan (26 Dec 1854 – 29 Jan 1930 | Blackstone MA – Worcester MA) author, teacher, editor of Vassar [College] Miscellany, Latin / German college professor, children’s book author, historical / biographical novelist.

15 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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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.

03 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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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 | Women.Words.Work

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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 | Women.Words.Work

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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 | Women.Words.Work

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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.