03 Apr | Women.Words.Work

Mathilde Franziska Giesler Anneke (03 Apr 1817 – 25 Nov 1884 | Hiddinghausen PRU – Milwaukee WI) German-American author, socialist, essayist, educator, abolitionist, girls’ school founder, women’s rights activist.


Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford (03 Apr 1835 – 14 Aug 1921 | Calais ME – Deer Island MA) poet, novelist, short story writer.


Emma Crow Cushman (03 Apr 1839 – 15 Sep 1920 | St. Louis MO – Bar Harbor ME) poet, author, lesbian, focus on psychic experience research.


Mary Scott [Mamie] Harrison McKee (03 Apr 1858 – 28 Oct 1930 | Indianapolis IN – Indianapolis IN) political family member, de facto White House Hostess / First Lady for father US President Benjamin Harrison, later estranged from her father.


Elizabeth Evelyn Wright (03 Apr 1872 – 14 Dec 1906 | Talbotton GA- Battle Creek MI) African-American educator, humanitarian, black children’s advocate, founded Denmark Industrial Institute [now Voorhees College].

18 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Mary Ann Harris Gay (18 Mar 1828 – 06 Nov 1918 | Jones County GA – Decatur GA) poet, author, diarist, memoirist, American Confederate heroine.


Marilla Marks Young Ricker (18 Mar 1840 – 12 Nov 1920 | New Durham NH – Dover NH) author, attorney, suffragist, free-thinker, humanitarian, women’s rights activist.


Sally Berkeley Nelson Robins (18 Mar 1855 – 04 Feb 1925 | Gloucester County VA – Richmond VA) author, suffragist, genealogist, essayist, historian.


Jennie Harris Oliver (18 Mar 1864 – 03 Jun 1942 | Lowell MI – Oklahoma City OK) poet, Poet Laureate of Oklahoma.


Alice Cushing Donaldson Riley (18 Mar 1867 – 09 Aug 1955 | Morrison IL – Pasadena CA) children’s songs /operas / poetry / lullabies author, Drama League of America innovator.

03 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Una Hawthorne (03 Mar 1844 – 10 Sep 1877 | Concord MA – London UK) artistic / literary family member, daughter of artist Sophia Hawthorne / author Nathaniel Hawthorne.


Isabel Weld Perkins Anderson (03 Mar 1876 – 03 Nov 1948 | Boston MA – Washington DC) poet, editor, heiress, travel writer, philanthropist, children’s author, WWI ARC nurse, aka Mrs Larz Anderson.


Margaret Chase Going Woodhouse (03 Mar 1890 – 12 Dec 1984 | Victoria BC – Sprague CT) educator, politician, economics professor, aka Chase Woodhouse, founder / director Institute of Women’s Professional Relations.


Grace Lumpkin (03 Mar 1891 – 03 Mar 1980 | Milledgeville GA – Columbia SC) feminist, public speaker, proletarian novelist, US Communist, later in life anti-Communist Christian convert.


Beatrice Wood (03 Mar 1893 – 12 Mar 1998 | San Francisco CA – Ojai CA) artist, potter, aka The Mama of Dada.

16 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey (16 Feb 1829 – 04 Jul 1879 | Natchez MS – New Orleans LA) US Southern novelist, lecturer, historian, philanthropist.


Mary Houston Allen (16 Feb 1839 – 14 May 1927 | Coweta County GA – Shanghai CN) women’s rights / education activist, Methodist Episcopal foreign missionary wife, graduated with high honors from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.


Harriet [Hatty] Sophia Rowley (16 Feb 1853 – 06 Oct 1943 | New York NY – Springfield MA) commonplace book writer.


Laura Coates Reed (16 Feb 1857 – 29 Nov 1938 | West Chester PA – Kansas City MO) poet, editor.


Edith Dimock Glackens (16 Feb 1876 – 28 Oct 1955 | Hartford CT – Hartford CT) aka Teed, painter, visual artist, ironic / satirical watercolorist.

11 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Jarena Lee (11 Feb 1783 – 1855 | Cape May NJ – New Jersey US) memoirist, religious writer, autobiographical author, pioneering female traveling African Methodist Episcopal [AME] minister.


Lydia Maria Child (11 Feb 1802 – 20 Oct 1880 | Medford MA – Wayland MA) author, activist, novelist, journalist, Unitarian, abolitionist, children’s book writer.


Adelaide Rossiter Judd (11 Feb 1821 – 19 Dec 1904 | Torrington CT – Seneca Falls NY) political family member.


Minerva Amanda Sanders (11 Feb 1837 – 20 Mar 1912 | Marblehead MA – Pawtucket RI) teacher, first librarian of the Pawtucket Free Public Library, pioneer library services innovator.


Maria Louise Eve (11 Feb 1842 – 05 Apr 1900 | Augusta GA – Augusta GA) poet, prose writer, educator, social reformer.

24 Jan | Women: Words & Works

Catherine Elizabeth Brewer Benson (24 Jan 1822 – 27 Feb 1908 | Augusta GA – Macon GA) first US female to earn Bachelor degree, awarded by Wesleyan College [Macon GA].


Catharine [Cate] Merrill (24 Jan 1824 – 30 May 1900 | Corydon IN – Indianapolis IN) author, educator, Civil War nurse, second female US university professor.


Mary Susan Noailles Murfree (24 Jan 1850 – 31 Jul 1922 | Murfreesboro TN – Murfreesboro TN) novelist, short story writer, aka Charles Egbert Craddock.


Katherine [Kate] Harwood Waller Barrett (24 Jan 1857 – 23 Feb 1925 | Falmouth VA – Alexandria VA) physician, sociologist, humanitarian, philanthropist, social activist / reformer, founded first home for unwed mothers / National Florence Crittenton Mission.


Edith Newbold Jones Wharton (24 Jan 1862 – 11 Aug 1937 | New York NY – Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt FR) novelist, designer, short story writer.

04 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Helen Kendrick Johnson (04 Jan 1844 – 03 Jan 1917 | Hamilton NY – Rochester NY) poet, activist, travel writer, children’s author.


Esther B. Singleton (04 Jan 1865 – 02 Jul 1930 | Baltimore MD – Stonington CT) prolific author, journalist, Shakespeare researcher.


Frances Hammell Gearhart (04 Jan 1869 – 04 Apr 1959 | Sagetown IL – Pasadena CA) teacher, landscape artist, watercolorist, lino / woodcut printmaker, pioneer American fine art color printmaker.


Selena Sloan Butler (04 Jan 1872 – 09 Oct 1964 | Thomasville GA – Los Angeles CA) African-American, organized first black women’s Red Cross chapter, founder / first president National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers Association [NCCPT].


Allie Mae Carpenter (04 Jan 1887 – 02 Jul 1978 | Prairie Home MO – Denver CO) artist, etcher, oil painter, pastellist, printmaker, tapestry artist, watercolorist, china painter, art educator, aka A.M. Carpenter, interior designer / decorator.

31 Oct | Women.Words.Work

Josephine Louise Le Monnier Newcomb (31 Oct 1816 – 07 Apr 1901 | Baltimore MD – New Orleans LA) philanthropist, founded H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College at Tulane University.


Eliza Boardman Burnz (31 Oct 1823 – 19 Jul 1903 | Essex UK – Walters Park PA) author, librarian, suffragist, founded Burnz’ Fonic Shorthand, shorthand inventor / educator / promoter, aka Mother of Women Stenographers, advocated Dianism sexual practice [physical contact without ejaculation].


Marie Louise Newland Andrews (31 Oct 1849 – 07 Feb 1891 | Bedford IN – Connersville IN) poet, editor, author, few works extant / ever published, founding member / secretary of Western Association of Writers.


Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (31 Oct 1852 – 13 Mar 1930 | Randolph MA – Metuchen NJ) children’s poet / short fiction writer, adult novelist / short fiction writer.


Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon Low (31 Oct 1860 – 17 Jan 1927 | Savannah GA – Savannah GA) organizer / founder / promoter of Girl Guides / Girls Scouts USA.

29 Oct | Women.Words.Work

Lucy Goodale Thurston (29 Oct 1795 – 13 Oct 1876 | Marlborough MA – Honolulu HI) teacher, memoirist, letter correspondent, first Christian missionary wife in Hawaii.


[Susan] Helen Aldrich DeKroyft (29 Oct 1818 – 25 Oct 1915 | Rochester NY – Dansville NY) poet, adult-onset blindness, aka The Blind Woman Poet.


Harriet Powers (29 Oct 1837 – 01 Jan 1910 | Clarke County GA – Clarke County GA) folk artist, famous quiltmaker, freed African-American slave.


Elizabeth Flint Wade (29 Oct 1849 – 01 Dec 1915 | Cassville NY – Norwalk CT) poet, author, magazine writer, pictorial photographer, president of Scribblers literary club, editor of American Journal of Photography.


Josephine Beall Willson Bruce (29 Oct 1853 – 15 Feb 1923 | Philadelphia PA – Kimball WV) socialite, women’s rights advocate, editor of NACW journal National Notes, principal at Tuskegee University, first black female teacher in Cleveland public schools, active member National Organization of Afro-American Women.

14 Oct | Women.Words.Work

Laura Askew Haygood (14 Oct 1845 – 29 Apr 1900 | Watkinsville GA – Shanghai CN) educator, missionary, memoirist, letter correspondent.


Mary Theodora [Dora] Starbuck Ebert (14 Oct 1856 – 29 Feb 1924 | Winston NC – Old Richmond NC) boarding house owner / operator, Moravian church and settlement family member.


Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore (14 Oct 1856 – 03 Nov 1928 | Clinton IA – Geneva CH) writer, geographer, photographer, Washington DC cherry-tree-planting advocate, first female board member of National Geographic Society.


Winifred Sweet Black Bonfils (14 Oct 1863 – 25 May 1936 | Chilton WI – San Francisco CA) reporter, journalist, columnist, pen names Annie Laurie and Winifred Black.