08 May | Herstorical.Reflections

Phillis Wheatley (08 May 1753 – 05 Dec 1784 | Gambia or Senegal AF – Boston MA) poet, letter correspondent, first female African-American published author.


Ella Elvira Gibson (08 May 1821 – 08 Mar 1901 | Winchendon MA – Barre MA) poet, editor, educator, essayist, Freethinker, pamphleteer, ordained minister, first female US Army chaplain.


Augusta Evans Wilson (08 May 1835 – 09 May 1909 | Columbus GA – Mobile AL) author, novelist, Southern literature pioneer.


Lucretia Longshore Blankenburg (08 May 1845 – 29 Mar 1937 | New Lisbon OH – Philadelphia PA) author, club woman, civic leader, social activist, genealogist, political family member.


Mary Alice Bird Babb (08 May 1850 – 21 Nov 1926 | Mount Pleasant IA – Aurora IL) women’s education activist, founding member Philanthropic Educational Organization [PEO].

20 Apr | Herstorical.Reflections

Cynthia Farrar (20 Apr 1795 – 25 Jan 1862 | Marlborough NH – Ahmednagar IND) educator, pioneering single / unMarried American female foreign missionary in India.


Matilda Vanderpoel (20 Apr 1862 – 21 Oct 1950 | Haarlemmermeer NL – Chicago IL) artist, social activist, portrait / landscape painter, Dutch-born American, teacher at Colorado Chautauqua, co-founded Blue Bird Cottage / Blue Bird Lodge / Holiday House Association ‘to conserve the health of tired working women’.


Helen Dortch Longstreet (20 Apr 1863 – 03 May 1963 | Carnesville GA – Milledgeville GA) postmistress, aka The Fighting Lady, Confederate memorialist, civil rights activist, environmental preservationist.


Mary Agnes Meara Chase (20 Apr 1869 – 24 Sep 1963 | Iroquois County IL – Bethesda MD) author, botanist, feminist, typesetter, illustrator, proofreader, grasses specialist, women’s activist.


Carmelita Chase Hinton (20 Apr 1890 – 16 Jan 1983 | Omaha NE – Concord MA) farmer, gardener, visionary, adventurer, progressive educator, founding director of The Putney School in Putney, Vermont.

13 Apr | Herstorical.Reflections

Julia Amanda Sargent Wood (13 Apr 1825 – 09 Mar 1903 | New London NH – St Cloud MN) poet, author, novelist, newspaper editor, pen name Minnie Mary Lee.


Helen Maria Winslow (13 Apr 1851 – 27 Mar 1938 | Westfield VT – Shirley MA) poet, novelist, journalist, Club Woman, co-founded Daughters of Vermont and New England Women’s Press Association.


Lucy Craft Laney (13 Apr 1854 – 23 Oct 1933 | Macon GA – Augusta GA) educator, school principal, founded first black kindergarten, first children’s school, and first nursing school in Augusta GA.


Sarah Hall Ladd (13 Apr 1860 – 30 Mar 1927 | Somerville MA – Carmel CA) pictorial / landscape photographer, Christian Science movement activist.


Anna Easter Brown (13 Apr 1879 – 05 Mar 1957 | West Orange NJ – Rocky Mount NC) educator, history teacher, one of original founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority for female African-American students.

08 Apr | Herstorical.Reflections

Belle L. Pettigrew (08 Apr 1839 – 14 Jul 1912 | Ludlow VT – Sioux Falls SD) educator, missionary, world traveler, head of missionary training department of American Baptist Home Mission Society.


Elizabeth Bacon Custer (08 Apr 1842 – 04 Apr 1933 | Monroe MI – New York NY) author, lecturer, widow, historical figure promoter.


Julia Ellsworth Ford (08 Apr 1861 – 14 Aug 1950 | New York NY – New York NY) artist, author, socialite, art collector, philanthropist, salon doyenne.


Orelia Key Bell (08 Apr 1864 – 02 Jun 1959 | Atlanta GA – Pasadena CA) poet, author, Christian Science hymnist, Boston Marriage partner, known for writing her poems in gold leaf on china plates.


Albion Fellows Bacon (08 Apr 1865 – 10 Dec 1933 | McCutchanville IN – Evansville IN) author, reformer, social / housing activist.

03 Apr | Herstorical.Reflections

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 | Herstorical.Reflections

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 | Herstorical.Reflections

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 | Herstorical.Reflections

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 | Herstorical.Reflections

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 | Herstorical.Reflections

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.