09 Apr | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Mary Rollins Lightner (09 Apr 1818 – 17 Dec 1913 | Lima NY – Minersville UT) Mormon pioneer, member LDS church, rescued looted pages of LDS DOctrine and Convenants, one of plural wives of JoSeph Smith, Brigham Young, and Adam Lightner.

Maria Susanna Cummins (09 Apr 1827 – 01 Oct 1866 | Salem MA – Dorchester MA) short fiction writer, girls’ / young adult serial novelist.

Mary Strong Kinney (09 Apr 1859 – 17 Jun 1938 | Salem OR – Seaside OR) suffragist, politician, Oregon State Senator, sawmill owner / manager.

Margaret Mann (09 Apr 1873 – 22 Aug 1960 | Cedar Rapids IA – Cedar Rapids IA) author, librarian, archivist, professor, pioneer in library cataloging and library science education.

Florence Beatrice Price (09 Apr 1887 – 03 Jun 1953 | Little Rock AR – Chicago IL) solo / choral / orchestral / symphonic composer, first African-American woman recognized as symphonic composer and to have composition played by major orchestra.


29 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr (29 Mar 1831 – 10 Mar 1919 | Ulverston UK – Queens NY) English-American novelist, short story writer.

Augusta Louise Pierce Tabor (29 Mar 1833 – 30 Jan 1895 | Augusta ME – Pasadena CA) folk figure, social activist, mining entrepreneur / millionaire.

Isabella Thoburn (29 Mar 1840 – 01 Sep 1901 | St Clairsville OH – Lucknow IN) educator, Methodist Episcopal missionary, high school / women’s college founder in India.

Frances Wisebart Jacobs (29 Mar 1843 – 03 Nov 1892 | Harrodsburg KY – Denver CO) philanthropist, school teacher, founded United Way, social / community activist, founded Denver’s Jewish Hospital Association, aka Denver’s Mother of Charities.

Lou Henry Hoover (29 Mar 1874 – 07 Jan 1944 | Waterloo IA – New York NY) linguist, scholar, translator, public speaker, Girl Scout enthusiast / supporter, US Presidential First Lady, first First Lady to speak fluent Chinese, first First Lady to offer regular national radio broadcasts.

13 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Abigail Powers Fillmore (13 Mar 1798 – 30 Mar 1853 | Stillwater NY – Washington DC) US Presidential First Lady, book collector, private librarian.

Jane Elizabeth Hitchcock Jones (13 Mar 1813 – 13 Jan 1896 | Vernon NY – Brooklyn NY) author, suffragist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist.

Clara L. Brown Dyer (13 Mar 1849 – 02 Mar 1931 | Cape Elizabeth ME – Portland ME) artist, reader, lecturer, landscape painter, social club woman, one of first members of the Society of Art and the Portland Art League, organizing president of National Society of United States Daughters of 1812 in State of Maine. 

Phebe Estelle Spalding (13 Mar 1859 – 12 Mar 1937 | Westfield VT – Pomona CA) author, art historian, first female professor Pomona College.

Alice Bellvadore Sams Turner (13 Mar 1859 – 10 Jul 1915 | Mingo IA – Colfax IA) diarist, teacher, physician, social activist, public press contributor, co-founded Colfax Free Public Library, co-founded Turner Rest Home and Sanitarium, first female health officer in Iowa, first woman admitted to Iowa Health and Protective Association.

17 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Ellen Sturgis Hooper (17 Feb 1812 – 03 Nov 1848 | Boston MA – Boston MA) poet, Transcendentalist.

Sallie Holley (17 Feb 1818 – 12 Jan 1893 | Canandaigua NY – New York NY) author, educator, abolitionist, co-founded Holley School for freed slaves, active member of American Anti-Slavery Association, lifelong companion / work partner with Caroline F. Putnam.

Rose Terry Cooke (17 Feb 1827 – 18 Jul 1892 | West Hartford CT – Pittsfield MA) poet, author, humorist, women’s biographer.

Margaret Warner Morley (17 Feb 1858 – 12 Dec 1923 | Montrose IA – Washington DC) novelist, educator, biologist.

Jessie Love Smith Gaynor (17 Feb 1863 – 20 Feb 1921 | St Louis MO – Webster Groves MO) author, musician, children’s music composer.

16 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Virginia Caroline Tunstall Clay-Clopton (16 Jan 1825 – 23 Jan 1915 | Nash County NC – Gurley AL) author, memoirist, political wife, suffragist, United Daughters of the Confederacy member.

Ellen Russell Emerson (16 Jan 1837 – 12 Jun 1907 | New Sharon ME – Cambridge MA) author, sketcher, ethnologist.

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (16 Jan 1843 – 19 Jun 1864 | Afton NY – New Orleans LA) US folk figure, aka Lyons Wakeman, letter correspondent, disguised Civil War Union soldier.

Ella Flagg Young (16 Jan 1844 – 26 Oct 1918 | Buffalo NY – Washington DC) author, essayist, theorist, educator, first female superintendent of major school district, first female president of National Education Association [NEA].

Margaret Wilhelmina Wilson (16 Jan 1882 – 06 Oct 1973 | Traer IA – Droitwich UK) novelist, aka G.D. Turner, 1924 Pulitzer Prize for The Able McLaughlins.

23 Dec | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Ada Langworthy Collier (23 Dec 1843 – 06 Aug 1919 | Dubuque IA – Dubuque IA) author writing sketches, short stories, poems, novelist, clubwoman / social activist, pen names Anna L. Cunningham and Marguerite.

Helen Cecilia De Silver Abbot Michael (23 Dec 1857 – 29 Nov 1904 | Philadelphia PA – Boston MA) author, chemist, biologist, physician, hospital founder, plant analysis expert researcher.

Louisa Melvin Delos Mars (23 Dec 1859 – c. 1926 | Providence RI – Boston MA) singer, composer, librettist, first African-American woman to have her opera composition produced, one of first black graduates of New England Conservatory, one of first black women to achieve recognition as a composer [Note: none of her works survive].

Harriet Monroe (23 Dec 1860 – 26 Sep 1936 | Chicago IL – Arequipa PER) poet, editor, scholar, biographer, playwright, literary critic, patron of arts, autobiographical author, Poetry magazine editor / founder / publisher.

Anna Farquhar Bergengren (23 Dec 1865 – unknown | Brookville IN – unknown) editor, author, memoirist, journalist, foreign correspondent, pen name Margaret Allston.

08 Dec | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Mary Aloysia Hardey (08 Dec 1809 – 17 Jun 1886 | Piscataway MD – Paris FR) educator, administrator, religious sister, established 25 convents and schools in US, Cuba, and Canada, first American-born Mother Superior of the Society of the Sacred Heart.

Lucy Addison (08 Dec 1861 – 13 Nov 1937 | Upperville VA- Washington DC) African-American educator, school principal.

Mary Kimball Morgan (08 Dec 1861 – 13 Oct 1948 | Janesville WI – Elsah IL) Christian Science educator, founding president of Principia Schools and College in St. Louis MO.

Nellie Verne Walker (08 Dec 1874 – 10 Jul 1973 | Red Oak IA – Colorado Springs CO) sculptor.

Stella George Stern Perry (08 Dec 1877 – 07 Nov 1956 | New Orleans LA – Brooklyn NY) poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, nonfiction author.

04 Dec | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Angelia [Angie] Louise Thurston French Newman (04 Dec 1837 – 15 Apr 1910 | Montpelier VT – Lincoln NE) poet, editor, author, teacher, lecturer, Spanish-American War hospital inspector.

Cornelia Foster Bradford (04 Dec 1847 – 15 Jan 1935 | Granby NY – Montclair NJ) social worker, kindergarten advocate, social activist and reformer, founded Whittier House [first settlement house in New Jersey].

Mary Reed (04 Dec 1854 – 08 Apr 1943 | Lowell OH – Chandag IND) missionary social worker, leprosy colony missionary.

Julia Evelyn Ditto Young (04 Dec 1857 – 19 Apr 1915 | Buffalo NY – Buffalo NY) poet, novelist.

Lillian Russell (04 Dec 1861 – 06 Jun 1922 | Clinton IA – Pittsburgh PA) singer, actress, columnist, suffragist, born Helen Louise Leonard.

14 Oct | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

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.

08 Sep | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage (08 Sep 1828 – 04 Nov 1918 | Syracuse NY – New York NY) teacher, heiress, philanthropist, arts / museum patron, progressive education advocate, founded Russell Sage College for women.

Phoebe Wilson Couzins (08 Sep 1842 – 06 Dec 1913 | St Louis MO – St Louis MO) orator, author, suffragist, first female US law graduate, first female US Marshal.

Ida Henrietta Hyde (08 Sep 1857 – 22 Aug 1945 | Davenport IA – Berkeley CA) author, world traveler, experimental physiologist, developed first microelectrode.

Mary Rockwell Hook (08 Sep1877 – 08 Sep 1978 | Junction City KS – Siesta Key FL) architect, autobiographical author, sole female architect student at Art Institute of Chicago, involved with designing / building Pine Mountain Settlement School in Kentucky Appalachian Mountains.

Mary Morton Kimball Kehew (08 Sep 1859 – 13 Feb 1918 | Boston MA – Boston MA) philanthropist, social reformer, women’s labor rights activist.