26 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Frances Manwaring Caulkins (26 Apr 1795 – 03 Feb 1869 | New London CT – New London CT) writer, memoirist, historian.

Alice Cary (26 Apr 1820 – 12 Feb 1871 | Mount Healthy OH – New York NY) poet, author, novelist, suffragist, first president of Sorosis.

Martha Farquharson Finley (26 Apr 1828 – 30 Jan 1909 | Chillicothe OH – Elkton MD) author, teacher, prolific serial novelist.

Erminnie Adele Platt Smith (26 Apr 1836 – 09 Jun 1886 | Marcellus NY – Jersey City NJ) author, folklorist, ethnologist, anthropologist.

Elizabeth Conwell Smith Willson (26 Apr 1842 – 13 Oct 1864 | Laurel IN – Cambridge MA) poet, two volumes of poetry published posthumously by husband.


23 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Penina Moise (23 Apr 1797 – 13 Sep 1880 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) poet, hymnist.

Susan Louise Cotton Marsh (23 Apr 1867 – 21 Sep 1946 | Troy IN – St Louis MO) author, activist, biographer, children’s advocate, Poet Laureate of Missouri, children’s guardianship legislative proponent.

Tillie Anderson (23 Apr 1875 – 29 Apr 1965 | Skåne SE – Detroit Lakes MN) Swedish-American, cyclist, seamstress, undisputed ladies’ cycling champion of the world, women’s cycling activist, advocate for bicycle paths in Chicago City Parks.

Mary Ellicott Arnold (23 Apr 1876 – 23 May 1968 | New Brighton NY – Delaware County PA) writer, teacher, Quaker, memoirist, Native American Indian rights activist, member Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom [WILPF].

Miriam Dorothy [Isidora] Newman (23 Apr 1878 – 1955 | New Orleans LA – New Orleans LA) poet, artist, writer, playwright, storyteller, philanthropist.


08 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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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 | Women.Words.Work

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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].

23 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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Sarah Ann Lillie Bumstead Hardinge (23 Mar 1824 – 13 Oct 1913 | Boston MA – East Orange NJ) artist, author, teacher, inventor, watercolorist, self-taught painter, one of first females to depict Texas, patented photo-finishing process called Pearletta Pictures.

Sarah Elizabeth Doyle (23 Mar 1830 – 21 Dec 1922 | Providence RI – Providence RI) educator, feminist, women’s education activist, co-founded Rhode Island School of Design, funded Brown University’s Pembroke Hall [became Pembroke College].

Josephine Lazarus (23 Mar 1846 – 03 Feb 1910 | New York NY – Manhattan NY) book critic, essayist, Zionist, lecturer, biographer, transcendentalist, Emma Lazarus’ sister and co-publisher.

Fannie Merritt Farmer (23 Mar 1857 – 15 Jan 1915 | Medford MA – Boston MA) school principal, culinary expert, cookbook author.

Caroline Dale Parke Snedeker (23 Mar 1871 – 22 Jan 1956 | New Harmony IN – Bay St Louis MS) young-adult novelist, pen name Caroline Dale Owen.

07 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston (07 Mar 1670 – 09 Mar 1729 | Dublin IE – Charleston SC) pastelist, noted as first professional woman artist in America.

Rebecca Hammond Laird (07 Mar 1772 – 28 Sep 1855 | New Bedford MA – Madison IN) poet, teacher, aka the first poet in Indiana.

Elizabeth [Ebe] Manning Hawthorne (07 Mar 1802 – 01 Jan 1883 | Salem MA – Montserrat MA) author, sister of / coauthor with Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Mary Eleanor Brackenridge (07 Mar 1837 – 14 Feb 1924 | Warrick County IN – San Antonio TX) clubwoman, women’s rights activist, clubwoman philanthropist, co-founded Woman’s Club of San Antonio, first female to sit on any Texas university governing board, one of three women on first board of regents at Texas Woman’s University [photos © Texas Woman’s University].

Louise Whitfield Carnegie (07 Mar 1857 – 24 Jun 1946 | New York NY – New York NY) philanthropist.


06 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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Anna Claypoole Peale (06 Mar 1791 – 25 Dec 1878 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) portrait miniaturist, still life painter.

Sarah Knox [Knoxie] Davis (06 Mar 1814 – 15 Sep 1835 | Vincennes IN – Saint Francisville LA) Confederate folk / political family figure.

Martha Burton Woodhead Williamson (06 Mar 1843 – 18 Mar 1922 | Rothwell UK – Los Angeles CA) editor, journalist, malacologist, WCTU member, letter correspondent, discovered / created names for 11 new mollusks, president of Southern California Press Club, president of Historical Society of Southern California, founding member of American Association of Conchologists.

Carrie Belle Kearney (06 Mar 1863 – 27 Feb 1939 | Flora MS – Jackson MS) author, activist, novelist, legislator.

Kathleen [Kitty] Biggar Eaton Cannell (06 Mar 1891 – 23 May 1974 | Boston MA – Boston MA) dancer, author, aka Rihani, expatriate, ‘static dance’ innovator, dance / fashion critic and correspondent, WWII foreign correspondent, autobiographical author.

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.

18 Feb | Women.Words.Work

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Harriet Farley Dunlevy (18 Feb 1817 – 12 Nov 1907 | Claremont NH – New York NY) editor, writer, social / cultural activist, managed ‘Lowell Offering’ literary magazine published by women textile mill workers.

Ida Husted Harper (18 Feb 1851 – 14 Mar 1931 | Franklin County IN – Washington DC) author, editor, teacher, columnist, journalist, suffragist.

Henrietta Christian Wright (18 Feb 1854 – 13 Dec 1899 | Old Bridge Township NJ – Old Bridge Township NJ) children’s science / history / literature author.

Annie Heloise Abel-Henderson (18 Feb 1873 – 14 Mar 1947 | Fernhurst UK – Aberdeen WA) author, historian, professor, book reviewer.

Mary Williams [Molly] Dewson (18 Feb 1874 – 01 Oct 1962 | Quincy MA – Castine ME) feminist, lesbian, social reformer, political activist.

31 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (31 Jan 1800 – 22 May 1842 | Sault Ste Marie MI – Dundas ON) Scots-Irish-Ojibwe poet, writer, pioneer, translator, aka Bamewawagezhikaquay [Woman of the Sound the Stars Make Rushing through the Sky].

Mabel Jacque Williamson Dwight (31 Jan 1875 – 04 Sep 1955 | Cincinnati OH – Pipersville PA) artist, portraitist, illustrator, lithographer, watercolorist, radical political activist, member American Artists’ Conference.

Myra Reynolds Richards (31 Jan 1882 – 28 Dec 1934 | Indianapolis IN – Indianapolis IN) American sculptor, teacher.

Ella Cara Deloria (31 Jan 1889 – 12 Feb 1971 | White Swan SD – Tripp SD) Yankton Dakota, linguist, novelist, educator, oral historian, ethnographer, anthropologist, Sioux historian, aka Aŋpétu Wašté Wiŋ [Beautiful Day Woman].

Clara Savage Littledale (31 Jan 1891 – 09 Jan 1956 | Belfast ME – New York NY) writer, editor, columnist.