23 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli (23 May 1810 – 19 Jul 1850 | Cambridgeport MA – off the coast of Fire Island NY) critic, editor, author, feminist, journalist, biographer, women’s rights activist.

Frances Auretta Fuller Barritt Victor (23 May 1826 – 14 Nov 1902 | Rome NY – Portland OR) poet, essayist, historian, columnist, historical novelist, aka Dorothy D. and Florence Fane.

Ellen Clementine Doran Howarth (23 May 1827 – 23 Dec 1899 | Cooperstown NY – Trenton NJ) poet, author, playwright.

Arabella Babb Mansfield (23 May 1846 – 01 Aug 1911 | Burlington IA – Aurora IL) lawyer, suffragist, educator, administrator, first female attorney in United States.

Maritcha Remond Lyons (23 May 1848 – 28 Jan 1929 | New York NY – Brooklyn NY) writer, feminist, educator, civic leader, second black female assistant principal in NYC, co-founded White Rose [Migrant] Mission.

22 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Charity Bryant (22 May 1777 – 06 Oct 1851 | North Bridgewater MA – Weybridge VT) poet, teacher, focus on acrostic poetry, Boston marriage partner with Sylvia Drake.

Gertrude Jane Hall Denny (22 May 1837 – 05 Aug 1933 | Ten Mile Run NJ – Portland OR) author, Whitman Massacre survivor, wife of US Consul-General to Shanghai, co-importer of first Chinese pheasants to US soil.

Mary Stevenson Cassatt (22 May 1844 – 14 Jun 1926 | Allegheny City PA – Château de Beaufresne FR) painter, printmaker, pioneering American Impressionist.

Bertha Honoré Potter Palmer (22 May 1849 – 05 May 1918 | Louisville KY – Osprey FL) art collector, clubwoman, philanthropist.

Lucy May Stanton (22 May 1875 – 19 Mar 1931 | Atlanta GA – Athens GA) watercolorist, miniature portrait artist, large-scale landscapes / still life painter.

21 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Nancy H. Adsit (21 May 1825 – 27 Apr 1902 | Palermo NY – Milwaukee WI) art lecturer / educator / essayist, first US female insurance agent.

Elizabeth Storrs Billings Mead (21 May 1832 – 25 Mar 1917 | Conway MA – Coconut Grove FL) author, educator, president of Oberlin and Mount Holyoke Colleges.

Anna Callender Brackett (21 May 1836 – 18 Mar 1911 | Boston MA – Summit NJ) author, educator, translator, philosopher, first female normal school principal, editor of New England Journal of Education.

Mary Virginia [Jennie] Wade (21 May 1843 – 03 Jul 1863 | Gettysburg VA – Gettysburg VA) Civil War Union supporter, lone civilian casualty at Battle of Gettysburg.

Amelia [Amy] Muller Fay (21 May 1844 – 28 Feb 1928 | Bayou Goula LA – Cambridge MA) author, musician, concert pianist.

20 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Dolley Payne Todd Madison (20 May 1768 – 12 Jul 1849 | North Carolina Province, British America – Washington DC) US Presidential First Lady, memoirist, letter correspondent.

Mary Ramsey Lemons Wood (20 May 1787 – 01 Jan 1908 | Knoxville TN – Hillsboro OR) pioneer, died as oldest person at that time (disputed), aka Oldest Methodist in the World, First Mother Queen of Oregon Pioneers.

Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell (20 May 1825 – 05 Nov 1921 | Henrietta NY – Elizabeth NJ) author, Unitarian pastor, women’s rights activist, first US female ordained minister.

Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (20 May 1851 – 09 Jul 1926 | Lenox MA – New York NY) author, religious sister, memoirist, social worker, aka Mother Mary Alphonsa.

19 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Sarah Miriam Peale (19 May 1800 – 04 Feb 1885 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) still-life / portrait painter.

Margaret Junkin Preston (19 May 1820 – 28 Mar 1897 | Milton PA – Baltimore MD) poet, essayist, memoirist, Confederate, blind later in life.

Fidelia Bridges (19 May 1834 – 14 May 1923 | Salem MA – Canaan CT) visual artist, plein-air painter, watercolorist.

Catharine [Kate] Furbish (19 May 1834 – 06 Dec 1931 | Exeter NH – Brunswick ME) botanist, illustrator, watercolorist, co-founded Maine Botanical Society.

Mary Clare de Graffenried (19 May 1849 – 26 Apr 1921 | Macon GA – Washington DC) author, social investigator / reformer.

17 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Annie [Narna] Payson Call (17 May 1853 – 02 Feb 1940 | Arlington MA – Waltham MA) author, healer, librarian, Swedenborgian, writer for Ladies Home Journal.

Mary Devens (17 May 1857 – 13 Mar 1920 | Ware MA – Cambridge MA) pictorial photographer, Photo-Secession member.

Helen May Butler Young (17 May 1867 – 16 Jun 1957 | Keene NH – Covington KY) bandmaster, aka The Female Sousa, first all-women brass band leader.

Dorothy Gibson (17 May 1889 – 17 Feb 1946 | Hoboken NJ – Paris, France) actress, scriptwriter, Titanic survivor, acted in first Titanic film, alleged WWII intelligence operative.

Louise Crenshaw Ray (17 May 1890 – 23 Oct 1956 | Butler AL – Birmingham AL) poet.

16 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (16 May 1804 – 03 Jan 1894 | Billerica MA – Jamaica Plain MA) US editor, writer, educator, translator, school founder, bookstore owner, Transcendentalist, kindergarten founder / teacher / activist.

Mary Nimmo Moran (16 May 1842 – 25 Sep 1899 | Strathaven SCT – East Hampton NY) Scottish-American etcher, landscape artist.

Elizabeth Armstrong Reed (16 May 1842 – 18 Jun 1915 | Winthrop ME – Chicago IL) editor, author, Oriental scholar.

LaSalle Corbell Pickett (16 May 1843 – 22 Mar 1931 | Nansemond VA – Richmond VA) US author, lecturer, biographer Civil War Confederate memoirist.

Matilda Smyrell Calder Thurston (16 May 1875 – 18 Apr 1958 | Hartford CT – Auburndale MA) teacher, missionary, memoirist, founded Ginling College in Nanking.

15 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Susan Barber Lloyd Jones (15 May 1832 – 26 Oct 1911 | Rome NY – Madison WI) author, speaker, activist, hymnist, Unitarian, clubwoman, women’s ministerial activist.

Mary Colman Wheeler (15 May 1846 – 10 Mar 1920 | Concord MA – Providence RI) artist, women’s art teacher, founder / first head Wheeler School.

Susanne Vandegrift Moore (15 May 1848 – 1926 | Bucks County PA – Jacksonville FL) editor, publisher, weekly St. Louis Life owner / editor.

Helen Dawes Brown (15 May 1857 – 05 Sep 1941 | Concord MA – Montclair NJ) editor, novelist.

Emily Jordan Folger (15 May 1858 – 21 Feb 1936 | Ironton OH – Glen Cove NY) scholar, philanthropist, rare book collector, co-founded / funded Folger Shakespeare Library, third woman to receive honorary degree from Amherst College.

10 May | Women’s Words & Works

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Sarah Anne Worthington King Peter (10 May 1800 – 06 Feb 1877 | Chillicothe OH – Cincinnati OH) artist, memoirist, patron of arts, philanthropist, Civil War Union nurse, Catholic convert / activist, founded Philadelphia School of Design for Women [now Moore College of Art & Design].

Lucy Louisa Flower (10 May 1837 – 27 Apr 1921 | Boston MA – Coronado CA) teacher, draftswoman, social justice activist, Chicago Board of Education member, launched Lake Geneva Fresh Air Association, founded women / children’s legal aid bureau, first woman elected to Illinois state office.

Mary [May] French Sheldon (10 May 1847 – 10 Feb 1936 | Bridgewater PA – West Kensington UK) author, explorer, essayist, publisher, translator, short fiction writer.

Emma Payne Erskine (10 May 1854 – 04 Mar 1924 | Racine WI – Tryon NC) author, peace activist, romance novelist, short story writer, patriotic Christian writer.

Sue Hastings (10 May 1884 – 1977 | Monticello NY – Coral Gables FL) artisan, master puppeteer, professor of puppetry, founder / CEO Sue Hastings Marionettes Inc.

08 May | Women’s Words & Works

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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].