08 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Ida Whipple Benham (08 Jan 1849 – 21 May 1903 | Quakertown CT – Ledyard CT) poet, hymnist, educator, peace activist, American Peace Society director, Universal Peace Union executive committee member.


Fanny Bullock Workman (08 Jan 1859 – 22 Jan 1925 | Worcester MA – Cannes FR) author, explorer, geographer, cartographer.


Ellen Churchill Semple (08 Jan 1863 – 08 May 1932 | Louisville KY – West Palm Beach FL) author, geographer, Presidential advisor, president American Geographers, first female president of any US academic organization.


Mary Kenney O’Sullivan (08 Jan 1864 – 18 Jan 1943 | Hannibal MO – West Medford MA) bookbinder, dressmaker, settlement house activist, labor movement organizer, founded Women’s Trade Union League, factory Inspector for Massachusetts Board of Labor and Industries.


Ellen Hattie Clapsaddle (08 Jan 1865 – 07 Jan 1934 | South Columbia NY – New York NY) illustrator, commercial artist, prolific souvenir / postcard / greeting card artist.

07 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Ann Mayes Rutledge (07 Jan 1813 – 25 Aug 1835 | Henderson KY – New Salem IL) US folk figure, aka [US President Abraham] Lincoln’s First Love.


Julia Thompson von Stosch Schayer (07 Jan 1842 – 29 Mar 1928 | Deering ME – Bronxville NY) short fiction author.


Louise Imogen Guiney (07 Jan 1861 – 02 Nov 1920 | Roxbury MA – Chipping Campden UK) poet, editor, essayist.


Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer (07 Jan 1873 – 24 Jun 1943 | Allentown PA – Nashville TN) painter, illustrator, printmaker, white-line woodcut creator / innovator.


Florence Winger Bagley (07 Jan 1874 – 1952 | Clay Lick PA – US) author, psychologist, Fechner’s color aesthetics specialist, independent psychology researcher.

03 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Isabella Maria Hazzard Floyd (03 Jan 1773 – 18 Aug 1859 | Beaufort SC – Saint Marys GA) settler, member Daughters of American Revolution.


Lucretia Coffin Mott (03 Jan 1793 – 11 Nov 1880 | Nantucket MA – Cheltenham PA) Quaker author, speaker, educator, suffragist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, autobiographical author.


Anne Ayres (03 Jan 1816 – 09 Feb 1896 | London UK – Long Island NY) British-American, religious author / biographer, social service minister, nursing director / administrator of St Luke’s Hospital, First Sister / Founder of US Episcopal religious order named Sisterhood of the Holy Communion.


Sophia B. Packard (03 Jan 1824 – 21 Jun 1891 | New Salem MA – Atlanta GA) educator, African-American women’s college co-founder [Spelman Seminary which became Spelman College].


Eliza Margaret Perry (03 Jan 1828 – 03 Jan 1862 | Pitosi MI – Austin TX) diarist, Texas pioneer / settler’s family member.

01 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Jane Frazier [or Fraser] (01 Jan 1735 – 14 Apr 1815 | Winchester VA – Schellsburg PA) survivor, memoirist, captured / escaped Native Americans.


Elizabeth Griscom Claypoole Ross (01 Jan 1752 – 30 Jan 1836 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) American Revolutionary War folk figure, seamstress for First Flag of the United States, best known as Betsy Ross.


Harriet E. Bishop (01 Jan 1817 – 08 Aug 1883 | Panton VT – St Paul MN) writer, educator, suffragist, temperance activist.


Amelia Stewart Knight (01 Jan 1817 – 25 Jan 1898 | Boston MA – Vancouver WA) diarist, memoirist, Northwest Oregon Trail pioneer / settler.


Lucy Lambert Hale (01 Jan 1841 – 15 Oct 1915 | Dover NH – Warren NH) society belle, engaged to John Wilkes Booth, later political wife / hostess to Senator Chandler.

31 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

Lucretia Crocker (31 Dec 1829 – 09 Oct 1886 | Barnstable MA – Boston MA) author, educator, first female superintendent Boston Public Schools, educational activist / advocate / innovator.


Queen Kapi’olani Napelakapuokakaʻe (31 Dec 1834 – 24 Jun 1899 | Hilo HI – Waikiki HI) Queen Consort of the Kingdom of Hawai’i, medical / educational philanthropist, founded Kapi’olani Maternity Home and Kapi’olani Home for Girls.


Mary Jane Safford-Blake (31 Dec 1834 – 08 Dec 1891 | Hyde Park VT – Tarpon Springs FL) author, teacher, novelist, translator, Civil War Union field nurse. 


Elizabeth Arden (31 Dec 1878 – 18 Oct 1966 | Woodbridge ON – New York NY) Canadian-American author, social icon, beauty products innovator, cosmetics businesswoman, born Florence Nightingale Graham.


28 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

Elizabeth [Eliza] Lucas Pinckney Rutledge (28 Dec 1722 – 26 May 1793 | Antigua – Philadelphia PA) agriculturist, businesswoman, plantation owner / manager, introduced indigo as cash crop into South Carolina economy.


Catharine Maria Sedgwick (28 Dec 1789 – 31 Jul 1867 | Stockbridge MA – Boston MA) novelist, domestic fiction writer, Republican motherhood advocate.


Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard (28 Dec 1816 – 25 Jul 1897 | Ware MA – Chicago IL) author, committed by her husband / spent three years in an insane asylum, founded Anti-Insane Asylum Society, women’s mental health rights activist, advocate for those falsely accused of being insane.


Joanna Ellen Wood (28 Dec 1867 – 01 May 1927 | Lesmahagow SCOT – Detroit MI) Scottish-born Canadian, author, feminist, novelist.

26 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte [E. D. E. N.] Southworth (26 Dec 1819 – 30 Jun 1899 | Washington DC – Washington DC ) novelist, short fiction writer.


Emily Wilder Leavitt (26 Dec 1836 – 02 Nov 1921 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, historian, professional genealogist, first female member New England Historic Genealogical Society.


Clara Southmayd Ludlow (26 Dec 1852 – 28 Sep 1924 | Easton PA – Washington DC) author, musician, scientist, aka C. S. Ludlow, music teacher, medical entomologist, first woman known to publish on taxonomy of mosquitoes and the incidence of mosquito-borne diseases.


Eva March Tappan (26 Dec 1854 – 29 Jan 1930 | Blackstone MA – Worcester MA) author, teacher, editor of Vassar [College] Miscellany, Latin / German college professor, children’s book author, historical / biographical novelist.

25 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

Martha Coffin Wright (25 Dec 1806 – 04 Jan 1875 | Boston MA – Boston MA) Quaker, feminist, abolitionist, writing and painting teacher, Declaration of Sentiments signer, Underground Railroad activist conductor.


Hannah Maria Conant Tracy Cutler (25 Dec 1815 – 11 Feb 1896 | Becket MA – Ocean Springs MS) author, essayist, physician, abolitionist, social reformer, suffrage / temperance movements activist / leader.


Louisa [Lou] Hawkins Canby (25 Dec 1818 – 27 Jun 1889 | Paris KY – Portland OR) humanitarian, Union Army wife, charitable activist, aka The Angel of Santa Fe, converted Santa Fe home into hospital to nurse Confederate soldiers during US Civil War.


Clarissa [Clara] Harlowe Barton (25 Dec 1821 – 12 Apr 1912 | North Oxford MA – Glen Echo MD) teacher, patent clerk, humanitarian, pioneering nurse, founded Red Cross.

24 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

Sarah Bradlee Fulton (24 Dec 1740 – 09 Nov 1835 | Dorchester MA – Medford MA) political activist, active member of Daughters of Liberty, aka Mother of the Boston Tea Party, volunteer spy and nurse in American Revolutionary War.


Esther Clark Short (24 Dec 1806 – 28 Jun 1862 | Tioga County PA – Vancouver WA) Algonquin-German-American pioneer landowner, businesswoman, aka The Pioneer Mother, Vancouver, Washington settler / co-founder.


Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (24 Dec 1807 – 02 Nov 1834 | Centre DE – Tecumseh MI) poet, writer, children’s anti-slavery author, first US female writer to focus on abolition of slavery as her principal theme.


Jane Marie Bancroft Robinson (24 Dec 1847 – 29 May 1932 | West Stockbridge MA – Detroit MI) author, scholar, historian, professor, genealogist, philanthropist.

22 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

Ann Hasseltine Judson (22 Dec 1789 – 24 Oct 1826 | Bradford MA – Amherst MM) author, translator, essayist, educator, catechism writer, aka Ann of Ava, one of first female American foreign missionaries to India and Burma.


Josephine Brawley Hughes (22 Dec 1839 – 22 Mar 1926 | Meadville PA – Tucson AZ) Western writer, pioneer, suffragist, social activist, women’s advocate, temperance activist, aka Mother of Methodism, managed Arizona Daily Star newspaper, established first girls’ school in Southwest US, first female public school teacher in Arizona, founded Arizona Chapter of Women’s Christian Temperance Union [WCTU].


Maria Teresa Carreño (22 Dec 1853 – 12 Jun 1917 | Caracas VE – New York NY) singer, composer, pianist, conductor, master teacher, Venezuelan-American, aka The Valkyrie of the Piano.


Aline Bernstein (22 Dec 1880 – 07 Sep 1955 | New York NY – New York NY) American author, set / costume designer, novelist, autobiographical author, Museum of Costume Art co-founder, first female member of Designers Union.