27 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Mary Elsa Musselman Whitmer (27 Aug 1778 – Jan 1856 | Strasberg PA – Richmond MO) folklore figure, family matriarch, Mormon convert / excommunicant, one of two females known to witness the Book of Mormon Golden Plates.

Sophia Smith (27 Aug 1796 – 12 Jun 1870 | Hatfield MA – Hatfield MA) diarist, educator, deaf activist, philanthropist, public co-educational high school founder, founded / endowed / namesake of women’s Smith College.

Sarah [Sallie] Chapman Gordon Law (27 Aug 1805 – 28 Jun 1894 | Wilkes NC – Memphis TN) first recorded Confederate Civil War nurse, Southern Mothers Association president, aka Mother of the Confederacy.

Margaretha [Molly] Meyer-Schurz (27 Aug 1833 – 15 Mar 1875 | Hamburg DEU – Washington DC) German-American, child educator, Froebel system advocate, founded first US German-language kindergarten in Watertown WI.

Mary Anderson (27 Aug 1872 – 30 Jan 1964 | Lidköping SE – Washington DC) labor activist, Social Justice Feminist, women’s work advocate, autobiographical author, US Department of Labor Women’s Bureau head.

25 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Jane Lathrop Stanford (25 Aug 1828 – 28 Feb 1905 | Albany NY – Oahu HI) arts activist, educational leader, women’s rights advocate, Stanford University co-founder, allegedly murdered by accumulated strychnine poisoning.

Chloe Annette Buckel (25 Aug 1833 – 17 Aug 1912 | Warsaw NY – Oakland CA) Civil War nurse, pioneering surgeon / physician, one of the first female doctors in California, founded Hospital for Women and Children in San Francisco.

Ellen Goodell Smith (25 Aug 1835 – 03 Nov 1906 | Belchertown MA – Brooklyn NY) author, teacher, vegetarian, physician, hydrotherapist, co-founded first hydropathic sanitarium in St. Paul MN.

Martha Hale Shackford (25 Aug 1875 – 11 Jan 2013 | Dover NH – Wellesley MA) poet, editor, author, textbook writer, professor of English literature.

Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (25 Aug 1901 – 17 Feb 1980 | Philadelphia PA – Denver CO) painter, teacher, New Deal / WPA muralist, professor of drawing and painting.

23 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Mary Moody Emerson (23 Aug 1774 – 01 May 1863 | Concord MA – Concord MA) poet, author, literary family member, mentor to her nephew Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Lillie Hitchcock Coit (23 Aug 1843 – 22 Jul 1929 | Mobile AL – San Francisco CA) folk figure, aka Firebell Lil, philanthropist, cookbook author, Coit Tower benefactor, San Francisco Volunteer Firefighters patroness, born Elizabeth Wyche Hitchcock.

Sarah Frances Whiting (23 Aug 1847 – 12 Sep 1927 | Wyoming NY – Wilbraham MA) author, essayist, physicist, astronomer, first professor of physics at Wellesley College, funded Whiting Observatory at Wellesley.

Amelie Louise Rives Troubetzkoy (23 Aug 1863 – 15 Jun 1945 | Richmond VA – Cismont VA) poet, novelist, playwright.

Edith Lake Wilkinson (23 Aug 1868 – 19 Jul 1957 | Wheeling WV – Huntington WV) lesbian, studied at Arts Student League of New York, degree from Columbia Teacher’s College [1905], Provincetown MA artist / printmaker, committed to mental hospitals [from 1924 till her death] [Note: middle image from HBO documentary © 2022 Greenie Films and Little Mama, Inc.].

21 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Mary Lizzie Macomber (21 Aug 1861 – 04 Feb 1916 | Fall River MA – Boston MA) Pre-Raphaelite painter.

Alice Schille (21 Aug 1869 – 06 Nov 1955 | Columbus OH – Columbus OH) painter, watercolorist, art teacher.

Winnifred Eaton (21 Aug 1875 – 08 Apr 1954 | Montreal QC – Butte MT) novelist, screenwriter, pen name: Onoto Watanna.

Queena Mario (21 Aug 1896 – 28 May 1951 | Akron OH – New York NY) operatic soprano, opera professor, newspaper columnist, opera-themed mystery novelist, pen name: Florence Bryant, born Queena Mariana Tillotson.

Constance McLaughlin Winsor Green (21 Aug 1897 – 05 Dec 1975 | Ann Arbor MI – Annapolis MD) author, historian, Laureate for Pulitzer Prize in History [1963].

20 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Maria Louise Pool (20 Aug 1841 – 18 May 1898 | Rockland MA – Rockland MA) author, social novelist, magazine writer.

Margaret Clay Ferguson (20 Aug 1863 – 28 Aug 1951 | Orleans NY – San Diego CA) author, botanist, first woman president Botanical Society of America.

Ellen Crosby Roosevelt (20 Aug 20 1868 – 26 Sep 1954 | Rosedale NY – Hyde Park NY) American tennis player, first cousin to FDR, posthumously inducted into International Tennis Hall of Fame [1975].

Caroline Risque Janis (20 Aug 1883 – 09 Apr 1952 | St Louis MO – St Louis MO) painter, sculptor, member of The Potters’ Wheel group of artists and writers.

Rose Hum Lee (20 Aug 1904 – 24 Mar 1964 | Butte MT – Phoenix AZ) author, sociologist, researcher, short story writer, first female Chinese-American sociology department head.

19 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Mary Ellen Pleasant (19 Aug 1817 – 04 Jan 1904 | Philadelphia PA – San Francisco CA) abolitionist, social activist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, aka Mammy Pleasant, Mother of Human Rights in California.

Antoinette B. Hollister (19 Aug 1863 – 13 Jun 1943 | Chicago IL – Tarpon Springs FL) painter, professor, writer / lecturer about art for children.

Elsie Ferguson (19 Aug 1883 – 15 Nov 1961 | New York NY – New London CT) author, actress, aka The Aristocrat of the Silent Screen.

Grace Hutchins (19 Aug 1885 – 15 Jul 1969 | Boston MA – New York NY) author, activist, communist, pamphleteer, radical labor economist.

Maija Grotell (19 Aug 1899 – 06 Dec 1973 | Helsinki FI – Pontiac MI) author, ceramicist, ceramics teacher, aka The Mother of American Ceramics.

16 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Sarah Porter (16 Aug 1813 – 18 Feb 1900 | Farmington CT – Farmington CT) educator, women’s suffrage opponent, promoter of legal reforms for women, founder of elite private Miss Porter’s School for girls.

Helen Mary Knowlton (16 Aug 1832 – 05 May 1918 | Littleton MA – Needham MA) artist, author, spiritual writer, art instructor.

Mary Hall (16 Aug 1843 – 15 Nov 1927 | Marlborough CT – Marlborough CT) poet, suffragist, philanthropist, mathematics teacher, first CT Notary, first female lawyer admitted to Connecticut Bar, founded boys’ charity Good Will Club [became Boys’ Club USA].

Helen Hartley Jenkins (16 Aug 1860 – 24 Apr 1934 | New York NY – Morristown NJ) heiress, philanthropist, funded Barnard College and Columbia University, president of Hartley House board, tenement reform activist, settlement house builder.

Jeannette Augustus Marks (16 Aug 1875 – 15 Mar 1964 | Chattanooga TN – Westport NY) author, lecturer, educator, feminist.

13 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Lucy Blackwell Stone (13 Aug 1818 – 19 Oct 1893 | West Brookfield MA – Boston MA) writer, orator, suffragist, publisher, abolitionist, magazine founder / editor, women’s rights activist / organizer.

Martha Joanna Reade Nash Lamb (13 Aug 1829 – 02 Jan 1893 | Plainfield MA – New York NY) editor, author, historian, child welfare activist, Secretary of US Sanitary Commission, owner / editor-in-chief Magazine of American History.

Leonora Kearney Barry (13 Aug 1849 – 18 Jul 1923 | County Cork IE – Minooka IL) women’s labor rights activist / organizer, sole female Knights of Labor national office holder, aka Mother Lake and America’s First Woman Labor Activist.

Mary Ellen [Ella] Quinlan O’Neill (13 Aug 1857 – 28 Feb 1922 | New Haven CT – Los Angeles CA) pianist, literary figure / inspiration, mother of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

Annie Oakley (13 Aug 1860 – 03 Nov 1926 | near Woodland OH – Greenville OH) folk figure, philanthropist, aka Little Sure Shot, exhibition sharpshooter, born Phoebe Ann Moses, autobiographical writer.

12 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Elizabeth Elkins Sanders (12 Aug 1762 – 19 Feb 1851 | Salem MA – Salem MA) essayist, book reviewer, Unitarian, pamphleteer, Native American rights advocate [image note: anonymous 18th c. Massachusetts woman].

Elizabeth Oakes Smith (12 Aug 1806 – 16 Nov 1893 | North Yarmouth ME – Blue Point NY) poet, editor, lecturer, fiction writer, suffragist, women’s rights activist.

Lillie Devereux Blake (12 Aug 1833 – 30 Dec 1913 | Raleigh NC – Englewood NJ) author, suffragist, social reformer, aka Tiger Lily.

Katharine Lee Bates (12 Aug 1859 – 28 Mar 1929 | Falmouth MA – Wellesley MA) poet, author, educator, songwriter, composed ‘America the Beautiful’.

Edith Matilda Thomas (12 Aug 1854 – 13 Sep 1925 | Chatham Center OH – New York NY) poet, editor, author, teacher, typesetter.

01 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Posted on by

Anne Willing Bingham (01 Aug 1764 – 11 May 1801 | Philadelphia PA – Bermuda) socialite, artist’s model, letter correspondent.

Esther Sumner Damon (01 Aug 1814 – 11 Nov 1906 | Bridgewater VT – Plymouth VT) farmer, lay nurse, school teacher, seamstress, last American Revolutionary War widow state pensioner in US.

Maria Mitchell (01 Aug 1818 – 28 Jun 1889 | Nantucket MA – Lynn MA) suffragist, professor, astronomer, first American woman to work as professional astronomer, discovered Miss Mitchell’s Comet [initially named C/1847 Ti, credited to an Italian man].

Ida Celanire Craddock (01 Aug 1857 – 16 Oct 1902 | Philadelphia PA – New York NY) occultist, Unitarian, free speech advocate, women’s rights activist, pastor / priestess of Church of Yoga, first female undergraduate at University of Pennsylvania, institutionalized for her radical books / beliefs / eroticism, ended life by suicide rather than be re-imprisoned.

Angela Diller (01 Aug 1877 – 01 May 1968 | Brooklyn NY – Stamford CT) pianist, author, teacher, Diller-Quaile School of Music co-founder.