12 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

Martha Jane Coston (12 Dec 1826 – 09 Jul 1904 | Baltimore MD – Philadelphia PA) businesswoman, Coston emergency machine flare inventor / purveyor.


Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper (12 Dec 1835 – 11 Dec 1896 | Cazenovia NY – San Francisco CA) editor, educator, suffragist, philanthropist, women’s rights activist, kindergarten advocate / founder, treasurer for General Federation of Women’s Clubs, founded Jackson Street Kindergarten Association [in 1879, later renamed Golden Gate Kindergarten Association].


Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls (12 Dec 1839 – 20 Apr 1924 | Brookfield WI – De Smet SD) aka Ma Ingalls, folk / literary / mother / pioneer figure.


Charlotte Frances Felt Wilder (12 Dec 1839 – 03 Dec 1916 | Templeton MA – Manhattan KS) author, novelist, Methodist, civic leader, club woman, magazine writer, juvenile religious writer.


Charlotte [Lottie] Digges Moon (12 Dec 1840 – 24 Dec 1912 | Albemarle County VA – Kobe Harbor JP) teacher, evangelist, missionary, one of first US women to earn Master’s Degree in Languages.

08 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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.

31 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

Josephine Louise Le Monnier Newcomb (31 Oct 1816 – 07 Apr 1901 | Baltimore MD – New Orleans LA) philanthropist, founded H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College at Tulane University.


Eliza Boardman Burnz (31 Oct 1823 – 19 Jul 1903 | Essex UK – Walters Park PA) author, librarian, suffragist, founded Burnz’ Fonic Shorthand, shorthand inventor / educator / promoter, aka Mother of Women Stenographers, advocated Dianism sexual practice [physical contact without ejaculation].


Marie Louise Newland Andrews (31 Oct 1849 – 07 Feb 1891 | Bedford IN – Connersville IN) poet, editor, author, few works extant / ever published, founding member / secretary of Western Association of Writers.


Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (31 Oct 1852 – 13 Mar 1930 | Randolph MA – Metuchen NJ) children’s poet / short fiction writer, adult novelist / short fiction writer.


Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon Low (31 Oct 1860 – 17 Jan 1927 | Savannah GA – Savannah GA) organizer / founder / promoter of Girl Guides / Girls Scouts USA.

28 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

Catherine Stratton Ladd (28 Oct 1809 – 30 Jan 1899 | Richmond VA – Buckhead SC) poet, educator, essayist, playwright, Civil War nurse, early Confederate flag designer.


Henrietta Hall Shuck (28 Oct 1817 – 27 Nov 1844 | Kilmarnock VA – Hong Kong CN) memoirist, letter correspondent, founded co-ed boarding school, Chinese girls’ education advocate, first female Baptist missionary to China, first Western female to live in Hong Kong.


Mary Frame Myers Thomas (28 Oct 1816 – 19 Aug 1888 | Sandy Spring MD – Richmond IN) Quaker, abolitionist, suffragist, women’s rights leader, first female physician west of the Alleghenies.


Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (28 Oct 1842 – 22 Oct 1932 | Philadelphia PA – Goshen NY) Quaker, orator, author, actress, novelist, lecturer, suffragist, abolitionist, mountaineer, Civil War spy, first female worker at US Mint, first woman to address US Congress.


Mary Katharine [Kate] Layne Curran Brandegee (28 Oct 1844 – 03 Apr 1920 | Tennessee US – Berkeley CA) botanist, autobiographical author, journal editor / publisher, created first botanical garden in San Diego CA.

27 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

Mary Elizabeth Wilson [M.E.W.] Sherwood (27 Oct 1826 – 12 Sep 1903 | Keene NH – Manhattan NY) poet, essayist, memoirist, travel / etiquette writer, autobiographical author.


Janet Scudder (27 Oct 1869 – 09 Jul 1940 | Terre Haute IN – Rockport MA) sculptor, memoirist, born Netta Deweze Frazee.


Sharlot Mabridth Hall (27 Oct 1870 – 09 Apr 1943 | Lincoln KS – Prescott AZ) poet, author, historian, journalist, photographer, Arizona artifacts collector, local history / folklore lecturer, first woman to hold office in Arizona Territorial government, founded Old Governor’s Mansion Museum [now Sharlot Hall Museum], namesake for Sharlot Hall Historical Society [in Prescott AZ].


Emily Bruce Price Post (27 Oct 1872 – 25 Sep 1960 | Baltimore MD – New York NY) author, novelist, etiquette expert, founded The Emily Post Institute.


Jane Macklem Crisp Murfin (27 Oct 1884 – 10 Aug 1955 | Quincy MI – Los Angeles CA) director, producer, playwright, screenwriter.

22 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

Emily Huntington Miller (22 Oct 1833 – 02 Nov 1913 | Brooklyn CT – Northfield MN) poet, author, educator, hymn writer, laid groundwork for formation of National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union [WCTU].


Abigail Scott Duniway (22 Oct 1834 – 11 Oct 1915 | Groveland IL – Portland OR) writer, suffragist, women’s rights activist, newspaper editor / publisher.


Mary Jane McAfee Atkins (22 Oct 1836 – 13 Oct 1911 | Harrodsburg KY – Colorado Springs CO) heiress, teacher, philanthropist, founded Kansas City Art Museum [now known as Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art].


Annie Louise Cary Raymond (22 Oct 1842 – 03 Apr 1921 | Wayne ME – Norwalk CT) opera / concert singer.


Charlotte Champe Stearns Eliot (22 Oct 1843 – 10 Sep 1929 | Baltimore MD – Cambridge MA) poet, teacher, social worker, mother of T. S. Eliot.

19 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

Anna Murray-Douglass (19 Oct 1813 – 04 Aug 1882 | Denton MD – Washington DC) African-American abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, first wife of Frederick Douglass.


Amanda Theodocia Jones (19 Oct 1835 – 31 Mar 1914 | East Bloomfield NY – Brooklyn NY) poet, author, inventor, suffragist, spiritualist, Jones Process vacuum canning company founder.


Margaret Hamilton (19 Oct 1840 – 11 Jan 1922 | Rochester NY – Wakefield MA) teacher, Civil War Union nurse, religious Sister of Charity, left Catholic Church and Sisters of Charity, converted to Baptist Church, president National Army Nurse Association.


Annie Smith Peck (19 Oct 1850 – 18 Jul 1935 | Providence RI – New York NY) author, scholar, lecturer, feminist, suffragist, adventurer, mountaineer, travel writer.


Bertha Knight Landes (19 Oct 1868 – 29 Nov 1943 | Ware MA – Ann Arbor MI) Seattle WA mayor, women’s activist, first female elected to govern major US city.

24 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

Lois Lathrop Cutler (24 Sep 1788 – 23 Mar 1878 | Lebanon NH – Oak Lake MN) Mormon pioneer, mother of fourteen, Female Relief Society activist.


Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (24 Sep 1825 – 22 Feb 1911 | Baltimore MD – Philadelphia PA) poet, author, essayist, feminist, abolitionist, African-American, aka The Bronze Muse, civil rights / temperance activist.


Katharine [Kate] Brownlee Sherwood (24 Sep 1841 – 15 Feb 1914 | Poland OH – Washington DC) poet, journalist, clubwoman, women’s relief leader, Poetess of Congressional Circle.


Winifred Edgerton Merrill (24 Sep 1862 – 06 Sep 1951 | Ripon WI – Fairfield CT) astronomer, first female Columbia University graduate, first US woman PhD in mathematics.


Cornelia Bowen (24 Sep 1865 – 09 Jul 1934 | Tuskegee AL – Mount Meigs AL) writer, teacher, educator, administrator, in the first graduating class of Tuskegee Institute, founded Mount Meigs Colored Institute and Negro Boys’ Reformatory.

21 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

Sophia Peabody Hawthorne (21 Sep 1809 – 26 Feb 1871 | Salem MA – London UK) painter, illustrator, essayist, journal editor.


Mary Monnett Bain (21 Sep 1833 – 30 Jul 1885 | Delaware OH – Osawatomie KS) philanthropist, women’s higher education advocate / supporter.


Mary T. Waggaman (21 Sep 1846 – 30 Jul 1931 | Baltimore MD – Baltimore MD) prolific children’s author and religious novelist.


Susan Macdowell Eakins (21 Sep 1851 – 27 Dec 1938 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) artist, painter, photographer, artist’s model.


Sara Delano Roosevelt (21 Sep 1854 – 07 Sep 1941 | Newburgh NY – Hyde Park NY) memoirist, mother of FDR, political family member, mother-in-law to Eleanor Roosevelt.

07 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

Mary Lua Adelia Davis Treat (07 Sep 1830 – 11 Apr 1923 | Trumansburg NY – Pembroke NY) writer, botanist, naturalist, entomologist, utopian community member, collaborated with Charles Darwin, aka ‘One of Darwin’s Women’.


Alice Chipman Dewey (07 Sep 1858 – 14 Jul 1927 | Fenton MI – New York NY) PhD, author, mother, educator, philosopher, world traveler, women’s right activist, letter correspondent, co-founded Laboratory School with husband John Dewey.


Laura Coombs Hills (07 Sep 1859 – 21 Feb 1952 | Newburyport MA – Massachusetts) designer, illustrator, watercolorist, miniature portrait painter.


Anna Mary Robertson Moses (07 Sep 1860 – 13 Dec 1961 | Greenwich NY – Hoosick Falls NY) farmer, folk artist, aka Grandma Moses, needlework artist.


Nellie Arnold Plummer (07 Sep 1860 – 01 Jan 1933 | Ellicott’s Mills MD – Hyatsville MD) author, teacher, former slave, first female student at Wayland Seminary, biographical / autobiographical writer.