08 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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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.

04 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Helen Kendrick Johnson (04 Jan 1844 – 03 Jan 1917 | Hamilton NY – Rochester NY) poet, activist, travel writer, children’s author.

Esther B. Singleton (04 Jan 1865 – 02 Jul 1930 | Baltimore MD – Stonington CT) prolific author, journalist, Shakespeare researcher.

Frances Hammell Gearhart (04 Jan 1869 – 04 Apr 1959 | Sagetown IL – Pasadena CA) teacher, landscape artist, watercolorist, lino / woodcut printmaker, pioneer American fine art color printmaker.

Selena Sloan Butler (04 Jan 1872 – 09 Oct 1964 | Thomasville GA – Los Angeles CA) African-American, organized first black women’s Red Cross chapter, founder / first president National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers Association [NCCPT].

Allie Mae Carpenter (04 Jan 1887 – 02 Jul 1978 | Prairie Home MO – Denver CO) artist, etcher, oil painter, pastellist, printmaker, tapestry artist, watercolorist, china painter, art educator, aka A.M. Carpenter, interior designer / decorator.

03 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Barbara Hauer Fritchie (03 Dec 1766 – 18 Dec 1862 | Lancaster PA – Frederick City MD) folk figure, American Civil War Union activist.

Margaret [Peggy] O’Neal Eaton (03 Dec 1799 – 08 Nov 1879 | Washington DC – Washington DC) folk / political figure, involved in US President Andrew Jackson Petticoat Affair.

Louisa Susannah Cheves McCord (03 Dec 1810 – 23 Nov 1879 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) poet, author, suffragist, playwright, translator, political essayist.

Phoebe Apperson Hearst (03 Dec 1842 – 13 Apr 1919 | Franklin MO – Pleasanton CA) feminist, suffragist, philanthropist, anthropology museum founder, founding member of National Congress of Mothers, benefactor / director of Golden Gate Kindergarten Association, co-founded all-girls National Cathedral School in Washington, DC.

Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (03 Dec 1842 – 30 Mar 1911 | Dunstable MA – Boston MA) author, professor, environmental chemist, safety / industrial engineer, experimental researcher in domestic science, first to apply chemistry to study of nutrition, first American woman to obtain a degree in chemistry, first female student and professor at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology], first American woman accepted to any school of science and technology.

26 Oct | Women.Words.Work

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Elizabeth Payson Prentiss (26 Oct 1818 – 13 Aug 1878 | Portland ME – Dorset VT) author, hymnist, educator, memoirist.

Mary Tenney Castle (26 Oct 1819 – 13 Mar 1907 | Plainfield Center NY – Honolulu HI) missionary, philanthropist, aka Mother Castle, progressive educator, founded kindergarten and orphans’ home.

Matilda Jane Sager Fultz (26 Oct 1839 – 13 Apr 1928 | St Joseph MO – Reseda CA) orphan, pioneer, folk figure, massacre survivor.

Tennessee Celeste Claflin (26 Oct 1844 – 18 Jan 1923 | Homer OH – London UK) writer, banker, broker, publisher, suffragist, Spiritualist medium, founded Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly newspaper, first in US to print The Communist Manifestor, women’s rights activist / advocate, first woman [with sister Victoria Woodhull] to open Wall Street brokerage firm, aka Lady Cook, Viscountess of Montserrat.

Clara Chipman Newton (26 Oct 1848 – 03 Dec 1936 | Delphos OH – Cincinnati OH) artist, archivist, art teacher, women’s arts activist, watercolorist, painter of china and porcelain.

05 Oct | Women.Words.Work

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Rebecca Mann Pennell Dean (05 Oct 1821 – 05 Mar 1890 | Utica NY – New York NY) artist, professor, Antioch College co-founder.

Sara J. Hatcher Duncan (05 Oct 1869 – 18 Jul 1906 | Cahaba AL – Selma AL) author, schoolteacher, African-American social activist, founded Missionary Searchlight newspaper, president of African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Women’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society.

Elizabeth Coleman White (05 Oct 1871 – 11 Nov 1954 | New Lisbon NJ – Whitesbog NJ) agricultural specialist, child care / child labor educational activist, co-developer of commercialized cultivated blueberry, first female in American Cranberry Association, organized New Jersey Blueberry Cooperative Association.

Berenice Crumb Wyer (05 Oct 1873 – 29 Jan 1960 | St. Louis MO – Brookline MA) pianist, composer, lecturer, art song writer, composed for piano / organ / violin.

Belle Linder Moskowitz (05 Oct 1877 – 02 Jan 1933 | Harlem NY – New York NY) social worker / reformer, press agent / political advisor, women’s rights activist / organizer.

16 Sep | Women.Words.Work

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Mary Wiseman See (16 Sep 1854 – 31 Jul 1939 | Ontario CA – Ontario CA) candymaker, businesswoman.

Miriam Elizabeth Benjamin (16 Sep 1861 – 1947 | Charleston SC – Boston MA) teacher, inventor, patented Gong and Signal Chair for hotels, second black woman to receive US Patent [note: found no images of the inventor herself; image used is one of an unidentified 19th c. black woman].

Eva Lawrence Watson-Schütze (16 Sep 1867 – 01 May 1935 | Jersey City NJ – Chicago IL) painter, photographer, Photo-Secession movement co-founder.

Clara Edith Work Ayres (16 Sep 1880 – 17 May 1917 | Venice Township OH – onboard USS Mongolia, Atlantic Ocean) nurse, WWI US Red Cross nurse, grocery store owner / manager, one of first two US military women killed in WWI [Helen Burnett Wood the other].

Daisy Ann Peterkin (16 Sep 1884 – 12 Aug 1952 | St. Louis MO – Miami Beach FL) vaudeville toe-dancer, Ziegfield Follies dance member, aka Mademoiselle Dazie.

08 Sep | Women.Words.Work

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Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage (08 Sep 1828 – 04 Nov 1918 | Syracuse NY – New York NY) teacher, heiress, philanthropist, arts / museum patron, progressive education advocate, founded Russell Sage College for women.

Phoebe Wilson Couzins (08 Sep 1842 – 06 Dec 1913 | St Louis MO – St Louis MO) orator, author, suffragist, first female US law graduate, first female US Marshal.

Ida Henrietta Hyde (08 Sep 1857 – 22 Aug 1945 | Davenport IA – Berkeley CA) author, world traveler, experimental physiologist, developed first microelectrode.

Mary Rockwell Hook (08 Sep1877 – 08 Sep 1978 | Junction City KS – Siesta Key FL) architect, autobiographical author, sole female architect student at Art Institute of Chicago, involved with designing / building Pine Mountain Settlement School in Kentucky Appalachian Mountains.

Mary Morton Kimball Kehew (08 Sep 1859 – 13 Feb 1918 | Boston MA – Boston MA) philanthropist, social reformer, women’s labor rights activist.

28 Aug | Women.Words.Work

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Elizabeth Ann Seton (28 Aug 1774 – 04 Jan 1821 | New York NY – Emmitsburg MD) widow, mother, memoirist, sainted religious, Sisters of Charity founder.

Lucy Webb Hayes (28 Aug 1831 – 25 Jun 1889 | Chillicothe OH – Fremont OH) US Presidential First Lady, social activist, public speaker, temperance leader, aka Lemonade Lucy.

Clara Erskine Clement Waters (28 Aug 1834 – 29 Feb 1916 | St Louis MO – Boston MA) biographer, translator, world traveler, travel writer, arts history author.

Maria Leopoldina Burns (28 Aug 1855 – 03 Jun 1942 | Utica NY – Honolulu HI) nun, member of Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, co-worker and biographer of Marianne Cope, last Catholic sister to serve with Father Damien in Hawaii.

Alice Chapin Ferris (28 Aug 1857 – 05 Jul 1934 | Keene NH – Keene NH) heiress, playwright, silent film actress, suffragist active in England.

20 Aug | Women.Words.Work

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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.

15 Aug | Women.Words.Work

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Anna L. Clapp (15 Aug 1814 – 03 Dec 1889 | Cambridge NY – Lee Center IL) Civil War nurse, Ladies Union Aid Society founder, Western Sanitary Commission president, female veteran nurse benefits / pensions activist / spokeswoman.

Ann Pamela Cunningham (15 Aug 1816 – 01 May 1875 | Rosemont Plantation SC – Rosemont Plantation SC) historical preservationist, founded The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union.

Biddy Mason (15 Aug 1818 – 16 Jan 1891 | Hancock GA – Los Angeles CA) social activist, humanitarian, philanthropist, businesswoman, nurse / midwife, freed African-American slave, founded travelers center / black elementary school / first A.M.E. Church in California.

Virginia Clemm Poe (15 Aug 1822 – 30 Jan 1847 | Baltimore MD – Fordham NY) literary folk figure, wife / first cousin of Edgar Allan Poe.

Mary Cunningham Logan (15 Aug 1838 – 22 Feb 1922 | Petersburg MO – Washington DC ) writer, editor, memoirist.