10 Sep | Herstorical.Reflections

Hannah Webster Foster (10 Sep 1758 – 17 Apr 1840 | Salisbury MA – Montreal QC) epistolary novelist, newspaper columnist.


Marie Catherine Laveau (10 Sep 1801 – 15 Jun 1881 | New Orleans LA – New Orleans LA) nurse, midwife, occultist, Louisiana Creole Voodoo practitioner, aka Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, ongoing artistic / literary inspirational character.


Catherine White Coffin (10 Sep 1803 – 22 May 1881 | Guilford NC – Avondale OH) Quaker, Underground Railroad activist.


Nellie Verrill Mighels Davis (10 Sep 1844 – 24 Jun 1945 | Greenwood ME – Carson City NV) editor, journalist, publisher, civic leader, organizer / first State President of American Red Cross in Nevada.


Alice Brown Davis (10 Sep 1852 – 21 Jun 1935 | Park Hill, Indian Territory – Wewoka OK) educator, postmistress, cultural leader, first female Seminole Chief.

27 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

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.

12 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

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.

25 Jul | Herstorical.Reflections

Maria Weston Chapman (25 Jul 1806 – 12 Jul 1885 | Weymouth MA – Weymouth MA) editor, hymnist, abolitionist, letter correspondent.


Flora Adams Darling (25 Jul 1840 – 06 Jan 1910 | Lancaster NH – New York NY) author, memoirist, founding president US Daughters of 1812, born Sophronia A. Adams.


Ella R. Starbuck Montague (25 Jul 1859 – 07 Jan 1910 | Winston NC – Winston NC) boarding house owner, Moravian church / settlement family member.


Estelle May Hurll (25 Jul 1863 – 08 May 1924 | New Bedford MA – Wellesley MA) author, art historian, expert in aesthetics, assistant professor at Wellesley College, then full professor / head of Philosophy Department at Mount Holyoke College.


Kathryn Leone Wood (25 Jul 1869 – 12 Mar 1936 | Kalamazoo MI – Los Altos CA) writer, artist, miniaturist, portrait painter. [Note: portrait is one painted by KLW, not necessarily one of herself.]

21 Jul | Herstorical.Reflections

Mary Anna Morrison Jackson (21 Jul 1831 – 24 Mar 1915 | Lincoln NC – Charlotte NC) author, memoirist, military / political wife, aka Widow of the Confederacy.


Henrietta Maria Morse Chamberlain King (21 Jul 1832 – 31 Mar 1925 | Boonville MO – Kingsville TX) Texas rancher, philanthropist, public school builder.


Mary Foote Henderson (21 Jul 1842 – 16 Jul 1931 | Seneca Falls NY – Bar Harbor ME) author, suffragist, art collector, social activist, community developer, temperance leader.


Myra Horner Camden Atkinson (21 Jul 1844 – 13 Apr 1925 | Lumberport WV – Clarksburg WV) First Lady of Virginia, genealogist / family historian.


Blanche Willis Howard von Teuffel (21 Jul 1847 – 07 Oct 1898 | Bangor ME – Munich DEU) pianist, novelist.

05 Jul | Herstorical.Reflections

Hannah Clark Johnston Bailey (05 Jul 1839 – 23 Oct 1923 | Cornwall-on-Hudson NY – Portland ME) writer, lecturer, publisher, peace activist, pamphleteer, National Council of Women treasurer, Maine Women’s Suffrage Association president.


Frances Christine Tiernan (05 Jul 1846 – 24 Mar 1920 | Salisbury NC – Salisbury NC) author, novelist, aka Christian Reid.


Mary Augusta Jordan (05 Jul 1855 – 14 Apr 1941 | Ironton OH – New Haven CT) editor, author, lecturer, librarian, professor.


Wanda Landowska (05 Jul 1879 – 16 Aug 1959 | Warsaw PO – Lakeville CT) author, harpsichordist, musicologist, piano pedagogue, performing artist, first person to record Bach’s Goldberg Variations [1933].


Marjorie Stinson (05 Jul 1895 – 15 Apr 1975 | Fort Payne AL – Washington DC) aviation pioneer, aeronautical draftswoman, ninth female licensed US pilot, aviation training school co-owner / instructor, aka The Flying Schoolgirl.

17 Jun | Herstorical.Reflections

Penelope Pagett Barker (17 Jun 1728 – 1796 | Edenton NC – Edenton NC) patriot, political activist, hosted the Edenton Tea Party / boycott of British goods.


Susan La Flesche Picotte (17 Jun 1865 – 18 Sep 1915 | Omaha Reservation NE – Walthill NE) doctor, reformer, children’s health activist, first female Native American trained physician, founded first hospital on Omaha reservation.


Mary Inda Hussey (17 Jun 1876 – 20 Jun 1952 | New Vienna OH – Andover MA) author, essayist, linguist, translator, professor, Assyriologist.


Mary Susan James Barr (17 Jun 1879 – 11 Oct 1935 | Nashville TN – Kansas City MO) folk figure, daughter of Zerelda Mimms and outlaw Jesse James.


Margaret Fuller Boos (17 Jun 1892 – 20 Aug 1978 | Beatrice NE – Denver CO) hiker, geologist, science teacher, professor of geology, fieldwork focus on pegmatite geology, aka Petroluem’s First Lady, first female ranger-naturalist at Rocky Mountain National Park.

20 May | Herstorical.Reflections

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.

28 Apr | Herstorical.Reflections

Meriva M. Carpenter (28 Apr 1802 – 24 Jul 1887 | Ellington CT – Homer NY) landscape / miniature portrait artist.


Caroline Shawk Brooks (28 Apr 1840 – 20 May 1913 | Cincinnati OH – St Louis MO) farmer, pioneer feminist, Centennial Exposition butter sculptor.


Julia Burnelle Smade [Bernie] Babcock (28 Apr 1868 – 14 Jun 1962 | Union OH – Petit Jean AR) poet, editor, essayist, novelist, satirist, illustrator, newspaper writer, museum founder.


Frances Reed Elliott Davis (28 Apr 1883 – 02 May 1965 | Shelby NC – Mount Clemens MI) first African-American nurse officially admitted to the American Red Cross Nursing Service.


Edith Summers Kelley (28 Apr 1884 – 09 Jun 1956 | Toronto ON – Los Gatos CA) Canadian-born American novelist.

10 Apr | Herstorical.Reflections

Louise Chandler Moulton (10 Apr 1835 – 10 Aug 1908 | Pomfret CT – Boston MA) poet, critic, short-story writer, prose fiction author, literary salon hostess.


Lucy Higgs Nichols (10 Apr 1838 – 25 Jan 1915 | Halifax County NC – New Albany IN) escaped slave, aka Miss Lucy, Civil War Union nurse, sole female honorary member of Grand Army of the Republic.


Mary Emilee Holmes (10 Apr 1850 – 13 Feb 1906 | Chester NY – Rockford IL) geologist, educator, first female fellow of the Geological Society of America, co-founded seminary for young black women.


Helene Carola Nancy Sanford Dow (10 Apr 1874 – 08 Aug 1962 | Brussels BE – Derby CT) author, travel writer, aka Machesa di Poggio.


Margaret [Daisy] Sutermeister (10 Apr 1875 – 30 May 1951 | Milton MA – Milton MA) glass-plate photographer, plant nursery manager, a few years after her death 1800+ photographic works discovered stored in her barn.