18 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

Elizabeth Fries Lummis Ellet (18 Oct 1818 – 03 Jul 1877 | Sodus Point NY – New York NY) poet, author, editor, historian, translator, first to record lives of American Revolutionary women.


Ellen Browning Scripps (18 Oct 1836 – 03 Aug 1932 | London UK – La Jolla CA) editor, journalist, philanthropist, women’s education / democratic principles advocate, funded La Jolla Women’s Club building, founded Scripps College / Scripps Aquarium / The Scripps Research Institute [TSRI] / Scripps Institute of Oceanography [and many more].


Emma Elizabeth Brown (18 Oct 1847 – 1907 | Concord NH – Massachusetts) poet, artist, author, essayist, biographer, watercolorist, pen names: B.E.E. and E.E.Brown.


Sarah Tyson Rorer (18 Oct 1849 – 27 Dec 1937 | Richboro PA – Colebrook PA) author, domestic science pioneer educator, Pennsylvania Chautauqua School of Domestic Science director.


Helen Reimensnyder Martin (18 Oct 1868 – 29 Jun 1939 | Lancaster PA – New Canaan CT) novelist, short fiction writer, focus on Pennsylvania Dutch / Amish / Mennonite.

10 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

Sarah Thompson, Countess Rumford (10 Oct 1774 – 02 Dec 1852 | Concord NH – Concord NH) educator, philanthropist, first US woman to be named Countess, founded school for motherless girls.


Harriet Atwood Newell (10 Oct 1793 – 30 Nov 1812 | Haverhill MA – Port Louis MUS) memoirist, first wave US Christian missionary to India, Burma, and Mauritius.


Josephine [J.P.] Pollard (10 Oct 1834 – 15 Aug 1892 | New York NY – New York NY) poet, editor, author, hymn writer, religious / historical children’s writer, founding member of Sorosis professional women’s club.


Caroline M. Hewins (10 Oct 1846 – 04 Nov 1926 | Roxbury MA – Hartford CT) librarian, travel writer, library activist, children’s author, letter correspondent, autobiographical author, founded first Children’s Reading Room in Hartford [CT], aka First Lady of the Library, founded Education Club for Parents and Teachers [later the Parent-Teachers Association], first woman speaker at annual meeting of American Library Association, founded first Connecticut State Library Committee [later CT State Library Commission].


Eleanor Elizabeth Gordon (10 Oct 1852 – 06 Jan 1942 | Hamilton IL – Keokuk IA) author, educator, suffragist, Unitarian minister, women’s rights activist.

06 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

Sarah Pugh (06 Oct 1800 – 01 Aug 1884 | Alexandria VA – Philadelphia PA) teacher, Quaker, suffragist, abolitionist, non-violent activist.


Myra Belle Martin (06 Oct 1861 – unknown | Grafton NH – unknown) author, teacher, financier, social activist, art historian, business executive, founded Patria Club of New York, first female president of Eastern Connecticut Teachers’ Association.


Emily Palmer Cape (06 Oct 1865 – 1953 | New York NY – Florida US) artist, painter, agnostic, co-author, travel writer, freethiker, first female co-ed at Columbia University, co-founded Society of Independent Artists.


Enid Yandell (06 Oct 1869 – 13 Jul 1934 | Louisville KY – Boston MA) author, suffragist, women’s rights advocate, pioneering female sculptor, founded Brancock School for artists on Marchtha’s Vineyard, World War I Red Cross war orphans worker.

04 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

Eliza McCardle Johnson (04 Oct 1810 – 15 Jan 1876 | Telford TN – Greeneville TN) US Presidential First Lady, informal Presidential tutor / educator.


Jane Elizabeth [Jenny] Twichell Kempton (04 Oct 1835 – 13 Mar 1921 | Dublin NH – Los Angeles CA) operatic contralto, operatic voice teacher, concert tour singer, aka The Favorite American Contralto, founding member of Dominant Music Club (LA), aka Mother of Music in Southern California.


Jane Maria Read (04 Oct 1853 – unknown | Barnstable MA – unknown) poet, artist, author, human / animal portrait painter, tAugustht arts / languages / mathematics.


Eliza Kellas (04 Oct 1864 – 10 Apr 1943 | Moores Forks NY – Troy NY) educator, headmistress of Emma Willard School, co-founder of Russell Sage College.


Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau (04 Oct 1867 – 28 Jan 1922 | Exeter NH – Paris FR) artist, academic, portrait painter, first American woman to exhibit at the Paris Salon.

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.

22 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

Louisa Van Velsor Whitman (22 Sep 1795 – 23 May 1873 | West Hills NY – West Hills NY) Dutch-American, homesteader, literary family member, poet Walt Whitman’s mother.


Charlotte Sophia Sewall Eastman (22 Sep 1816 – 25 May 1896 | Hallowell ME – York ME) artist, portrait painter.


Jane Manning James (22 Sep 1822 – 16 Apr 1908 | Wilton CT – Salt Lake City UT) early LDS member, aka Aunt Jane, first black female Mormon pioneer in Utah Territory.


Mary Clement Leavitt (22 Sep 1830 – 05 Feb 1912 | Hopkinton NH – Boston MA) educator, suffragist, social reformer, girl’s school founder, women / children’s rights activist, international temperance leader / lecturer / founder.


Eleanor Hallowell Abbott (22 Sep 1872 – 04 Jun 1958 | Cambridge MA – Portsmouth NH) author, magazine writer, aka Mrs. Fordyce Coburn.

18 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

Edna Dean Proctor (18 Sep 1829 – 18 Dec 1923 | Henniker NH – Framingham MA) poet, author, short fiction writer, known as a master of pathos.


Lucy Martin Donnelly (18 September 1870 – 03 August 1948 | Ithaca NY – Bryn Mawr PA) poet, author, educator, letter correspondent.


Margarete Muehsam-Edelheim (18 Sep 1891 – 25 May 1975 | Berlin DEU- New York NY) editor, lawyer, journalist, women’s rights activist, emigrated from Nazi Germany, founded Leo Baeck Institute in New York.


Agnes George de Mille (18 Sep 1905 – 07 Oct 1993 | New York NY – New York NY) author, dancer, memoirist, master teacher, choreographer.


Edna Dean Proctor (18 Sep 1829 – 18 Dec 1923 | Henniker NH – Framingham MA) poet, author, short fiction writer, known as a master of pathos.

05 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

Hannah Chaplin Conant (05 Sep 1809 – 18 Feb 1865 | Danvers MA – Brooklyn NY) editor, translator, Biblical scholar.


Anna Rice Cooke (05 Sep 1853 – 08 Aug 1934 | Oahu HI – Honolulu HI) art collector, patron of arts, founded Honolulu Museum of Art.


Emilie Baker Loring (05 Sep 1866 – 13 Mar 1951 | Boston MA – Wellesley MA) prolific romance novelist.


Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (05 Sep 1867 – 27 Dec 1944 | Henniker NH – New York NY) pianist, composer, first successful large-scale artistic female music composer.


Frances Daisy Emery Allen (05 Sep 1876 – 07 Dec 1958 | Kaufman County TX – Fort Worth TX) pioneering female physician, first female medical school graduate in Texas, one of first female physicians to practice in Tarrant County.

28 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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.

25 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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.