14 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Narcissa Prentiss Whitman (14 Mar 1808 – 29 Nov 1847 | Prattsburgh NY – Waiilatpu [now Spokane] WA) diarist, letter correspondent, Whitman Massacre victim, missionary / mission founder, first white woman known to cross Rocky Mountains.


Lucy Hobbs Taylor (14 Mar 1833 – 03 Oct 1910 | Constable NY – Lawrence KS) women’s rights activist, first graduated / licensed US female dentist.


Eliza Frances Shepard Pumpelly (14 Mar 1840 – 05 Feb 1915 | Dorchester MA – Newport RI) socialite, mother, aka Mrs. Raphael Pumpelly, portrait painted by John Singer Sargent.


Anna Caroline Maxwell (14 Mar 1851 – 02 Jan 1929 | Bristol NY – New York NY) nurse, author, nurse educator, established Army Nursing Corps, aka The American Florence Nightingale.


Emily Gowan Ferguson Murphy (14 Mar 1868 – 27 Oct 1933 | Cookstown ON – Edmonton AB) jurist, author, magistrate, women’s rights activist, one of Canada’s Famous Five.

13 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Abigail Powers Fillmore (13 Mar 1798 – 30 Mar 1853 | Stillwater NY – Washington DC) US Presidential First Lady, book collector, private librarian.


Jane Elizabeth Hitchcock Jones (13 Mar 1813 – 13 Jan 1896 | Vernon NY – Brooklyn NY) author, suffragist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist.


Clara L. Brown Dyer (13 Mar 1849 – 02 Mar 1931 | Cape Elizabeth ME – Portland ME) artist, reader, lecturer, landscape painter, social club woman, one of first members of the Society of Art and the Portland Art League, organizing president of National Society of United States Daughters of 1812 in State of Maine. 


Phebe Estelle Spalding (13 Mar 1859 – 12 Mar 1937 | Westfield VT – Pomona CA) author, art historian, first female professor Pomona College.


Alice Bellvadore Sams Turner (13 Mar 1859 – 10 Jul 1915 | Mingo IA – Colfax IA) diarist, teacher, physician, social activist, public press contributor, co-founded Colfax Free Public Library, co-founded Turner Rest Home and Sanitarium, first female health officer in Iowa, first woman admitted to Iowa Health and Protective Association.

12 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Jane Means Appleton Pierce (12 Mar 1806 – 02 Dec 1863 | Hampton NH – Andover MA) US Presidential First Lady, aka The Shadow of the White House.


Elizabeth Crocker Bowers (12 Mar 1830 – 06 Nov 1895 | Stamford CT – Philadelphia PA) stage actress, theatrical / music academy manager.


Dora Wheeler Keith (12 Mar 1856 – 07 Dec 1940 | New York NY – Brooklyn NY) artist, designer, illustrator, realist painter, aka Mrs. Boudinot Keith.


Alice Harriman Browne (12 Mar 1861 – 24 Dec 1925 | Newport ME – Hollywood CA) poet, editor, novelist, publisher, short story writer, nonfiction author, aka The Only Woman Publisher in the World.


Clara Bowdoin Winthrop (12 Mar 1876 – 15 Mar 1969 | Boston MA – Boston MA) poet, art collector, philanthropist.

09 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Mary T. Martin Sloop (09 Mar 1873 – 13 Jan 1962 | Davidson NC – Crossnore NC) physician, educational reformer, autobiographical author, Crossnore School founding director, established women’s Weaving Room, funded social works by selling used clothing.


Beatrice Alexander Behrman (09 Mar 1895 – 03 Oct 1990 | Brooklyn NY – Palm Beach FL) dollmaker, entrepreneur, aka Madame Alexander.


Thelma Given (09 Mar 1896 – 25 Dec 1977 | Columbus OH – Boston MA) violinist, aka Little Miss Given.


Clara Reisenberg Rockmore (09 Mar 1911 – 10 May 1998 | Vilnius LT – New York NY) violin prodigy, pioneer virtuoso performer of electronic musical instrument theremin.


Marjorie Craig Crowley (09 Mar 1912 – 20 Feb 2003 | Bangor ME – Naples FL) self-help / fitness author, director of Elizabeth Arden Salon of Exercise.

08 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Hannah Hoes Van Buren (08 Mar 1783 – 05 Feb 1819 | Kinderhook NY – Albany NY) US Presidential First Lady.


Orra White Hitchcock (08 Mar 1796 – 26 May 1863 | South Amherst MA – Amherst MA) artist, teacher, watercolorist, classroom chart muralist, early female botanical / scientific / geological / landscape illustrator.


Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (08 Mar 1828 – 04 Apr 1887 | New York NY – New York NY) art collector, philanthropist.


Agnes Harrington D’Arcambal (08 Mar 1829 – 14 Feb 1899 | Burlington VT – Detroit MI) social activist, prison reformer, humanitarian, founded D’Arcambal Home of Industry for discharged prisoners.


Josephine Garis-Cochran [later Cochrane] (08 Mar 1839 – 03 Aug 1913 | Ashtabula County OH – Chicago IL) American inventor, invented first successful hand-powered dishwasher, founded Garis-Cochrane Manufacturing Company, renamed 1897 as Cochran’s Crescent Washing Machine Company, posthumously inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame [2006].


Eliza Poor Donner Houghton (08 Mar 1843 – 19 Feb 1922 | Springfield IL – Los Angeles CA) memoirist, massacre survivor.

07 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston (07 Mar 1670 – 09 Mar 1729 | Dublin IE – Charleston SC) pastelist, noted as first professional woman artist in America.


Rebecca Hammond Laird (07 Mar 1772 – 28 Sep 1855 | New Bedford MA – Madison IN) poet, teacher, aka the first poet in Indiana.


Elizabeth [Ebe] Manning Hawthorne (07 Mar 1802 – 01 Jan 1883 | Salem MA – Montserrat MA) author, sister of / coauthor with Nathaniel Hawthorne.


Mary Eleanor Brackenridge (07 Mar 1837 – 14 Feb 1924 | Warrick County IN – San Antonio TX) clubwoman, women’s rights activist, clubwoman philanthropist, co-founded Woman’s Club of San Antonio, first female to sit on any Texas university governing board, one of three women on first board of regents at Texas Woman’s University [photos © Texas Woman’s University].


Louise Whitfield Carnegie (07 Mar 1857 – 24 Jun 1946 | New York NY – New York NY) philanthropist.

04 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Frances [Ma-con-a-quah] Slocum (04 Mar 1773 – 09 Mar 1847 | Warwick RI – Peru IN) Quaker, folk figure, Delaware Indian captive / survivor / adopted member.


Rebecca Gratz (04 Mar 1781 – 27 Aug 1869 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) author, philanthropist, charitable worker, religious educator, letter correspondent.


Myrtilla Miner (04 Mar 1815 – 17 Dec 1864 | New York NY – Washington DC) educator, abolitionist, social activist, founder / director Normal School for Colored Girls [later DC Teachers College].


Anna Elizabeth Broomall (04 Mar 1847 – 04 Apr 1931 | Upper Chichester Township PA – Chester PA) Quaker, pioneering obstetrics physician / professor, curator / librarian Delaware County [PA] Historical Society.


Effie Carlton Crockett (04 Mar 1856 – 07 Jan 1940 | Rockland ME – Boston MA) actress, composer, singer-songwriter, composed “Rock-A-Bye Baby”.

28 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Mary Mason Lyon (28 Feb 1797 – 05 Mar 1849 | Buckland MA – South Hadley MA) chemist, education activist, founded Wheaton Female Seminar [later Wheaton College], founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary [later renamed Mount Holyoke College].


Sybil Jones Jones (28 Feb 1808 – 04 Dec 1873 | Brunswick ME – Dirigo Corner ME) Quaker minister, foreign missionary.


Cynthia Hicks Van Name Leonard (28 Feb 1828 – 10 Apr 1908 | Buffalo NY – Rutherford NJ) writer, aid worker, suffragist, spiritualist, social reformer, first female NYC Mayoral candidate, founded first IA soldiers home, founded Illinois Good Samaritan Society, created women’s homeless shelters, advocated women prison guards for women.


Sarah Ida Fowler Morgan Dawson (28 Feb 1842 – 05 May 1909 | New Orleans LA – Paris FR) folk figure, Civil War diarist.


Elizabeth Gardiner Glendower Evans (28 Feb 1856 – 12 Dec 1937 | New Rochelle NY – Brookline MA) memoirist, social activist, penal reformer, co-founder of WILPF [Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom].

27 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Emma Jacobina Christiana Marwedel (27 Feb 1818 – 17 Nov 1893 | Münden DEU – San Francisco CA) German-American author, educator, feminist, children’s activist, Froebelian method teacher trainer, pioneer US kindergarten movement leader / activist / founder.


Esther Francesca [Fanny] Alexander (27 Feb 1837 – 21 Jan 1917 | Boston MA – Florence IT) author, illustrator, translator, philanthropist.


Eleanor Agnes Lee (27 Feb 1841 – 15 Oct 1873 | Arlington VA – Lexington VA) poet, diarist, memoirist, folk figure, Confederate military family daughter.


Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (27 Feb 1850 – 14 Jan 1943 | Boston MA – Gardiner ME) novelist, children’s poet, nonsense writer, biographer.


Kate Stephens (27 Feb 1853 – 10 May 1938 | Moravia NY – Lawrence KS) author, feminist, suffragist, biographer, short fiction writer, philanthropist, established Stephens Bequest.

26 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell (26 Feb 1849 – 22 Jul 1883 | Holly Springs MS – Holly Springs MS) novelist, feminist, short story writer.


Alice Mabel Bacon (26 Feb 1858 – 01 May 1918 | New Haven CT – New Haven CT) nonfiction author, foreign advisor to Japan, international women’s educator.


Lavinia Lloyd Dock (26 Feb 1858 – 17 Apr 1956 | Harrisburg PA – Chambersburg PA) nurse, author, feminist, women’s rights activist, nursing education pioneer, helped form National League of Nursing, contributing editor to American Journal of Nursing.


Mabel Ganson Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan (26 Feb 1879 – 13 Aug 1962 | Buffalo NY – Taos NM) author, hostess, memoirist, patron of women’s arts / artists / writers, Native American culture promoter, pioneer US psychoanalysis patient.


Elizabeth Hawley Gasque Van Exem (26 Feb 1886 – 02 Nov 1989 | Blythewood SC – Ridgeway SC) author, lecturer, politician, first female SC State Representative, longest lived member of US House or Senate.