09 May | Women.Words.Work

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Eliza Seaman Leggett (09 May 1815 – 08 Feb 1900 | New York NY – Detroit MI) social activist, suffragist, abolitionist, Underground Railroad worker, public restrooms and public drinking fountain advocate.

Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston (09 May 1830 – 03 Jul 1903 | Franklin County PA – Narragansett RI) fine art collector, arts / music advocate, Native American reservation activist, acting US Presidential First Lady for uncle James Buchanan, children’s hospital founder, founded Washington Cathedral School for Choir Boys, aka First Lady of National Collection of Fine Arts.

Mary Eno Bassett Mumford (09 May 1842 – 09 May 1935 | Litchfield CT – New Britain CT) author, activist, editor, teacher.

Fanny Titus Hazen (09 May 1840 – 20 Jan 1930 | Vershire VT – Cambridge MA) Civil War nurse, suffragist, president Army Nurse Association of Massachusetts, member of Woman’s Relief Corps / Cambridge Equal Suffrage League.

Isabella Maria [Belle] Boyd (09 May 1844 – 11 Jun 1900 | Martinsburg VA [now WV] – Kilbourn [now Wisconsin Dells] WI) spy, lecturer, memoirist, aka Cleopatra of the Secession, Siren of the Shenandoah.

06 May | Women.Words.Work

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Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard (06 May 1823 – 01 Aug 1902 | Mattapoisett MA – Manhattan NY) poet, novelist.

Phebe Coffin Hanaford (06 May 1829 – 02 Jun 1921 | Siasconset MA – Rochester NY) poet, author, minister, suffragist, Universalist.

Estelle Skidmore Doremus (06 May 1830 – 21 May 1905 | New York NY – Brooklyn NY) patron of arts, Daughters of the American Revolution regent / charter member, leading member of Americans in Paris during Second French Empire.

Mary Clemmer Ames (06 May 1831 – 18 Aug 1884 | Utica NY – Washington DC) poet, author, journalist.

Annetta Seabury Dresser (06 May 1844 – 10 May 1893 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, speaker, pioneering New Thought practitioner.

04 May | Women.Words.Work

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Mary Elizabeth Surratt (04 May 1823 – 07 Jul 1865 | Waterloo MD – Washington DC) boarding house owner / operator, historical / political folk figure, tried as Lincoln assassination co-conspirator, first American female executed by hanging.

Julia Britton Hooks (04 May 1852 – 10 Mar 1942 | Frankfort KY – Memphis TN) pianist, social worker, civil rights leader, juvenile court officer, second female African-American US college graduate, founded Julia Hooks Cottage School and Julia Hooks School of Music.

Mary Ellis Peltz (04 May 1896 – 24 Oct 1981 | New York NY – New York NY) poet, editor, author, music / drama critic, founding editor Opera News magazine.

Joy Bright Hancock (04 May 1898 – 20 Aug 1986 | Wildwood NJ – Bethesda MD) pilot, WAVES activist, early female Naval officer, autobiographical author.

Bernice Mildred Goetz (04 May 1909 – 30 Dec 1958 | Cleveland OH – Brooklyn NY) poet, author, teacher, lecturer, explorer.

02 May | Women.Words.Work

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Rhoda Lavinia [Vinnie] Goodell (02 May 1839 – 31 Mar 1880 | Utica NY – Janesville WI) first licensed female lawyer in Wisconsin State.

Katharine Putnam Hooker (02 May 1849 – 07 Jan 1935 | Milwaukee WI – Santa Barbara CA) socialite, philanthropist, travel writer.

Margaret Hill McCarter (02 May 1860 – 31 Aug 1938 | Carthage IN – Topeka KS) teacher, novelist, founded Western Sorosis women’s club.

Julia Barnett Rice (02 May 1860 – 18 Nov 1929 | New Orleans LA – New York NY) musician, physician, civic / social activist, documented unnecessary tugboat whistling / aided passage of 1907 Bennett Act, founding president of The Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise, founded SSUN children’s branch for NYC Board of Education.

Alice Bertha Kroeger (02 May 1864 – 31 Oct 1909 | St. Louis MO – Philadelphia PA) author, lecturer, librarian, professor, student of Melvil Dewey, founder / director of library science program at Drexel University [1892-1909].

29 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Helen Louise Chapel Bullock (29 Apr 1836 – 1927 | Norwich NY – Norwich NY) suffragist, philanthropist, musical educator, temperance activist, women’s prison reformer.

Adeline [Addie] Lucia Hart Ballou (29 Apr 1837 – 10 Aug 1916 | Chagrin Falls OH – San Francisco CA) poet, artist, author, lecturer, suffragist.

Caroline [Carrie] Watson Fleming (29 Apr 1844 – 19 Jul 1931 | Fairmont WV – Fairmont WV) First Lady of West Virginia, civic / cultural / religious activist.

Margherita Arlina Hamm (29 Apr 1867 – 17 Dec 1907 | St Stephen NB – New York NY) author, journalist, suffragist, magazine editor, war correspondent.

Katherine Golden Bitting (29 Apr 1868 – 1937 | Stratford ON – Lafayette IN) author, food chemist, professor, food preservation expert.

26 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Frances Manwaring Caulkins (26 Apr 1795 – 03 Feb 1869 | New London CT – New London CT) writer, memoirist, historian.

Alice Cary (26 Apr 1820 – 12 Feb 1871 | Mount Healthy OH – New York NY) poet, author, novelist, suffragist, first president of Sorosis.

Martha Farquharson Finley (26 Apr 1828 – 30 Jan 1909 | Chillicothe OH – Elkton MD) author, teacher, prolific serial novelist.

Erminnie Adele Platt Smith (26 Apr 1836 – 09 Jun 1886 | Marcellus NY – Jersey City NJ) author, folklorist, ethnologist, anthropologist.

Elizabeth Conwell Smith Willson (26 Apr 1842 – 13 Oct 1864 | Laurel IN – Cambridge MA) poet, two volumes of poetry published posthumously by husband.


24 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Annis Bertha Ford Eastman (24 Apr 1852 – 22 Oct 1910 | Peoria IL – Elmira NY) author, lecturer, suffragist, theologian, philosopher, first NY State ordained female minister.

Virna Sheard (24 Apr 1862 – 22 Feb 1944 | Cobourg ON – Toronto ON) poet, novelist, pen name Stanton Sheard.

Gemma La Guardia Gluck (24 Apr 1881 – 01 Nov 1962 | New York NY – New York NY) memoirist, Italian-Jewish-American, Holocaust survivor, citizen of US and Hungary, sister of Fiorello La Guardia [first Italian-American Mayor of NYC].

Rowena Meeks Abdy (24 Apr 1887 – 18 Aug 1945 | Vienna AT – San Francisco CA) plein-air painter.

Sara Campbell (24 Apr 1890 – 18 Nov 1965 | Dover TN – Paducah KY) poet, author, flag designer, aka The Betsy Ross of Paducah.

23 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Penina Moise (23 Apr 1797 – 13 Sep 1880 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) poet, hymnist.

Susan Louise Cotton Marsh (23 Apr 1867 – 21 Sep 1946 | Troy IN – St Louis MO) author, activist, biographer, children’s advocate, Poet Laureate of Missouri, children’s guardianship legislative proponent.

Tillie Anderson (23 Apr 1875 – 29 Apr 1965 | Skåne SE – Detroit Lakes MN) Swedish-American, cyclist, seamstress, undisputed ladies’ cycling champion of the world, women’s cycling activist, advocate for bicycle paths in Chicago City Parks.

Mary Ellicott Arnold (23 Apr 1876 – 23 May 1968 | New Brighton NY – Delaware County PA) writer, teacher, Quaker, memoirist, Native American Indian rights activist, member Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom [WILPF].

Miriam Dorothy [Isidora] Newman (23 Apr 1878 – 1955 | New Orleans LA – New Orleans LA) poet, artist, writer, playwright, storyteller, philanthropist.


22 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Olive Logan (22 Apr 1839 – 27 Apr 1909 | Elmira NY – Banstead UK) author, actress, lecturer, suffragist | Women.Bourne.Works © Susan.Powers.Bourne

Ursula Newell Gestefeld (22 Apr 1845 – 22 Oct 1921 | Augusta ME – Chicago IL) Christian Scientist, New Thought author, women’s press founder.

Henrietta McCormick Goodhart (22 Apr 1857 – 1932 | Chicago IL – Langley Park MD) heiress, memoirist, managed McCormick-Goodhart Mansion on Langley Park Estate.

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (22 Apr 1873 – 21 Nov 1945 | Richmond VA – Richmond VA) poet, novelist, short story writer, Pulitzer Prize laureate, autobiographical author.

Laura Gilpin (22 Apr 1891 – 30 Nov 1979 | Austin Bluffs CO – Santa Fe NM) Pictorialist, photographer, focus on images of Native Americans [particularly Navajo and Pueblo] and Southwestern landscapes.

21 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Abigail [Abby] Williams May (21 Apr 1829 – 30 Nov 1888 | Boston MA – Boston MA) physician, social reformer, abolition / women’s / education activist, New England School Suffrage leader.

Mary Ann Brayton Woodbridge (21 Apr 1830 – 25 Oct 1894 | Nantucket MA – Chicago IL) weekly news editor, temperance reformer, local / state / national leader of National Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

Charlotte Emerson Brown (21 Apr 1838 – 04 Feb 1895 | Andover MA – East Orange NJ) club woman, co-founder / first president General Federation of Women’s Clubs [GFWC].

Cora Linn Veronica Richmond (21 Apr 1840 – 03 Jan 1923 | Cuba NY – Chicago IL) author, medium, Spiritualist, trance lecturer, co-founded National Spiritualist Association of Churches.

Belle Case La Follette (21 Apr 1859 – 18 Aug 1831 | Summit WI – Washington DC) author, attorney, suffragist, peace movement activist.