16 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

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Josephine Shaw Lowell (16 Dec 1843 – 12 Oct 1905 | Roxbury MA – New York NY) Unitarian, nonfiction author, Progressive reform leader, consumers league founder. 

Helen Frances [Fanny] Garrison Villard (16 Dec 1844 – 05 Jul 1928 | Boston MA – Dobbs Ferry NY) author, speaker, suffragist, founding member National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP].

Mary Hartwell Catherwood (16 Dec 1847 – 26 Dec 1902 | Luray OH – Chicago IL) biographer, historical romance novelist, short fiction magazine writer, pen names Mary Hartwell and Lewtrah.

Clara Endicott Sears (16 Dec 1863 – 25 Mar 1963 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, historian, preservationist, founded Fruitlands Museum.

14 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

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Mary Tappan Wright (14 Dec 1851 – 25 Aug 1916 | Steubenville OH – Cambridge MA) novelist, short story writer.

Lavinia Norman (14 Dec 1882 – 22 Jan 1983 | Montgomery WV – Washington DC) lifelong educator, French / English / Latin teacher, original founding member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority / first sorority founded by African-American women at Howard University.

Helen Steketee (14 Dec 1882 – 23 Aug 1974 | Grand Rapids MI – Grand Rapids MI) artist, still-life / landscape painter.

Jane Bailey Cowl (14 Dec 1883 – 22 Jun 1950 | Boston MA – Santa Monica CA) playwright, stage / film actress, WWII co-director of NYC Stage Door Canteen, wrote in collaboration with Jane Murfin, often used joint pseudonym Allan Langdon Martin.

Ethel Browne Harvey (14 Dec 1885 – 02 Sep 1965 | Baltimore MD – Falmouth MA) author, zoologist, embryologist, women’s educational rights activist / advocate.

07 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

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Abigail Hopper Gibbons (07 Dec 1801 – 16 Jan 1893 | Philadelphia PA – New York NY) teacher, abolitionist, social activist / reform leader, Civil War Union field nurse / hospital matron, co-founded Women’s Prison Association of NYC.

Rachel Littler Bodley (07 Dec 1831 – 15 Jun 1888 | Cincinnati OH – Philadelphia PA) author, archivist, university leader, Dean of Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, first female professor of chemistry at US medical college.

Myrta Lockett Avary (07 Dec 1857 – 14 Feb 1946 | Halifax VA – Atlanta GA) author, journalist, memoirist.

Sibyl Sanderson Terry (07 Dec 1864 – 16 May 1903 | Sacramento CA – Paris FR) operatic soprano, autobiographical author.

Willa Cather (07 Dec 1873 – 24 Apr 1947 | Gore VA – New York NY) editor, author, novelist, teacher.

04 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

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Angelia [Angie] Louise Thurston French Newman (04 Dec 1837 – 15 Apr 1910 | Montpelier VT – Lincoln NE) poet, editor, author, teacher, lecturer, Spanish-American War hospital inspector.

Cornelia Foster Bradford (04 Dec 1847 – 15 Jan 1935 | Granby NY – Montclair NJ) social worker, kindergarten advocate, social activist and reformer, founded Whittier House [first settlement house in New Jersey].

Mary Reed (04 Dec 1854 – 08 Apr 1943 | Lowell OH – Chandag IND) missionary social worker, leprosy colony missionary.

Julia Evelyn Ditto Young (04 Dec 1857 – 19 Apr 1915 | Buffalo NY – Buffalo NY) poet, novelist.

Lillian Russell (04 Dec 1861 – 06 Jun 1922 | Clinton IA – Pittsburgh PA) singer, actress, columnist, suffragist, born Helen Louise Leonard.

30 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

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Mary Hayden Green Pike (30 Nov 1824 – 15 Jan 1908 | Eastport ME – Baltimore MD) author, novelist, pen names: Mary Langdon and Sydney A. Story, Jr.

Martha George Ripley (30 Nov 1843 – 18 Apr 1912 | Lowell VT – Minneapolis MN) suffragist, feminist, woman’s physician, women’s rights advocate, public health activist / educator, founder / administrator Minneapolis Maternity Hospital [later renamed Ripley Memorial Hospital].

Mary Eliza McDowell (30 Nov 1854 – 14 Oct 1936 | Cincinnati OH – Chicago IL) social worker / reformer, community / neighborhood organizer, workplace / public health activist, head of University of Chicago’s Settlement House [later renamed Mary McDowell Settlement], aka The Settlement Lady and Angel of the Stockyards.

Elise Mercur Wagner (30 Nov 1868 – 27 Mar 1947 | Towanda PA – Old Economy Village PA) author, public / private architect, first female architect in Pittsburgh.

Etta Cone (30 Nov 1870 – 31 Aug 1949 | Jonesboro TN – Baltimore MD) heiress, literary figure, modern art collector.

23 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

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Katharine Coman (23 Nov 1857 – 11 Jan 1915 | Newark OH – Wellesley MA) author, professor, economist, social activist.

Katharine Pyle (23 Nov 1863 – 19 Feb 1938 | Wilmington DE – Wilmington DE) poet, artist, illustrator, children’s author.

Marie Louise Van Vorst (23 Nov 1867 – 16 Dec 1936 | New York NY – Florence IT) poet, author, painter, novelist, WWI nurse, anti-war activist.

Mary Brewster Hazelton (23 Nov 1868 – 13 Sep 1953 | Milton MA – Wellesley MA) artist, portrait painter, instructor at School of Boston Museum of Fine Arts, first female artist to win US arts award open to both men and women.

14 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

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Josephine Louise Van der Schrieck (14 Nov 1813 – 03 Dec 1886 | Bergen-op-Zoom NL – Cincinnati OH) Catholic nun / leader / educator, member of Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.

Madeleine Lemoyne Ellicott (14 Nov 1856 – 1945 | Chicago IL – Baltimore MD) suffragist, political activist, founder / president League of Women Voters of Maryland, co-organized Pan-American Conference of Women [1922].

Isabel Bevier (14 Nov 1860 – 17 Mar 1942 | Plymouth OH – Urbana IL) author, pioneer university home economics educator / administrator.

Claribel Cone (14 Nov 1864 – 20 Sep 1929 | Jonesboro TN – Baltimore MD) German-American art collector, physician, pathologist.

Anna Magdalena Plehn Meyer (14 Nov 1867 – 18 Aug 1941 | Neumark PRU – Milwaukee WI) poet, hymnist, German-English translator of hymns.

11 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

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Elizabeth Doughton Reeves (11 Nov 1799 – 30 Dec 1892 | Grayson County VA – Omaha NE) social activist, first female physician in Nebraska.

Anne Charlotte Lynch Botta (11 Nov 1815 – 23 Mar 1891 | Bennington VT – New York NY) poet, critic, writer, teacher, socialite, literary circle figure, Barnard College co-founder, memoirs published posthumously.

Mathilda L. Mahurin (11 Nov 1827 – 16 Apr 1916 | Miami OH – Elkhart IN) teacher, Methodist activist.

Anna Katharine Green Rohlfs (11 Nov 1846 – 11 Apr 1935 | Brooklyn NY – Buffalo NY) poet, novelist, short fiction writer, pioneer detective fiction author, aka Mother of the Detective Novel.

Julia Brainerd Hall (11 Nov 1859 – 04 Sep 1926 | Jamaica – Rochester NY) artist, chemist, musician, still-life painter, co-developer of Hall Process for extracting aluminium from its ore.

08 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

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Alice Bunker Stockham (08 Nov 1833 – 03 Dec 1912 | Cardington OH – Alhambra CA) author, fifth female US doctor, philosophy school founder, birth control / gender equality / marital sexual fulfillment activist / advocate.

Maria Kraus-Boelté (08 Nov 1836 – 01 Nov 1918 | Hagenow DEU – Atlantic City NJ) author, essayist, professor, Froebel education advocate, kindergarten pioneer / founder, president of Kindergarten Department of National Education Association.

Lizzie Pitts Merrill Palmer (08 Nov 1838 – 28 Jul 1916 | Portland ME – Great Neck NY) educator, philanthropist, child activist, children’s educational school / child development research institute founder.

Katherine [Kate] Olivia Sessions (08 Nov 1857 – 24 Mar 1940 | San Francisco CA – San Diego CA) botanist, horticulturist, landscape architect, aka Mother of Balboa Park.

Margaret [Meta] Gladys Watkins (08 Nov 1884 – 10 Nov 1969 | Hamilton ON – Glasgow SCT) Canadian photographer, later recluse in Scotland, works discovered in her house after her death.

06 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

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Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba (06 Nov 1795 – 20 Apr 1874 | New Orleans LA – Paris FR) aristocrat, land developer, businesswoman, art / folk / literary figure.

Mary Owens Cook (06 Nov 1831 – 07 Mar 1918 | Cincinnati OH – Des Moines IA) pioneer, civic / social activist, natural and adoptive mother, adoption legislation activist / advocate [note: generic image of mother and child].

Anna Harriet Edwards Leonowens (06 Nov 1831 – 19 Jan 1915 | Ahmednagar IND – Montreal QC) Canadian, teacher, folk figure, suffragist, memoirist, women’s activist, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design co-founder.

Angie Warren Perkins (06 Nov 1858 – 28 Jan 1921 | Danielson CT – Knoxville TN) author, educator, travel writer, club woman, first female dean University of Tennessee.

Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley (06 Nov 1874 – 24 Dec 1947 | Chicago IL – Havertown PA) author, psychologist, gender-difference researcher, pioneer in child developmental studies.