21 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

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Sophia Peabody Hawthorne (21 Sep 1809 – 26 Feb 1871 | Salem MA – London UK) painter, illustrator, essayist, journal editor.

Mary Monnett Bain (21 Sep 1833 – 30 Jul 1885 | Delaware OH – Osawatomie KS) philanthropist, women’s higher education advocate / supporter.

Mary T. Waggaman (21 Sep 1846 – 30 Jul 1931 | Baltimore MD – Baltimore MD) prolific children’s author and religious novelist.

Susan Macdowell Eakins (21 Sep 1851 – 27 Dec 1938 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) artist, painter, photographer, artist’s model.

Sara Delano Roosevelt (21 Sep 1854 – 07 Sep 1941 | Newburgh NY – Hyde Park NY) memoirist, mother of FDR, political family member, mother-in-law to Eleanor Roosevelt.

16 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

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Mary Wiseman See (16 Sep 1854 – 31 Jul 1939 | Ontario CA – Ontario CA) candymaker, businesswoman.

Miriam Elizabeth Benjamin (16 Sep 1861 – 1947 | Charleston SC – Boston MA) teacher, inventor, patented Gong and Signal Chair for hotels, second black woman to receive US Patent [note: found no images of the inventor herself; image used is one of an unidentified 19th c. black woman].

Eva Lawrence Watson-Schütze (16 Sep 1867 – 01 May 1935 | Jersey City NJ – Chicago IL) painter, photographer, Photo-Secession movement co-founder.

Clara Edith Work Ayres (16 Sep 1880 – 17 May 1917 | Venice Township OH – onboard USS Mongolia, Atlantic Ocean) nurse, WWI US Red Cross nurse, grocery store owner / manager, one of first two US military women killed in WWI [Helen Burnett Wood the other].

Daisy Ann Peterkin (16 Sep 1884 – 12 Aug 1952 | St. Louis MO – Miami Beach FL) vaudeville toe-dancer, Ziegfield Follies dance member, aka Mademoiselle Dazie.

14 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

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Emily Pomona Edson Briggs (14 Sep 1830 – 03 Jul 1910 | Burton OH – Washington DC) journalist, first Lincoln White House female correspondent, first president of Women’s National Press Association.

Julia Magruder (14 Sep 1854 – 09 Jun 1907 | Charlottesville VA – Richmond VA) novelist, short story writer.

Alice Stone Blackwell (14 Sep 1857 – 01 Mar 1950 | Orange NJ – Cambridge MA) feminist, suffragist, journalist, social reformer, human rights advocate.

Julia Barlow Platt (14 Sep 1857 – 1935 | San Francisco CA – Pacific Grove CA) author, embryologist, environmental preservationist, Mayor of Pacific Grove [at 74], aka The Woman Who Saved Monterey Bay.

Ellen Beach Yaw (14 Sep 1869 – 09 Sep 1947 | Buffalo NY – Covina CA) coloratura soprano, aka Lark Ellen, unpublished memoirist.

04 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

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Mary Wells Morris (04 Sep 1764 – 06 Nov 1819 | Burlington County NJ – Wellsboro PA) Quaker, settler, namesake of Wellsboro PA [note: middle image is painting of anonymous Quaker woman].

Sarah Childress Polk (04 Sep 1803 – 14 Aug 1891 | Murfreesboro TN – Nashville TN) US First Lady, active Presbyterian, Presidential consultant, hosted first annual White House Thanksgiving Dinner.

Phoebe Cary (04 Sep 1824 – 31 Jul 1871 | Mount Healthy OH – Newport RI) poet, lyricist, co-author with sister Alice Cary.

Marion Juliet Mitchell (04 Sep 1836 – 30 Jan 1917 | Buffalo NY – Janesville WI) poet, graduate of first chartered US women’s college Ingham Institute in Le Roy NY.

Isabella Preston (04 Sep 1881 – 31 Jan 1965 | Lancaster UK – Georgetown ON) British-Canadian author, civil servant, plant hybridist, horticulturist, first female professional hybridist in Canada, aka Queen of Ornamental Horticulture.

31 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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Anna Bartlett Warner (31 Aug 1827 – 22 Jan 1915 | Long Island NY – Highland Falls NY) poet, author, hymnist, children’s song writer.

Esther Pugh (31 Aug 1834 – 29 Mar 1908 | Cincinnati OH – Philadelphia PA) Quaker, temperance reformer, national WCTU treasurer, editor / publisher Our Union temperance journal.

Mary Corinna Putnam Jacobi (31 Aug 1842 – 10 Jun 1906 | London UK – New York NY) author, novelist, feminist, suffragist, physician.

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (31 Aug 1842 – 13 Mar 1924 | Boston MA – Boston MA) editor, publisher, journalist, suffragist, civil rights leader, anti-lynching activist.

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (31 Aug 1844 – 28 Jan 1911 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, essayist, intellectual, Spiritualist, social activist, women’s clothing reform advocate, aka Mary Adams, Lily Phelps, Mary Gray Phelps.

28 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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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.

26 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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Eliza Maria Posey Street (26 Aug 1792 – 02 Feb 1847 | Fredericksburg VA – Agency IA) pioneer, folk / historical figure, settler wife of US Indian Agent, deeded 640 acres of Sac / Fox land.

Sarah [Annie] Turner Wittenmyer (26 Aug 1827 – 02 Feb 1900 | Adams County OH – Sanatoga PA) author, hymnist, historian, relief worker, social reformer, temperance activist.

Isabel Hampton Robb (26 Aug 1860 – 15 Apr 1910 | Welland ON – Cleveland OH) textbook author, first Superintendent of Nurses at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, nurse theorist / advocate / curriculum developer.

May Lamberton Becker (26 Aug 1873 – 27 Apr 1958 | New York NY – Epsom UK) editor, author, journalist, anthologist, literary critic, social / charitable activist, Reader’s Guide columnist, pro-British during WWII, active member of Books Across the Sea, namesake for Library Reading Room dedicated by T. S. Eliot [1960].

Zona Gale Breese (26 Aug 1874 – 27 Dec 1938 | Portage WI – Chicago IL) author, novelist, essayist, playwright, newspaper writer, education / pacifism / women’s rights activist.

24 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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Mary Ann White Johnson (24 Aug 1808 – 05 May 1872 | Westmoreland NH – New York NY) abolitionist, lecturer on physiology, matron of Sing Sing Prison, prison reform advocate, founding member of New England Non-Resistance Society.

Eliza Jane Trimble Thompson (24 Aug 1816 – 03 Nov 1905 | Hillsboro OH – Hillsboro OH) aka Mother Thompson, non-violent temperance Visitation Bands leader, founded Ohio Women’s Crusade Against Alcohol [basis for Women’s Christian Temperance Union].

Marie Brose Tepe Leonard (24 Aug 1834 – 14 May 1901 | Bretagne FR – Pittsburgh PA) Civil War vivandière, aka Fearless French Mary, wounded / survived war but died by suicide years later.

Laura Drake Gill (24 Aug 1860 – 03 Feb 1926 | Chesterville ME – Berea KY) professor, administrator, college president, educational reformer.

Mary Arizona [Zonia] Baber (24 Aug 1862 – 10 Jan 1956 | Clark IL – Chicago IL) geologist, feminist, anti-racist, geographer, anti-imperialist, textbook author, desk designer, geography instruction innovator, peace monument historian, co-founded Geography Society of Chicago, member of WILPF [Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

13 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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Lucy Blackwell Stone (13 Aug 1818 – 19 Oct 1893 | West Brookfield MA – Boston MA) writer, orator, suffragist, publisher, abolitionist, magazine founder / editor, women’s rights activist / organizer.

Martha Joanna Reade Nash Lamb (13 Aug 1829 – 02 Jan 1893 | Plainfield MA – New York NY) editor, author, historian, child welfare activist, Secretary of US Sanitary Commission, owner / editor-in-chief Magazine of American History.

Leonora Kearney Barry (13 Aug 1849 – 18 Jul 1923 | County Cork IE – Minooka IL) women’s labor rights activist / organizer, sole female Knights of Labor national office holder, aka Mother Lake and America’s First Woman Labor Activist.

Mary Ellen [Ella] Quinlan O’Neill (13 Aug 1857 – 28 Feb 1922 | New Haven CT – Los Angeles CA) pianist, literary figure / inspiration, mother of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

Annie Oakley (13 Aug 1860 – 03 Nov 1926 | near Woodland OH – Greenville OH) folk figure, philanthropist, aka Little Sure Shot, exhibition sharpshooter, born Phoebe Ann Moses, autobiographical writer.

12 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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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.