22 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Ann Hasseltine Judson (22 Dec 1789 – 24 Oct 1826 | Bradford MA – Amherst MM) author, translator, essayist, educator, catechism writer, aka Ann of Ava, one of first female American foreign missionaries to India and Burma.


Josephine Brawley Hughes (22 Dec 1839 – 22 Mar 1926 | Meadville PA – Tucson AZ) Western writer, pioneer, suffragist, social activist, women’s advocate, temperance activist, aka Mother of Methodism, managed Arizona Daily Star newspaper, established first girls’ school in Southwest US, first female public school teacher in Arizona, founded Arizona Chapter of Women’s Christian Temperance Union [WCTU].


Maria Teresa Carreño (22 Dec 1853 – 12 Jun 1917 | Caracas VE – New York NY) singer, composer, pianist, conductor, master teacher, Venezuelan-American, aka The Valkyrie of the Piano.


Aline Bernstein (22 Dec 1880 – 07 Sep 1955 | New York NY – New York NY) American author, set / costume designer, novelist, autobiographical author, Museum of Costume Art co-founder, first female member of Designers Union.

17 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Deborah Sampson Gannett (17 Dec 1760 – 29 Apr 1827 | Plympton MA – Sharon MA) diarist, memoirist, political activist, Continental soldier.


Delia Ann Webster (17 Dec 1817 – 18 Jan 1904 | Vergennes VT – Jeffersonville IN) teacher, abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, girls’ school founder, aka The Petticoat Abolitionist.


Celia Logan Connelly (17 Dec 1837 – 18 Jun 1904 | Philadelphia PA – New York NY) author, actress, aka L. Fairfax, journalist, playwright, translator, social activist / organizer.


Kate M. Youngman (17 Dec 1841 – 29 Sep 1910 | Kingston NY – Tokyo JP) nurse, missionary, founded Ihaien Leprosy Hospital in Tokyo.

15 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Anne Hollingsworth Wharton (15 Dec 1845 – 29 Jul 1928 | Southampton Furnace PA – Philadelphia PA) author, essayist, genealogist, American Colonial / Revolutionary historian.


Vida Dutton Scudder (15 Dec 1861 – 09 Oct 1954 | Madurai IND – Wellesley MA) author, essayist, lecturer, professor, memoirist, autobiographer, social gospel movement / welfare activist.


Myra Albert Wiggins (15 Dec 1869 – 13 Jan 1956 | Salem OR – Seattle WA) author, painter, pictorial photographer, Photo-Secession member.


Zephine Humphrey Fahnestock (15 Dec 1874 – 1959 | Philadelphia PA – Dorset VT) novelist, anti-war activist.


Eslanda [Essie] Cardozo Goode Robeson (15 Dec 1896 – 13 Dec 1965 | Washington DC – New York NY) African-American actor, author, anthropologist, civil rights activist.

11 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Leonora Sansay (11 Dec 1773 – 12 Nov 1821 | Philadelphia PA – Newent UK) novelist, painter, memoirist, political / literary figure, aka Mary Hassal, née Honora Davern, artificial flower-making business owner.


Clemence Sophia Harned Lozier (11 Dec 1813 – 26 Apr 1888 | Plainfield NJ – New York NY) feminist, suffragist, physician, founded / directed New York Medical College and Hospital for Women, president of New York City Suffrage League and National Women’s Suffrage Association.


Mary Belle King Sherman (11 Dec 1862 – 15 Jan 1935 | Albion NY – Denver CO) author, club woman, national park activist, aka The National Park Lady.


Annie Jump Cannon (11 Dec 1863 – 13 Apr 1941 | Dover DE – Cambridge MA) author, astronomer, pioneer cataloguer / developer of contemporary stellar classification.


Louise Brown Leslie (11 Dec 1869 – 07 Oct 1948 | Perry ME – Detroit MI) editor, journalist, women’s advice columnist, pen name: Nancy Brown, aka Dear Nancy.

10 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Caroline Mehitable Fisher Sawyer (10 Dec 1812 – 19 May 1894 | Newton MA – Somerville MA) poet, author, essayist, translator, social activist, short fiction writer, Universalist’s women’s and children’s societies advocate.


Jane [Jeanie] McDowell Foster (10 Dec 1829 – 17 Jan 1903 | Pittsburgh PA – Pittsburgh PA) diarist, wife of songwriter Stephen Foster, aka Jane Denny McDowell Wiley, inspiration for song “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”.


Emily Dickinson (10 Dec 1830 – 15 May 1886 | Amherst MA – Amherst MA) poet, baker, literary figure.


Mary Louisa Parmalee Peebles (10 Dec 1833 – 25 Apr 1915 | Lansingburgh NY – Lansingburgh NY) children’s author, pen name: Lynde Palmer.


Anna Mebus Martin (10 Dec 1843 – 10 Jul 1925 | DEU – Mason County TX) seamstress, entrepreneur, textile trader, Texas rancher, German-American, bank owner / founder, first female bank president born outside US.

07 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

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.

06 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Susanna Strickland Moodie (06 Dec 1803 – 08 Apr 1885 | Bungay UK – Toronto ON) English-Canadian poet, artist, novelist, memoirist, children’s author.


Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm (06 Dec 1815 – 22 Jul 1884 | Pittsburgh PA – Lawrenceville PA) lecturer, feminist, social reformer, Civil War nurse, autobiographer, anti-slavery advocate, first woman founder / publisher of US newspaper.


Nina [Bonina] Morais Cohen (06 Dec 1855 – 19 Feb 1918 | Philadelphia PA – Minneapolis MN) magazine writer, English literature teacher, leader in Minneapolis’ woman’s club movement, founding member of National Council of Jewish Women.


Minerva Josephine Chapman (06 Dec 1858 – 14 Jun 1947 | Sand Bank [Altmar] NY – Palo Alto CA) artist, author, still life / landscape / miniature portrait painter.


Clara Lipman Mann (06 Dec 1864 – 22 Sep 1952 | Chicago IL – New York NY) playwright, stage actress.

03 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Barbara Hauer Fritchie (03 Dec 1766 – 18 Dec 1862 | Lancaster PA – Frederick City MD) folk figure, American Civil War Union activist.


Margaret [Peggy] O’Neal Eaton (03 Dec 1799 – 08 Nov 1879 | Washington DC – Washington DC) folk / political figure, involved in US President Andrew Jackson Petticoat Affair.


Louisa Susannah Cheves McCord (03 Dec 1810 – 23 Nov 1879 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) poet, author, suffragist, playwright, translator, political essayist.


Phoebe Apperson Hearst (03 Dec 1842 – 13 Apr 1919 | Franklin MO – Pleasanton CA) feminist, suffragist, philanthropist, anthropology museum founder, founding member of National Congress of Mothers, benefactor / director of Golden Gate Kindergarten Association, co-founded all-girls National Cathedral School in Washington, DC.


Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (03 Dec 1842 – 30 Mar 1911 | Dunstable MA – Boston MA) author, professor, environmental chemist, safety / industrial engineer, experimental researcher in domestic science, first to apply chemistry to study of nutrition, first American woman to obtain a degree in chemistry, first female student and professor at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology], first American woman accepted to any school of science and technology.

01 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Ann Preston (01 Dec 1813 – 18 Apr 1872 | West Grove PA – Philadelphia PA) educator, physician, essayist, Quaker, children’s book author, women’s medical education activist.


Caroline Crane Marsh (01 Dec 1816 – 27 Oct 1901 | Berkley MA – Scarsdale NY) poet, author, translator, women’s rights activist.


Matilda Agnes Heron (01 Dec 1830 – 07 Mar 1877 | Draperstown IE – New York NY) Irish-American actress, translator, playwright.


Christine Ladd-Franklin (01 Dec 1847 – 05 Mar 1930 | Windsor CT – New York NY) author, logician, psychologist, mathematician, color vision theorist / researcher.


Julia Ann Moore (01 Dec 1847 – 05 Jun 1920 | Plainfield Township MI – Manton MI) poet, poetaster known for writing bad poetry, aka Julie Ann Davis, aka The Sweet Singer of Michigan.

30 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

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.