07 Jan | Herstorical.Reflections

Ann Mayes Rutledge (07 Jan 1813 – 25 Aug 1835 | Henderson KY – New Salem IL) US folk figure, aka [US President Abraham] Lincoln’s First Love.


Julia Thompson von Stosch Schayer (07 Jan 1842 – 29 Mar 1928 | Deering ME – Bronxville NY) short fiction author.


Louise Imogen Guiney (07 Jan 1861 – 02 Nov 1920 | Roxbury MA – Chipping Campden UK) poet, editor, essayist.


Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer (07 Jan 1873 – 24 Jun 1943 | Allentown PA – Nashville TN) painter, illustrator, printmaker, white-line woodcut creator / innovator.


Florence Winger Bagley (07 Jan 1874 – 1952 | Clay Lick PA – US) author, psychologist, Fechner’s color aesthetics specialist, independent psychology researcher.

06 Jan | Herstorical.Reflections

Rebecca Webb Pennock Lukens (06 Jan 1794 – 10 Dec 1854 | Marlboro Township PA – Coatesville PA) Quaker, mill owner / manager, first US female industrial CEO, autobiographical author.


Charlotte Endymion Porter (06 Jan 1857 – 16 Jan 1942 | Towanda PA – Melrose MA) poet, editor, writer, translator, literary critic.


Elisabeth Mills Reid (06 Jan 1858 – 30 Apr 1931 | New York NY – Nice FR) social activist, philanthropist, women’s arts / academics advocate.


Frances Saville (06 Jan 1862 – 08 Nov 1935 | San Francisco CA – Belmont CA) operatic lyric soprano.


Caroline [Caro] Dana Blymyer Dawes (06 Jan 1866 – 03 Oct 1957 | Cincinnati OH – Evanston IL) US Second Lady, social / charity activist, natural and adoptive mother.

01 Jan | Herstorical.Reflections

Jane Frazier [or Fraser] (01 Jan 1735 – 14 Apr 1815 | Winchester VA – Schellsburg PA) survivor, memoirist, captured / escaped Native Americans.


Elizabeth Griscom Claypoole Ross (01 Jan 1752 – 30 Jan 1836 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) American Revolutionary War folk figure, seamstress for First Flag of the United States, best known as Betsy Ross.


Harriet E. Bishop (01 Jan 1817 – 08 Aug 1883 | Panton VT – St Paul MN) writer, educator, suffragist, temperance activist.


Amelia Stewart Knight (01 Jan 1817 – 25 Jan 1898 | Boston MA – Vancouver WA) diarist, memoirist, Northwest Oregon Trail pioneer / settler.


Lucy Lambert Hale (01 Jan 1841 – 15 Oct 1915 | Dover NH – Warren NH) society belle, engaged to John Wilkes Booth, later political wife / hostess to Senator Chandler.

30 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Josefa [Chipita] Rodriguez (30 Dec 1799 – 13 Nov 1863 | Mexico, New Spain – San Patricio TX) Mexican-American innkeeper, convicted / hanged for murder, first and only woman hanged in Texas, subject of books / operas / newspaper and magazine articles, Texas Legislature resolved [100+ yrs later in 1985] “Josefa did not receive a fair trial and should not have been hanged”.


Agnes Irwin (30 Dec 1841 – 05 Dec 1914 | Washington DC – Philadelphia PA) author, editor, educator, girls’ school founder, political family member, first dean at Radcliffe College, principal at West Penn Square Seminary for Young Ladies [later renamed Agnes Irwin School].


Katharine Jeannette Bush (30 Dec 1855 – 19 Jan 1937 | Scranton PA – New Haven CT) author, essayist, zoologist, dictionary editor, first to earn PhD in Sciences at Yale.


Rachel Foster Avery (30 Dec 1858 – 26 Oct 1919 | Pittsburgh PA – Philadelphia PA) suffragist, journalist, political activist, adoptive and natural mother, organized International Council of Women, secretary for National American Woman Suffrage Association.

26 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte [E. D. E. N.] Southworth (26 Dec 1819 – 30 Jun 1899 | Washington DC – Washington DC ) novelist, short fiction writer.


Emily Wilder Leavitt (26 Dec 1836 – 02 Nov 1921 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, historian, professional genealogist, first female member New England Historic Genealogical Society.


Clara Southmayd Ludlow (26 Dec 1852 – 28 Sep 1924 | Easton PA – Washington DC) author, musician, scientist, aka C. S. Ludlow, music teacher, medical entomologist, first woman known to publish on taxonomy of mosquitoes and the incidence of mosquito-borne diseases.


Eva March Tappan (26 Dec 1854 – 29 Jan 1930 | Blackstone MA – Worcester MA) author, teacher, editor of Vassar [College] Miscellany, Latin / German college professor, children’s book author, historical / biographical novelist.

24 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Sarah Bradlee Fulton (24 Dec 1740 – 09 Nov 1835 | Dorchester MA – Medford MA) political activist, active member of Daughters of Liberty, aka Mother of the Boston Tea Party, volunteer spy and nurse in American Revolutionary War.


Esther Clark Short (24 Dec 1806 – 28 Jun 1862 | Tioga County PA – Vancouver WA) Algonquin-German-American pioneer landowner, businesswoman, aka The Pioneer Mother, Vancouver, Washington settler / co-founder.


Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (24 Dec 1807 – 02 Nov 1834 | Centre DE – Tecumseh MI) poet, writer, children’s anti-slavery author, first US female writer to focus on abolition of slavery as her principal theme.


Jane Marie Bancroft Robinson (24 Dec 1847 – 29 May 1932 | West Stockbridge MA – Detroit MI) author, scholar, historian, professor, genealogist, philanthropist.

23 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Ada Langworthy Collier (23 Dec 1843 – 06 Aug 1919 | Dubuque IA – Dubuque IA) author writing sketches, short stories, poems, novelist, clubwoman / social activist, pen names Anna L. Cunningham and Marguerite.


Helen Cecilia De Silver Abbot Michael (23 Dec 1857 – 29 Nov 1904 | Philadelphia PA – Boston MA) author, chemist, biologist, physician, hospital founder, plant analysis expert researcher.


Louisa Melvin Delos Mars (23 Dec 1859 – c. 1926 | Providence RI – Boston MA) singer, composer, librettist, first African-American woman to have her opera composition produced, one of first black graduates of New England Conservatory, one of first black women to achieve recognition as a composer [Note: none of her works survive].


Harriet Monroe (23 Dec 1860 – 26 Sep 1936 | Chicago IL – Arequipa PER) poet, editor, scholar, biographer, playwright, literary critic, patron of arts, autobiographical author, Poetry magazine editor / founder / publisher.


Anna Farquhar Bergengren (23 Dec 1865 – unknown | Brookville IN – unknown) editor, author, memoirist, journalist, foreign correspondent, pen name Margaret Allston.

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.