09 Sep | Herstorical.Reflections

Sarah Mapps Douglass (09 Sep 1806 – 08 Sep 1882 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) African-American artist, author, educator, abolitionist, public lecturer, friendship letter correspondent / illustrator.


Mary Greenhow Lee (09 Sep 1819 – 25 May 1907 | Richmond VA – Baltimore MD) author, Civil War diarist, Confederate activist, known for despising / snubbing Union soldiers and Northerners.


Lucy Jane Rider Meyer (09 Sep 1849 – 16 Mar 1922 | New Haven VT – Chicago IL) writer, editor, hymnist, educator, social worker, philanthropist, Deaconess leader, chemistry professor.


Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin (09 Sep 1850 – 21 Jun 1930 | Brooklyn NY – Nantucket MA) artist, educator, New Woman, philanthropist, first American female MFA, first female student Hague Academy of Fine Arts, founded co-ed trade / crafts school on Nantucket.


Mary Austin (09 Sep 1868 – 13 Aug 1934 | Carlinville IL – Santa Fe NM) feminist, naturalist, mystic, author, “woman of genius,” leading literary figure of her time.

06 Sep | Herstorical.Reflections

Frances [Fanny] Wright (06 Sept 1795 – 13 Dec 1852 | Dundee SCT – Cincinnati OH) Scottish-American author, lecturer, feminist, freethinker, abolitionist, social reformer, utopian commune founder. ____________________________________________________________________

Catharine Esther Beecher (06 Sep 1800 – 12 May 1878 | East Hampton NY – Elmira NY) author, educator, school founder, anti-suffragist, domestic science teacher, educational activist, co-author with sister Harriet Beecher Stowe.


Phebe Cornell Wood (06 Sep 1816 – 30 Jun 1891 | Windmill Farm NY – Albion MI) folk figure, first female US telegraph operator.


Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska (06 Sep 1829 – 12 May 1902 | Berlin DEU – Jamaica Plain MA) feminist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, pioneering female physician, founded New England Hospital for Women and Children: first hospital in Boston, first hospital with school for nurses, second US hospital run by women physicians / surgeons.


Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly (06 Sep 1838 – 30 Apr 1917 | Philadelphia PA – West Chester PA) poet, Catholic, biographer, short story writer, aka The Poet of the Pure Soul.

27 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Mary Elsa Musselman Whitmer (27 Aug 1778 – Jan 1856 | Strasberg PA – Richmond MO) folklore figure, family matriarch, Mormon convert / excommunicant, one of two females known to witness the Book of Mormon Golden Plates.


Sophia Smith (27 Aug 1796 – 12 Jun 1870 | Hatfield MA – Hatfield MA) diarist, educator, deaf activist, philanthropist, public co-educational high school founder, founded / endowed / namesake of women’s Smith College.


Sarah [Sallie] Chapman Gordon Law (27 Aug 1805 – 28 Jun 1894 | Wilkes NC – Memphis TN) first recorded Confederate Civil War nurse, Southern Mothers Association president, aka Mother of the Confederacy.


Margaretha [Molly] Meyer-Schurz (27 Aug 1833 – 15 Mar 1875 | Hamburg DEU – Washington DC) German-American, child educator, Froebel system advocate, founded first US German-language kindergarten in Watertown WI.


Mary Anderson (27 Aug 1872 – 30 Jan 1964 | Lidköping SE – Washington DC) labor activist, Social Justice Feminist, women’s work advocate, autobiographical author, US Department of Labor Women’s Bureau head.

25 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Jane Lathrop Stanford (25 Aug 1828 – 28 Feb 1905 | Albany NY – Oahu HI) arts activist, educational leader, women’s rights advocate, Stanford University co-founder, allegedly murdered by accumulated strychnine poisoning.


Chloe Annette Buckel (25 Aug 1833 – 17 Aug 1912 | Warsaw NY – Oakland CA) Civil War nurse, pioneering surgeon / physician, one of the first female doctors in California, founded Hospital for Women and Children in San Francisco.


Ellen Goodell Smith (25 Aug 1835 – 03 Nov 1906 | Belchertown MA – Brooklyn NY) author, teacher, vegetarian, physician, hydrotherapist, co-founded first hydropathic sanitarium in St. Paul MN.


Martha Hale Shackford (25 Aug 1875 – 11 Jan 2013 | Dover NH – Wellesley MA) poet, editor, author, textbook writer, professor of English literature.


Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (25 Aug 1901 – 17 Feb 1980 | Philadelphia PA – Denver CO) painter, teacher, New Deal / WPA muralist, professor of drawing and painting.

19 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Mary Ellen Pleasant (19 Aug 1817 – 04 Jan 1904 | Philadelphia PA – San Francisco CA) abolitionist, social activist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, aka Mammy Pleasant, Mother of Human Rights in California.


Antoinette B. Hollister (19 Aug 1863 – 13 Jun 1943 | Chicago IL – Tarpon Springs FL) painter, professor, writer / lecturer about art for children.


Elsie Ferguson (19 Aug 1883 – 15 Nov 1961 | New York NY – New London CT) author, actress, aka The Aristocrat of the Silent Screen.


Grace Hutchins (19 Aug 1885 – 15 Jul 1969 | Boston MA – New York NY) author, activist, communist, pamphleteer, radical labor economist.


Maija Grotell (19 Aug 1899 – 06 Dec 1973 | Helsinki FI – Pontiac MI) author, ceramicist, ceramics teacher, aka The Mother of American Ceramics.

17 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections


Charlotte Louise Bridges Forten Grimké (17 Aug 1837 – 23 Jul 1914 | Philadelphia PA – Washington DC) African-American poet, educator, journal writer, anti-slavery activist, volunteer Civil War Union nurse, first black teacher hired in two different US schools.


Laura de Force Gordon (17 Aug 1838 – 05 Apr 1907 | North East PA – Lodi CA) editor, lawyer, Spiritualist, women’s rights activist, second female attorney in California, first woman to run daily US newspaper [Stockton Daily Leader].


Caroline Bartlett Crane (17 Aug 1858 – 24 Mar 1935 | Hudson WI – Kalamazoo MI) educator, suffragist, journalist, civic reformer, Unitarian minister, aka America’s Housekeeper.


Geneva [Gene] Stratton-Porter (17 Aug 1863 – 06 Dec 1924 | Lagro IN – Los Angeles CA) author, naturalist, wildlife photographer, early female movie studio / production company founder.

03 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Graceanna Lewis (03 Aug 1821 – 25 Feb 1912 | West Chester PA – Media PA) author, suffragist, naturalist, illustrator, ornithologist, Underground Railroad activist.


Nina Clifford (03 Aug 1851 – 14 Jul 1929 | Chatham ON – Detroit MI) madam, folk figure, brothel owner, born Johanna Crow.


Caroline [Carrie] Celestia Ingalls Swanzey (03 Aug 1870 – 02 Jun 1946 | Montgomery KS – Pennington SD) typesetter, folk / literary / pioneer figure.


Sophia Kindrick Alcorn (03 Aug 1883 – 28 Nov 1967 | Stanford KY – Stanford KY) educator, deaf-blind disability rights activist, invented Tadoma Method and Alcorn Symbols, American Association for the Blind (AFB) advocate, first female elder of Stanford Presbyterian Church.


Margaret [Maggie] Kuhn (03 Aug 1905 – 22 Apr 1995 | Buffalo NY – Philadelphia PA) writer, social activist, elder rights advocate, Gray Panther founder, autobiographical author.

02 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Marie-Anne Gaboury Lagimodière (02 Aug 1780 – 14 Dec 1875 | Maskinongé QC – Saint-Boniface MB) pioneer / settler, Canadian folk figure, aka Grandmother of the Red River.


Hannah Jones Armstrong Wilcox (02 Aug 1810 – 19 Aug 1890 | Illinois US – Winterset IA) folk figure, Lincoln neighbor, Lincoln defended her son Duff in Almanac Trial.


Carrie Estelle Betzold Doheny (02 Aug 1875 – 30 Oct 1958 | Philadelphia PA – Los Angeles CA) philanthropist, library foundress, rare book collector, founded Carrie Estelle Doheny Foundation, donated book collection to St John’s Seminary (Camarillo CA), funded construction of St Vincent’s Church (LA) and buildings at Loyola Marymount University (LA), former Doheny home Chester Place became Mount St Mary’s College campus, awarded title of Papal Countess (1939) by Pope Pius XII for her services to Catholic Church.


Mittie Maude Lena Gordon Nelson (02 Aug 1889 – 1961 | Webster Parish LA – Ethiopia) African-American, black nationalist, civil rights activist, established Peace Movement of Ethiopia.


Kate [Kathe] Steinitz (02 August 1889 – 07 April 1975 | Upper Silesia [now Poland] – Los Angeles CA) artist, art historian, focus on Bauhaus / Dadaist movement.

01 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Anne Willing Bingham (01 Aug 1764 – 11 May 1801 | Philadelphia PA – Bermuda) socialite, artist’s model, letter correspondent.


Esther Sumner Damon (01 Aug 1814 – 11 Nov 1906 | Bridgewater VT – Plymouth VT) farmer, lay nurse, school teacher, seamstress, last American Revolutionary War widow state pensioner in US.


Maria Mitchell (01 Aug 1818 – 28 Jun 1889 | Nantucket MA – Lynn MA) suffragist, professor, astronomer, first American woman to work as professional astronomer, discovered Miss Mitchell’s Comet [initially named C/1847 Ti, credited to an Italian man].


Ida Celanire Craddock (01 Aug 1857 – 16 Oct 1902 | Philadelphia PA – New York NY) occultist, Unitarian, free speech advocate, women’s rights activist, pastor / priestess of Church of Yoga, first female undergraduate at University of Pennsylvania, institutionalized for her radical books / beliefs / eroticism, ended life by suicide rather than be re-imprisoned.


Angela Diller (01 Aug 1877 – 01 May 1968 | Brooklyn NY – Stamford CT) pianist, author, teacher, Diller-Quaile School of Music co-founder.

31 Jul | Herstorical.Reflections

Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley (31 Jul 1793 – 26 Jul 1827 | Boston MA – Concord MA) scholar, educator, Unitarian, intellectual, letter correspondent.


Jane Currie Blaikie Hoge (31 Jul 1811 – 26 Aug 1890 | Philadelphia PA – Chicago IL) author, fundraiser, welfare worker, Civil War administrator of Chicago Sanitary Commission, co-founded Chicago Home for the Friendless.


Lydia Moss Bradley (31 Jul 1816 – 16 Jan 1908 | Vevay IN – Peoria IL) social activist, college founder, philanthropist, independent financial manager, founded Bradley Polytechnic Institute.


Sarah J.S. Tompkins Garnet (31 Jul 1831 – 17 Sep 1911 | Brooklyn NY – Brooklyn NY) author, educator, suffragist, seamstress, school principal, educational activist, first African-American woman to found Equal Suffrage League organization, first black woman principal in the New York City public school system.


Amelia Stone Quinton (31 Jul 1833 – 23 Jun 1926 | Jamesville NY – Ridgefield Park NJ) Native American rights activist / advocate / organizer, co-founded Women’s National Indian Association.