19 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Sarah Helen Whitman (19 Jan 1803 – 27 Jun 1878 | Providence RI – Providence RI) poet, author, essayist, Spiritualist, literary figure, transcendentalist.

Alice Hale Hill (19 Jan 1840 – 19 Jul 1908 | Providence RI – Denver CO) political hostess, Colorado State Senator’s wife, social / charitable worker, president of YWCA, charter member of several civic organizations.

Alice Eastwood (19 Jan 1859 – 30 Oct 1953 | Toronto ON – San Francisco CA) Canadian-American author, editor, curator, teacher, journal founder, self-taught botanist, plant collector / discoverer / cataloguer.

Natacha Rambova (19 Jan 1897 – 05 Jun 1966 | Salt Lake City UT – Pasadena CA) actress, ballerina, producer, playwright, memoirist, artistic director, screenwriter, set / costume / fashion designer, elite couture fashion shop owner, born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy.

Anne Schumacher Hummert (19 Jan 1905 – 05 Jul 1996 | Baltimore MD – New York NY) journalist, advertising executive, multimillionaire, radio serials scriptwriter, pioneering soap opera writer.

17 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Mary Jane Whitely Coggeshall (17 Jan 1836 – 22 Dec 1911 | Milton IN – Des Moines IA) writer, speaker, suffragist, first editor Woman’s Standard, aka the Mother of Woman Suffrage in Iowa, first woman west of Mississippi to join the National American Woman Suffrage Association [NAWSA].

Alva Erskine Smith Belmont (17 Jan 1853 – 26 Jan 1933 | Mobile AL – Paris FR) socialite, suffragist, librettist, philanthropist, multi-millionaire, architectural endower / decorator.

Edith Stuyvesant Dresser Gerry (17 Jan 1873 – 21 Dec 1958 | Newport RI – Providence RI) heiress, socialite, social activist, philanthropist, once the wealthiest woman in Rhode Island.

Josie Bassett Morris (17 Jan 1874 – 01 May 1964 | Hot Springs AR – Jensen UT) potter, pioneer, basket maker, cattle rancher, folk figure affiliated with The Wild Bunch Gang, rumored to have been Butch Cassidy’s sweetheart.

Cora Wilson Stewart (17 Jan 1875 – 02 Dec 1958 | Farmers KY – Columbus NC) educator, social reformer, founded Moonlight Schools to teach illiterate adults.

23 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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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.

09 Dec | Women’s Words & Works

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Sarah [Tabitha] Babbitt (09 Dec 1799 – 10 Dec 1853 | Hardwick MA – Harvard MA) Shaker, inventor, weaver, tool-maker, member of Harvard Shaker Community, invented false teeth / circular saw / spinning wheel head [but did not patent any of her inventions].

Elizabeth Buffum Chace (09 Dec 1806 – 12 Dec 1889 | Providence RI – Providence RI) Quaker, abolitionist, social reformer, women’s rights activist, president Rhode Island Suffrage, Pembroke College co-founder.

Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton (09 Dec 1832 – 08 Oct 1909 | Belchertown MA – Seoul SK) Methodist Episcopal missionary, first Woman’s Foreign Missionary in Korea, founded Tal Syeng Day School for Women in Seoul and the Training School for Bible Women.

Emma Abbott (09 Dec 1850 – 05 Jan 1891 | Chicago IL – Salt Lake City UT) operatic soprano, impresario / opera company founder.

Ida Sophia Scudder (09 Dec 1870 – 23 May 1960 | Ranipet IND – Kodaikanal IND) doctor, medical missionary, women’s health activist, treated plague / leprosy / cholera, founded Christian Medical College & Hospital in Vellore, India.

29 Nov | Women’s Words & Works

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Jemima Wilkinson (29 Nov 1758 – 01 Jul 1819 | Cumberland RI – Jerusalem NY) charismatic Quaker, abstinence / gender equality advocate, religious community leader / founder, aka The Public Universal Friend.

Abigail Goodrich Whittelsey (29 Nov 1788 – 16 Jul 1858 | Ridgefield CT – Colchester CT) The Mothers’ Magazine founding editor and publisher.

Maria Teresa [Teresita] Sandoval Suazo (29 November 1811 – 1894 | Taos NM – Pueblo CO) pioneer in Arkansas Valley, co-founder of El Pueblo in Pueblo, Colorado, managed Doyle Settlement Ranch.

Louisa May Alcott (29 Nov 1832 – 06 Mar 1888 | Germantown PA – Boston MA) novelist, Unitarian, Civil War Union nurse.

28 Nov | Women’s Words & Works

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Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat (28 Nov 1823 – 16 Jan 1908 | Portland ME – Portland ME) poet, author, diarist, reformer, journalist, travel writer, first female New England book reviewer.

Phebe Cobb Larry Dole (28 Nov 1835 – 26 Apr 1909 | Gorham ME – Windham ME) poet, artist, landscape painter, magazine / newspaper writer, editor-in-chief of weekly Portland ME paper The Narragansett Sun.

Helen Magill White (28 Nov 1853 – 28 Oct 1944 | Providence RI – Kittery Point ME) educator, pacifist, suffragist, school principal, first US female PhD.

Suzanne Adams Stern Mackay (28 Nov 1872 – 05 Feb 1953 | Cambridge MA – London UK) lyric coloratura soprano.

24 Nov | Women’s Words & Works

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Caroline Elizabeth Thomas Merrick (24 Nov 1825 – 29 Mar 1908 | East Feliciana Parish LA – New Orleans LA) poet, suffragist, short fiction writer, social / civic activist, women’s rights advocate.

Susan Hunt Hammond Barney (24 Nov 1834 – 29 Apr 1922 | Pawtucket RI – Providence RI) author, evangelist, aka The Prisoner’s Friend, founded Prisoners’ Aid Society of Rhode Island, National Superintendent of WCTU Prison, Jail, Police, and Almshouse Visitation.

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 Nov 1849 – 29 Oct 1924 | Cheetham Hill UK – Plandome NY) novelist, short story writer.

Lola Maverick Lloyd (24 Nov 1875 – 25 Jul 1944 | Castroville TX – Winnetka IL) author, pacifist, feminist, suffragist, social / political activist, co-founded Campaign for World Goverment, founding member of Woman’s Peace Party and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom [WILPF].

19 Oct | Women’s Words & Works

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Anna Murray-Douglass (19 Oct 1813 – 04 Aug 1882 | Denton MD – Washington DC) African-American abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, first wife of Frederick Douglass.

Amanda Theodocia Jones (19 Oct 1835 – 31 Mar 1914 | East Bloomfield NY – Brooklyn NY) poet, author, inventor, suffragist, spiritualist, Jones Process vacuum canning company founder.

Margaret Hamilton (19 Oct 1840 – 11 Jan 1922 | Rochester NY – Wakefield MA) teacher, Civil War Union nurse, religious Sister of Charity, left Catholic Church and Sisters of Charity, converted to Baptist Church, president National Army Nurse Association.

Annie Smith Peck (19 Oct 1850 – 18 Jul 1935 | Providence RI – New York NY) author, scholar, lecturer, feminist, suffragist, adventurer, mountaineer, travel writer.

Bertha Knight Landes (19 Oct 1868 – 29 Nov 1943 | Ware MA – Ann Arbor MI) Seattle WA mayor, women’s activist, first female elected to govern major US city.

03 Sep | Women’s Words & Works

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Prudence Crandall (03 Sep 1803 – 28 Jan 1890 | Hopkinton RI – Elk Falls KS) teacher, Quaker, girls’ school founder, civil rights activist / educator.

Caroline Augusta White Soule (03 Sep 1824 – 06 Dec 1903 | Albany NY – Glasgow SCOT) poet, editor, novelist, religious writer, Universalist minister.

Eliza Wright Osborne (03 Sep 1830 – 18 Jul 1911 | Aurora NY – Auburn NY) writer, suffragist, women’s rights activist.

Sarah Orne Jewett (03 Sep 1849 – 24 Jun 1909 | South Berwick ME – South Berwick ME) novelist, short story writer.

Mary Parker Follett (03 Sep 1868 – 18 Dec 1933 | Quincy MA – Boston MA) author, social worker, philosopher, management consultant, pioneer in organizational theory and behavior.

07 Aug | Women’s Words & Works

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Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (07 Aug 1813 – 24 Aug 1876 | Bloomfield NY – Providence RI) educator, suffragist, publisher, abolitionist, founding member of New England Woman Suffrage Association.

Alice James (07 Aug 1848 – 06 Mar 1892 | New York NY – London UK) editor, diarist, history teacher, literary figure, letter correspondent.

Ellen Fitz Pendleton (07 Aug 1864 – 26 Jul 1936 | Westerly RI – Newton MA) mathematics professor, long-term president of Wellesley College, academic freedom advocate, first woman on panel to award American Peace Prize.

Florence Margaret Martus (07 Aug 1868 – 08 Feb 1943 | Chatham GA – Savannah GA) folk figure, lighthouse keeper, aka Savannah’s Waving Girl.

Amelia [Amy] Elizabeth du Pont (07 Aug 1875 – 16 Feb 1962 | Wilmington DE – Montecito CA) heiress, aka Miss Amy, philanthropist, founded Unidel Foundation, funded University of Delaware.