31 Mar | Women.Words.Work

Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut (31 Mar 1823 – 22 Nov 1886 | Stateburg SC – Camden SC) diarist, novelist, political family member.


Mary Abigail Dodge (31 Mar 1833 – 17 Aug 1896 | Hamilton MA – Hamilton MA) critic, editor, author, essayist, education advocate, aka Gail Hamilton.


Martha Bailey Briggs (31 Mar 1838 – 28 Mar 1889 | New Bedford MA – Washington DC) educator, school principal, black educational activist, professor of education at Howard University, taught slaves who escaped through Underground Railroad, first African-American female high school graduate in New Bedford MA.


Anna Eva Fay Pingree (31 Mar 1851 – 20 May 1927 | Southington OH – Melrose MA) born Ann Eliza Heathman, spiritual medium / stage mentalist.


Susan [Susie] Norris Fitkin (31 Mar 1870 – 18 Oct 1951 | Ely QC – Oakland CA) author, minister, memoirist, evangelist, founder / president of Women’s Foreign Missionary Society [now Nazarene Missions International], co-funded / co-founded numerous churches / hospitals / children’s care facilities.

26 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell (26 Feb 1849 – 22 Jul 1883 | Holly Springs MS – Holly Springs MS) novelist, feminist, short story writer.


Alice Mabel Bacon (26 Feb 1858 – 01 May 1918 | New Haven CT – New Haven CT) nonfiction author, foreign advisor to Japan, international women’s educator.


Lavinia Lloyd Dock (26 Feb 1858 – 17 Apr 1956 | Harrisburg PA – Chambersburg PA) nurse, author, feminist, women’s rights activist, nursing education pioneer, helped form National League of Nursing, contributing editor to American Journal of Nursing.


Mabel Ganson Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan (26 Feb 1879 – 13 Aug 1962 | Buffalo NY – Taos NM) author, hostess, memoirist, patron of women’s arts / artists / writers, Native American culture promoter, pioneer US psychoanalysis patient.


Elizabeth Hawley Gasque Van Exem (26 Feb 1886 – 02 Nov 1989 | Blythewood SC – Ridgeway SC) author, lecturer, politician, first female SC State Representative, longest lived member of US House or Senate.

20 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Margaret Bayard Smith (20 Feb 1778 – 07 Jun 1844 | Pennsylvania US – Washington DC) diarist, novelist, essayist, biographer, short story writer, letter correspondent.


Angelina Emily Grimké Weld (20 Feb 1805 – 26 Oct 1879 | Charleston SC – Hyde Park MA) suffragist, abolitionist, letter correspondent, women’s rights advocate.


Sarah Cooke Acheson (20 Feb 1843 – 16 Jan 1899 | Washington PA – Denison TX) suffragist, women’s activist, temperance reformer.


Louise Southgate (20 Feb 1857 – 14 Aug 1941 | Walton KY – Walton KY) author, physician, suffragist, artifact collector, Egyptologist, early proponent of birth control, one of first female doctors in Northern Kentucky, advocate for girls in juvenile court system, Kentucky Equal Rights Association member.


Leonora Jackson McKim (20 Feb 1879 – 07 Jan 1969 | Boston MA – Baltimore MD) violinist, art collector, philanthropist, one of first American women concert violinists acclaimed internationally.

15 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Floride Bonneau Calhoun (15 Feb 1792 – 25 Jul 1866 | Charleston SC – Pendleton SC) poet, plantation mistress, US Vice-Presidential Second Lady, social-political Petticoat Affair member.


Rebecca Cox Jackson (15 Feb 1795 – 24 May 1871 | Horntown PA – Philadelphia PA) African-American, free woman, religious visionary, Shaker Eldress, founded first black Shaker community in Philadelphia, autobiographical author.


Mary S. B. Dana Shindler (15 Feb 1810 – 1883 | Beaufort SC – Nacogdoches TX) poet, author, editor, hymnist, letter correspondent, born Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer.


Susan Brownell Anthony (15 Feb 1820 – 13 Mar 1906 | Adams MA – Rochester NY) social reformer, suffrage leader, published women’s rights newspaper, co-founded Women’s Loyal National League and American Equal Rights Association.


Sarah Fuller (15 Feb 1836 – 01 Aug 1927 | Weston MA – Newton Lower Falls MA) author, teacher, activist for deaf.

13 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Anna Behr Uhl Ottendorfer (13 Feb 1815 – 01 Apr 1884 | Würzburg BY – New York NY) German-American journalist, philanthropist, founded home for elderly women.


Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson (13 Feb 1817 – 22 Sep 1875 | Willington SC – Pendleton SC) folk figure, philanthropist, co-founder Clemson University.


Angelica Singleton Van Buren (13 Feb 1818 – 29 Dec 1877 | Wedgefield SC – New York NY) youngest acting First Lady / White House hostess, charitable activist / philanthropist.


Julia Caroline Ripley Dorr (13 Feb 1825 – 18 Jan 1913 | Charleston SC – Rutland VT) poet, prose author.


Osia Joslyn Hiles (13 Feb 1832 – 25 Feb 1902 | near Batavia NY – Milwaukee WI) poet, philanthropist, social activist, gardener / groundskeeper, Native American rights activist, helped found Home for the Friendless / Wisconsin Humane Society / Woman’s Club of Wisconsin, originated one of the first stock companies for women.

28 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Josephine Meeker (28 Jan 1857 – 20 Dec 1882 | Ohio US – Colorado US) teacher, memoirist, physician, Ute tribe / Meeker Massacre captive / survivor.


Dorothy Donnelly (28 Jan 1880 – 03 Jan 1928 | New York NY – New York NY) actress, lyricist, librettist, playwright, producer, director.


Anna Althea Hills (28 Jan 1882 – 13 Jun 1930 | Ravenna OH – Laguna Beach CA) plein-air impressionist landscape painter, president of Laguna Beach Art Association, strong proponent of Laguna Beach Art Museum.


Lily Strickland Anderson (28 Jan 1884 – 06 Jun 1958 | Anderson SC – Hendersonville NC) writer, painter, composer, songwriter, aka South Carolina’s Gift to Music.


Waldine Amanda Tauch (28 Jan 1892 – 31 Mar 1986 | Schulenburg TX – San Antonio TX) sculptor.

03 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Isabella Maria Hazzard Floyd (03 Jan 1773 – 18 Aug 1859 | Beaufort SC – Saint Marys GA) settler, member Daughters of American Revolution.


Lucretia Coffin Mott (03 Jan 1793 – 11 Nov 1880 | Nantucket MA – Cheltenham PA) Quaker author, speaker, educator, suffragist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, autobiographical author.


Anne Ayres (03 Jan 1816 – 09 Feb 1896 | London UK – Long Island NY) British-American, religious author / biographer, social service minister, nursing director / administrator of St Luke’s Hospital, First Sister / Founder of US Episcopal religious order named Sisterhood of the Holy Communion.


Sophia B. Packard (03 Jan 1824 – 21 Jun 1891 | New Salem MA – Atlanta GA) educator, African-American women’s college co-founder [Spelman Seminary which became Spelman College].


Eliza Margaret Perry (03 Jan 1828 – 03 Jan 1862 | Pitosi MI – Austin TX) diarist, Texas pioneer / settler’s family member.

29 Dec | Women.Words.Work

Margaret McDonald Bottome (29 Dec 1827 – 14 Nov 1906 | New York NY – New York NY) author, magazine columnist, religious organizer, founded Christian spiritual development / service organization Order of the King’s Daughters.


Lillian Heath Nelson (29 Dec 1865 – 05 Aug 1962 | Burnett Junction WI – Rawlins WY) memoirist, first female doctor in Wyoming, one of first female medical practitioners west of the Mississippi River.


Annie Montague Alexander (29 Dec 1867 – 10 Dec 1950 | Honolulu HI – Oakland CA) explorer, paleontologist, philanthropist, museum founder, fossil hunter / collector.


Love Rosa Hirschmann Gantt (29 Dec 1875 – 16 Nov 1935 | Camden SC – Philadelphia PA) physician, public health worker, eye-ear-nose-and-throat specialist.

03 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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.

26 Nov | Women.Words.Work

Sarah Moore Grimké (26 Nov 1792 – 23 Dec 1873 | Charleston SC – Boston MA) writer, lawyer, speaker, suffragist, abolitionist, feminist, women’s laws / legal activist.


Lilly Martin Spencer (26 Nov 1822 – 22 May 1902 | Exeter UK – New York NY) French-American artist, genre painter, born Angelique Marie Martin.


Ellen Gould Harmon White (26 Nov 1827 – 16 Jul 1915 | Gorham ME – Saint Helena CA) author, religious pioneer, Seventh Day Adventist co-founder / leader / visionary / prophetess.


Mary Edwards Walker (26 Nov 1832 – 21 Feb 1919 | Oswego NY – Oswego NY) surgeon, alleged spy, feminist, suffragist, abolitionist, prohibitionist, prisoner of war, only woman [as of 2015] ever awarded US Medal of Honor.