21 Jan | Herstorical.Reflections

Eliza Roxcy Smith Snow Young (21 Jan 1804 – 05 Dec 1887 | Becket MA – Salt Lake City UT) poet, Mormon historian, married to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Lorenzo Snow.


Anna White (21 Jan 1831 – 16 Dec 1910 | Brooklyn NY – Mount Lebanon NY) Shaker Eldress, religious sister, social / political / peace activist, Mt. Lebanon Shaker Community member.


Helen Hamilton Gardener (21 Jan 1853 – 26 Jul 1925 | Winchester VA – Washington DC) author, lecturer, suffragist, political activist, government functionary, born Alice Chenoweth, Free Thought movement member.


Willie Betty Newman (21 Jan 1863 – 06 Feb 1935 | Murfreesboro TN – Nashville TN) portrait artist, worked / exhibited in Paris salons / in her native Tennessee / throughout the US.


Marguerite Agniel (21 Jan 1891 – 01 Apr 1971 | Indiana US – Washington DC) actress, author, dancer, yoga practitioner, health and beauty guru, nude yoga proponent.

10 Jan | Herstorical.Reflections

Sally Foster Otis (10 Jan 1770 – 06 Sep 1838 | Boston MA – Boston MA) hostess, folk figure, Francophile, aka Queen of Boston Society.


Louisa Lane Drew (10 Jan 1820 – 31 Aug 1897 | London UK – Larchmont NY) British-American stage actress, theater owner, theatrical family matriarch.


Larcena Ann Pennington Page Scott (10 Jan 1837 – 31 Mar 1913 | Nashville TN – Tucson AZ) pioneer, Western folk heroine, Indian kidnap survivor.


Manie Payne Ferguson (10 Jan 1850 – 08 Jun 1932 | Carlow IE – Los Angeles CA) hymnist, evangelist, social activist, co-founded Peniel Mission, American Holiness Movement pioneer leader.


Mary Amelia Ingalls (10 Jan 1865 – 17 Oct 1928 | Pepin WI – De Smet SD) blind, folk / literary family figure, one of sisters of Little House on the Prairie.

05 Jan | Herstorical.Reflections

Olympia Brown (05 Jan 1835 – 23 Oct 1926 | Prairie Ronde Township MI – Baltimore MD) author, suffragist, first female theological school graduate in US, first ordained American female minister.


Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones (05 Jan 1868 – 24 Jun 1933 | Portsmouth VA – Providence RI) African-American grand opera / light opera / popular music soprano.


Mary Magdalena Lewis Tate (05 Jan 1871 – 28 Dec 1930 | Vanleer TN – Philadelphia PA) African-American, author, preacher, Bishop Mother, religious leader, Church of the Living God, Pillar and Ground of Truth founder.


Frances Nacke Noel (05 Jan 1873 – 24 Apr 1963 | Saxony DEU – Los Angeles CA) suffragist, women’s labor activist, women’s rights advocate, Socialist Labor Party member, cross-class alliance advocate, aka The Most Eloquent Female Orator of Southern California.


Clara Gardner Mairs (05 Jan 1878 – 24 May 1963 | Hastings MN – Ramsey MN) artist, etcher, printmaker.

02 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Mary Mortimer (02 Dec 1816 – 14 Jul 1877 | Trowbridge UK – Milwaukee WI) educator, woman’s club leader, art history lecturer, co-founded Milwaukee College, founded Industrial School for Girls of Milwaukee [middle image courtesy of Lawrence.edu].


Elizabeth Lyle Saxon (02 Dec 1832 – 14 Mar 1915 | Greenville TN – Memphis TN) speaker, memoirist, women’s rights activist, pioneer Southern suffrage leader.


Grace Mac Gowan Cooke (02 Dec 1861 – 24 Jun 1944 | Brooklyn NY – Santa Clara CA) novelist, co-writer with sister Alice Mac Gowan.


Ruth Draper (02 Dec 1884 – 30 Dec 1956 | New York NY – New York NY) diseuse, actress, dramatist, memoirist.


Josephine Aspinwall Roche (02 Dec 1886 – 26 Jul 1976 | Neligh NE – Bethesda MD) activist, politician, industrialist, humanitarian, New Deal administrator, first female Denver police officer, United Mine Workers administrator, Foreign Language Information Services director.

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.

14 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

Josephine Louise Van der Schrieck (14 Nov 1813 – 03 Dec 1886 | Bergen-op-Zoom NL – Cincinnati OH) Catholic nun / leader / educator, member of Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.


Madeleine Lemoyne Ellicott (14 Nov 1856 – 1945 | Chicago IL – Baltimore MD) suffragist, political activist, founder / president League of Women Voters of Maryland, co-organized Pan-American Conference of Women [1922].


Isabel Bevier (14 Nov 1860 – 17 Mar 1942 | Plymouth OH – Urbana IL) author, pioneer university home economics educator / administrator.


Claribel Cone (14 Nov 1864 – 20 Sep 1929 | Jonesboro TN – Baltimore MD) German-American art collector, physician, pathologist.


Anna Magdalena Plehn Meyer (14 Nov 1867 – 18 Aug 1941 | Neumark PRU – Milwaukee WI) poet, hymnist, German-English translator of hymns.

07 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

Elizabeth Johns Neall Gay (07 Nov 1819 – 09 Dec 1907 | Hingham MA – Hingham MA) poet, writer, Quaker, pacifist, abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, delegate to first World Anti-Slavery Convention [1840].


Ann Eliza Worcester Robertson (07 Nov 1826 – 19 Nov 1905 | Brainerd TN – Muskogee OK) author, editor, teacher, missionary, translator, Muscogee / English linguistics scholar.


Charlotte [Lotta] Mignon Crabtree (07 Nov 1847 – 25 Sep 1924 | New York NY – Boston MA) actress, comedian, entertainer, philanthropist, theatrical company owner / manager, aka Nation’s Darling and Gold Rush Girl.


Leonora Speyer (07 Nov 1872 – 10 Feb 1956 | Washington DC – New York NY) poet, violinist, aka Lady Speyer, awarded 1927 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.


Eleanor Hague (07 Nov 1875 – 25 Dec 1954 | Los Angeles CA – Los Angeles CA) author, folklorist, Southwest US / Latin American music expert.

28 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Catherine Stratton Ladd (28 Oct 1809 – 30 Jan 1899 | Richmond VA – Buckhead SC) poet, educator, essayist, playwright, Civil War nurse, early Confederate flag designer.


Henrietta Hall Shuck (28 Oct 1817 – 27 Nov 1844 | Kilmarnock VA – Hong Kong CN) memoirist, letter correspondent, founded co-ed boarding school, Chinese girls’ education advocate, first female Baptist missionary to China, first Western female to live in Hong Kong.


Mary Frame Myers Thomas (28 Oct 1816 – 19 Aug 1888 | Sandy Spring MD – Richmond IN) Quaker, abolitionist, suffragist, women’s rights leader, first female physician west of the Alleghenies.


Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (28 Oct 1842 – 22 Oct 1932 | Philadelphia PA – Goshen NY) Quaker, orator, author, actress, novelist, lecturer, suffragist, abolitionist, mountaineer, Civil War spy, first female worker at US Mint, first woman to address US Congress.


Mary Katharine [Kate] Layne Curran Brandegee (28 Oct 1844 – 03 Apr 1920 | Tennessee US – Berkeley CA) botanist, autobiographical author, journal editor / publisher, created first botanical garden in San Diego CA.

04 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Eliza McCardle Johnson (04 Oct 1810 – 15 Jan 1876 | Telford TN – Greeneville TN) US Presidential First Lady, informal Presidential tutor / educator.


Jane Elizabeth [Jenny] Twichell Kempton (04 Oct 1835 – 13 Mar 1921 | Dublin NH – Los Angeles CA) operatic contralto, operatic voice teacher, concert tour singer, aka The Favorite American Contralto, founding member of Dominant Music Club (LA), aka Mother of Music in Southern California.


Jane Maria Read (04 Oct 1853 – unknown | Barnstable MA – unknown) poet, artist, author, human / animal portrait painter, tAugustht arts / languages / mathematics.


Eliza Kellas (04 Oct 1864 – 10 Apr 1943 | Moores Forks NY – Troy NY) educator, headmistress of Emma Willard School, co-founder of Russell Sage College.


Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau (04 Oct 1867 – 28 Jan 1922 | Exeter NH – Paris FR) artist, academic, portrait painter, first American woman to exhibit at the Paris Salon.

13 Sep | Herstorical.Reflections

Theodosia Johnes Ford (13 Sep 1741 – 31 Aug 1824 | Southampton NY – Morristown NJ) historical folk figure, land / estate manager, hosted winter headquarters for Washington family / guests / troops.


Laura Ingersoll Secord (13 Sep 1775 – 17 Oct 1868 | Great Barrington, Province of Massachusetts Bay – Village of Chippewa ON) folk figure, Canadian heroine, cookbook author.


Emily Bradley Neal Haven (13 Sep 1827 – 23 Aug 1863 | Hudson NY – Mamaroneck NY) children’s author, magazine editor, popular Episcopal writer, pen names: Cousin Alice, Alice B. Neal, Alice B. Haven, Clara Cushman, Cornelia Holyroyd, Mrs Manners.


Pamela Clemens Moffett (13 Sep 1827 – 31 Aug 1904 | Jamestown TN – Greenwich CT) musician, music teacher, literary family figure.


Marian [Clover] Hooper Adams (13 Sep 1843 – 06 Dec 1885 | Boston MA – Washington DC) hostess, socialite, pioneering portrait photographer.