04 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Mary Phinney von Olnhausen (04 Feb 1818 – 12 Apr 1902 | Lexington MA – Boston MA) author, diarist, abolitionist, head nurse at Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria VA during American Civil War, field hospital nurse during Franco-Prussian War, awarded Iron Cross by Kaiser Wilhelm I [1873].

Lila Hardaway Meade Valentine (04 Feb 1869 – 14 Jul 1921 | Richmond VA – Richmond VA) suffragist, social activist, educational reformer, public health advocate, co-founded Richmond Education Association, founder-president of Equal Suffrage League of Virginia.

Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn (04 Feb 1876 – 04 Apr 1959 | Norfolk VA – Philadelphia PA) poet, radical activist, anti-child labor, autobiographical author, Christian Socialist, member American Naturalist movement.

Harriet Joephine Terry (04 Feb 1885 – 15 Aug 1967 | Cornwall-on-Hudson NY – Washington DC) university professor, founding member African-American women’s Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

Elizabeth Nye Sorrell (04 Feb 1909 – 15 Jul 2007 | Laredo TX – San Antonio TX) teacher, journalist, social activist, political critic, society columnist.

01 Feb | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Johanna Graham Bethune (01 Feb 1770 – 28 Jul 1860 | Fort Niagara ON – New York NY) author, memoirist, social activist, leader in Sunday school education movement, founded Orphan Asylum Society and Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Children.

Hannah Harrison Cohoon (01 Feb 1788 – 07 Jan 1864 | Williamstown MA – Hancock MA) Shaker visionary artist, music composer, created Tree of Life iconic ‘gift painting’.

Harriet Ann Jacobs (01 Feb 1813 – 07 Mar 1897 | Edenton NC – Washington DC) former slave, pen name: Linda Brent, autobiographical author, Civil War relief worker, co-founded two schools for freed slaves.

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (c. 01 Feb 1818 – c. 01 May 1907 | Dinwiddie County Court House VA – Washington DC) former slave, memoirist, First Lady’s seamstress, businesswoman. 

Lucy Wheelock (01 Feb 1857 – 01 Oct 1946 | Cambridge VT – Boston MA) author, lecturer, translator, one of first US kindergarten education pioneers, founding director of Wheelock Kindergarten Training School.

24 Jan | Women: Words & Works

Posted on by

Catherine Elizabeth Brewer Benson (24 Jan 1822 – 27 Feb 1908 | Augusta GA – Macon GA) first US female to earn Bachelor degree, awarded by Wesleyan College [Macon GA].

Catharine [Cate] Merrill (24 Jan 1824 – 30 May 1900 | Corydon IN – Indianapolis IN) author, educator, Civil War nurse, second female US university professor.

Mary Susan Noailles Murfree (24 Jan 1850 – 31 Jul 1922 | Murfreesboro TN – Murfreesboro TN) novelist, short story writer, aka Charles Egbert Craddock.

Katherine [Kate] Harwood Waller Barrett (24 Jan 1857 – 23 Feb 1925 | Falmouth VA – Alexandria VA) physician, sociologist, humanitarian, philanthropist, social activist / reformer, founded first home for unwed mothers / National Florence Crittenton Mission.

Edith Newbold Jones Wharton (24 Jan 1862 – 11 Aug 1937 | New York NY – Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt FR) novelist, designer, short story writer.

21 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

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.

13 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Ernestine Louise Susmond Polowsky Rose (13 Jan 1810 – 04 Aug 1892 | Piotrków Trybunalski PL – Brighton UK) American author, atheist, feminist, lecturer, abolitionist, women’s rights / political activist, aka The Queen of the Platform, first US female petitioner for married women’s property rights.

Sarah Horton Cockrell (13 Jan 1819 – 26 Apr 1892 | Virginia US – Dallas TX) pioneer, philanthropist, businesswoman, one of first Texas millionaires, City of Dallas benefactor.

Ethelinda [Ethel Lynn] Eliot Beers (13 Jan 1827 – 11 Oct 1879 | Goshen NY – Orange NJ) US Civil War poet.

Lilla Cabot Perry (13 Jan 1848 – 28 Feb 1933 | Boston MA – Hancock NH) poet, artist, painter, translator, self-taught till age of 36.

Charlotte E. Ray (13 Jan 1850 – 04 Jan 1911 | New York NY – Woodside NY) teacher, suffragist, first practicing female African-American lawyer.

09 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Sarah Pierpont Edwards (09 Jan 1710 – 02 Oct 1758 | New Haven CT – Philadelphia PA) author, mystic, pioneer woman, minister’s wife.

Rebecca Bryan Boone (09 Jan 1739 – 18 Mar 1813 | Winchester VA – Defiance MO) Quaker pioneer, folk figure, tavern keeper, community midwife, Kentucky State politician’s wife.

Catharine Parr Strickland Traill (09 Jan 1802 – 29 Aug 1899 | Rotherhithe UK – Lakefield ON) author, settler, naturalist, children’s writer, pioneer Canadian natural writer.

Anna Bishop Riviere (09 Jan 1810 – 19 Mar 1884 | London UK – New York NY) English-American operatic bel canto soprano.

Jennie Jerome Churchill (09 Jan 1854 – 29 Jun 1921 | Brooklyn NY – London UK) American-English, magazine editor, mother of Winston Churchill, aka Lady Randolph Churchill.

05 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

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.

01 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

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.

21 Dec | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Julia Ann Gleason Stone (21 Dec 1818 – 21 Jul 1900 | Warren MA – Cleveland OH) seamstress, wife of well-known Midwest industrialist / New England bridge builder Amasa Stone.

Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman (21 Dec 1829 – 24 May 1889 | Hanover NH – Boston MA) poet, pioneer deaf-blind student, developed unique tapping alphabet and handwriting system.

Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune (21 Dec 1830 – 03 Jun 1922 | Amelia VA – New York NY) novelist, essayist, cookbook writer, short story writer, social etiquette commentator, pen name Marion Harland.

Henrietta Szold (21 Dec 1860 – 13 Feb 1945 | Baltimore MD – Jerusalem EY) author, memoirist, Jewish-American, women’s US Zionist leader, Hadassah Women’s Organization founder.

12 Dec | Women.Words.Work

Posted on by

Martha Jane Coston (12 Dec 1826 – 09 Jul 1904 | Baltimore MD – Philadelphia PA) businesswoman, Coston emergency machine flare inventor / purveyor.

Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper (12 Dec 1835 – 11 Dec 1896 | Cazenovia NY – San Francisco CA) editor, educator, suffragist, philanthropist, women’s rights activist, kindergarten advocate / founder, treasurer for General Federation of Women’s Clubs, founded Jackson Street Kindergarten Association [in 1879, later renamed Golden Gate Kindergarten Association].

Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls (12 Dec 1839 – 20 Apr 1924 | Brookfield WI – De Smet SD) aka Ma Ingalls, folk / literary / mother / pioneer figure.

Charlotte Frances Felt Wilder (12 Dec 1839 – 03 Dec 1916 | Templeton MA – Manhattan KS) author, novelist, Methodist, civic leader, club woman, magazine writer, juvenile religious writer.

Charlotte [Lottie] Digges Moon (12 Dec 1840 – 24 Dec 1912 | Albemarle County VA – Kobe Harbor JP) teacher, evangelist, missionary, one of first US women to earn Master’s Degree in Languages.