19 Feb | Herstorical.Reflections

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Sara Agnes Rice Pryor (19 Feb 1830 – 15 Feb 1912 | Hitesburg VA – Bloomfield NJ) author, memoirist, novelist, journal writer, fundraiser, preservationist, Civil War historian, social / community / women and children’s activist.

Elizabeth Ann Claridge McCune (19 Feb 1852 – 01 Jan 1924 | Bedfordshire UK – Salt Lake City UT) civic activist, genealogy lecturer, pioneering unofficial female Mormon missionary, advocated LDS allow single women as missionaries [1898].

Annie Nathan Meyer (19 Feb 1867 – 23 Sep 1951 | New York NY – New York NY) author, playwright, Barnard College founder, women’s educational rights activist / advocate.

Lugenia Burns Hope (19 Feb 1871 – 14 Aug 1947 | St Louis MO – Nashville TN) social reformer, civil rights activist, African-American, community organizer, Atlanta Neighborhood Union founder / director.

Mae Elizabeth [Hope] Hampton (19 Feb 1897 – 23 Jan 1982 | Houston TX – New York NY) actress, producer, aspiring opera singer.

14 Feb | Herstorical.Reflections

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Frances [Fanny] Keeling Valentine Allan (14 Feb 1784 – 28 Feb 1829 | Richmond VA – Richmond VA) literary folk figure, E. A. Poe’s foster-mother / first teacher, taught Poe to read and write, gave Poe his middle name Allan.

Sarah Louise Browning Knox-Goodrich (14 Feb 1825 – 30 Oct 1903 | Culpeper VA – San Jose CA) suffragist, political / women’s rights activist, commissioned Knox-Goodrich Building, Goodrich quarry provided stone for Stanford University construction.

Anna Howard Shaw (14 Feb 1847 – 02 Jul 1919 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne UK – Moylan PA) orator, physician, suffragist, social reformer, women’s leader, autobiographical author, one of first ordained American female Methodist ministers.

Sallie Florence Casey Thayer (14 Feb 1856 – 10 Sep 1925 | Covington KY – San Diego CA) art collector / benefactor, donated her collections to Spencer Art Museum in Lawrence KS.

Virginia Frazer Boyle (14 Feb 1863 – 13 Dec 1938 | Chattanooga TN – Memphis TN) poet, author.

10 Feb | Herstorical.Reflections

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Anne Robertson Johnson Cockrill (10 Feb 1757 – 13 Oct 1821 | Wake County NC – Nashville TN) pioneer landowner, first female to receive land grant in Tennessee.

Mildred Childe Lee (10 Feb 1845 – 27 Mar 1905 | Arlington VA – New Orleans LA) folk figure, Confederate family member, General Robert E. Lee’s youngest daughter.

Marguerite Milton Wells (10 Feb 1872 – 12 Aug 1959 | Milwaukee WI – Minneapolis MN) writer, suffragist, social reformer, MN League of Women Voters state / national president.

Mary Rowena [Rena] Maverick Green (10 Feb 1874 – 29 Nov 1962 | Sedalia MO – San Antonio TX) editor, sculptor, suffragist, memoirist, publisher, watercolorist, social activist, one of first women on San Antonio School Board, co-founder / first president of San Antonio Conservation Society.

Edith Clarke (10 Feb 1883 – 29 Oct 1959 | Howard County MD – Olney MD) author, essayist, first US female electrical engineer, first US female professor of electrical engineering, first woman to earn MS in electrical engineering from MIT, invented / patented Clarke calculator / Clarke transformation, first female Fellow of American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

09 Feb | Herstorical.Reflections

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Patience Lovell Wright (09 Feb 1725 – 23 Mar 1786 | Oyster Bay NY – London UK) poet, painter, wax sculptor, first recognized US female sculptor, aka The Promethean Modeler, American Revolutionary War political spy / activist.

Sarah [Sally] Hemings (09 Feb 1773 – 1835 | Charles City County, Virginia Colony – Charlottesville VA) diarist, domestic slave, social / political / literary figure.

Lydia Estes Pinkham (09 Feb 1819 – 17 May 1873 | Lynn MA – Lynn MA) women’s herbal remedy inventor / developer / entrepreneur.

Laura Redden Searing (09 Feb 1839 – 10 Aug 1923 | Somerset County MD – San Mateo County CA) poet, journalist, songwriter, pen name: Howard Glyndon, onset of deafness at age 11.

Laura Clay (09 Feb 1849 – 29 Jun 1941 | White Hall KY – Lexington KY) orator, suffragist leader, Kentucky Equal Rights Association co-founder / first president.

06 Feb | Herstorical.Reflections

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Louise Deshong Woodbridge (06 Feb 1848 – 31 Oct 1925 | Chester PA – Chester PA) socialite, philanthropist, landscape photographer.

Henriette Dessaulles (06 Feb 1860 – 17 Nov 1946 | Saint-Hyacinthe QC – Montreal QC) pioneering diarist, columnist, journalist, pen-name Fadette.

Katharine Elizabeth Fullerton Gerould (06 Feb 1879 – 27 Jul 1944 | Brockton MA – Princeton NJ) author, essayist, short story writer.

Anne Bethel Spencer (06 Feb 1882 – 27 Jul 1975 | Henry County VA – Lynchburg VA) poet, teacher, gardener, librarian, civil rights activist.

Effie Louise Smith (06 Feb 1861 – 09 Aug 1893 | Westminster VT – Athens VT) poet.

05 Feb | Herstorical.Reflections

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Lucy Wright (05 Feb 1760 – 07 Feb 1821 | Pittsfield MA – Watervliet NY) minister, preacher, aka Mother Lucy, Shaker dance form innovator, pioneering female Shaker leader.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln (05 Feb 1784 – 05 Oct 1818 | Hampshire County VA – Spencer County IN) pioneer, seamstress, American folk figure.

Sarah Goodridge (05 Feb 1788 – 28 Dec 1853 | Templeton MA – Boston MA) miniature portrait painter.

Katharine Caroline Bushnell (05 Feb 1856 – 25 Jan 1946 | Peru IL – Piedmont CA) author, scholar, feminist theologian, women’s religious rights activist, American Methodist missionary, member of WCTU [Women’s Christian Temperance Union], authored Bible re-translation called God’s Word to Women.

Maxine Elliott (05 Feb 1868 – 05 Mar 1940 | Rockland ME – Cannes FR) born Jessie Dermott, film / stage actress, theater founder / owner / manager.

04 Feb | Herstorical.Reflections

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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 | Herstorical.Reflections

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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 | Herstorical.Reflections

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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 | Herstorical.Reflections

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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.