17 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper (17 Apr 1813 – 31 Dec 1894 | Scarsdale NY – Cooperstown NY) novelist, naturalist, orphanage founder / facilitator.

Elizabeth Whitfield Croom Bellamy (17 Apr 1837 – 13 Apr 1900 | Quincy FL – Mobile AL) poet, pen name Kamba Thorpe.

Isabel Chapin Barrows (17 Apr 1845 – 25 Oct 1913 | Irasburg VT – Croton-on-Hudson NY) editor, activist, novelist, essayist, lecturer, missionary, political activist, hydrotherapist.

Anna Garlin Spencer (17 Apr 1851 – 12 Feb 1931 | Attleboro MA – New York NY) author, educator, feminist, Unitarian minister, peace activist / leader.

Helen Everett Peabody Grant (17 Apr 1861 – 06 May 1910 | Keytesville Landing MO – Beausoleil FR) artist, painter.


13 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Julia Amanda Sargent Wood (13 Apr 1825 – 09 Mar 1903 | New London NH – St Cloud MN) poet, author, novelist, newspaper editor, pen name Minnie Mary Lee.

Helen Maria Winslow (13 Apr 1851 – 27 Mar 1938 | Westfield VT – Shirley MA) poet, novelist, journalist, Club Woman, co-founded Daughters of Vermont and New England Women’s Press Association.

Lucy Craft Laney (13 Apr 1854 – 23 Oct 1933 | Macon GA – Augusta GA) educator, school principal, founded first black kindergarten, first children’s school, and first nursing school in Augusta GA.

Sarah Hall Ladd (13 Apr 1860 – 30 Mar 1927 | Somerville MA – Carmel CA) pictorial / landscape photographer, Christian Science movement activist.

Anna Easter Brown (13 Apr 1879 – 05 Mar 1957 | West Orange NJ – Rocky Mount NC) educator, history teacher, one of original founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority for female African-American students.


08 Apr | Women.Words.Work

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Belle L. Pettigrew (08 Apr 1839 – 14 Jul 1912 | Ludlow VT – Sioux Falls SD) educator, missionary, world traveler, head of missionary training department of American Baptist Home Mission Society.

Elizabeth Bacon Custer (08 Apr 1842 – 04 Apr 1933 | Monroe MI – New York NY) author, lecturer, widow, historical figure promoter.

Julia Ellsworth Ford (08 Apr 1861 – 14 Aug 1950 | New York NY – New York NY) artist, author, socialite, art collector, philanthropist, salon doyenne.

Orelia Key Bell (08 Apr 1864 – 02 Jun 1959 | Atlanta GA – Pasadena CA) poet, author, Christian Science hymnist, Boston Marriage partner, known for writing her poems in gold leaf on china plates.

Albion Fellows Bacon (08 Apr 1865 – 10 Dec 1933 | McCutchanville IN – Evansville IN) author, reformer, social / housing activist.

22 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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Maria Claypoole Peale (22 Mar 1787 – 27 Mar 1866 | Philadelphia PA – Philadelphia PA) still-life / miniature portrait painter.

Calista Robinson Jones (22 Mar 1839 – 28 Jan 1913 | Chelsea VT – Bradford VT) educator, civic / social activist, president of Woman’s Relief Corps, founding chair / fundraiser for Woods Public Library Book Committee in Bradford.

Laura Jean Libbey (22 Mar 1862 – 25 Oct 1924 | Brooklyn NY – Brooklyn NY) prolific ‘dime’ romance novelist.

Elsie Hart Wilcox (22 Mar 1879 – 30 Jun 1954 | Hanalei HI – Kauai HI) community activist, Grove Farm Homestead preservationist, first woman to serve in Territory of Hawaii Senate.

Jessie Ethel Sampter (22 Mar 1883 – 25 Nov 1938 | New York NY – Givat Brenner IS) poet, educator, lesbian, Zionist pioneer, contracted polio at age 12.

13 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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Abigail Powers Fillmore (13 Mar 1798 – 30 Mar 1853 | Stillwater NY – Washington DC) US Presidential First Lady, book collector, private librarian.

Jane Elizabeth Hitchcock Jones (13 Mar 1813 – 13 Jan 1896 | Vernon NY – Brooklyn NY) author, suffragist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist.

Clara L. Brown Dyer (13 Mar 1849 – 02 Mar 1931 | Cape Elizabeth ME – Portland ME) artist, reader, lecturer, landscape painter, social club woman, one of first members of the Society of Art and the Portland Art League, organizing president of National Society of United States Daughters of 1812 in State of Maine. 

Phebe Estelle Spalding (13 Mar 1859 – 12 Mar 1937 | Westfield VT – Pomona CA) author, art historian, first female professor Pomona College.

Alice Bellvadore Sams Turner (13 Mar 1859 – 10 Jul 1915 | Mingo IA – Colfax IA) diarist, teacher, physician, social activist, public press contributor, co-founded Colfax Free Public Library, co-founded Turner Rest Home and Sanitarium, first female health officer in Iowa, first woman admitted to Iowa Health and Protective Association.

08 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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Hannah Hoes Van Buren (08 Mar 1783 – 05 Feb 1819 | Kinderhook NY – Albany NY) US Presidential First Lady.

Orra White Hitchcock (08 Mar 1796 – 26 May 1863 | South Amherst MA – Amherst MA) artist, teacher, watercolorist, classroom chart muralist, early female botanical / scientific / geological / landscape illustrator.

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (08 Mar 1828 – 04 Apr 1887 | New York NY – New York NY) art collector, philanthropist.

Agnes Harrington D’Arcambal (08 Mar 1829 – 14 Feb 1899 | Burlington VT – Detroit MI) social activist, prison reformer, humanitarian, founded D’Arcambal Home of Industry for discharged prisoners.

Josephine Garis-Cochran [later Cochrane] (08 Mar 1839 – 03 Aug 1913 | Ashtabula County OH – Chicago IL) American inventor, invented first successful hand-powered dishwasher, founded Garis-Cochrane Manufacturing Company, renamed 1897 as Cochran’s Crescent Washing Machine Company, posthumously inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame [2006].

Eliza Poor Donner Houghton (08 Mar 1843 – 19 Feb 1922 | Springfield IL – Los Angeles CA) memoirist, massacre survivor.

21 Feb | Women.Words.Work

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Elizabeth Rowell Thompson (21 Feb 1821 – 20 Jul 1899 | Lyndon VT – Littleton NH) art collector, philanthropist, anti-slavery activist, model communities funder / founder.

Mother Angela [Eliza Marie] Gillespie (21 Feb 1824 – 04 Mar 1887 | near Brownsville PA – South Bend IN) nun, educator, religious leader, Sister of the Holy Cross, multiple universities founder.

Emma Cecilia Thursby (21 Feb 1845 – 04 Jul 1931 | Brooklyn NY – New York NY) soprano singer, music professor, aka The American Nightingale, first US female concert promoter, Swami Vivekananda supporter.

Mariana Alley Griswold Van Rensselaer (21 Feb 1851 – 20 Jan 1934 | New York NY – New York NY) poet, author, historian, biographer, aka Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer, president of Public Education Association of New York, first female architectural critic, honorary member American Institute of Architects and American Society of Landscape Architects.

Alice Elvira Freeman Palmer (21 Feb 1855 – 06 Dec 1902 | Colesville NY – Paris FR) poet, educator, professor, photographer, president of Wellesley College [1881-1887].

12 Feb | Women.Words.Work

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Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (12 Feb 1775 – 15 May 1852 | London UK – Washington DC) English-American diarist, harpist, travel writer, US Presidential First Lady.

Mary Pickersgill (12 Feb 1776 – 04 Oct 1857 | Philadelphia PA – Baltimore MD) folk figure, seamstress, flag maker, entrepreneur, philanthropist.

Almira [Myra] Willey Colby Bradwell (12 Feb 1831 – 14 Feb 1894 | Manchester VT – Chicago IL) attorney, publisher, political activist, founding editor Chicago Legal News, first woman admitted to Illinois Bar, denied initial admittance to IL and US Supreme Court.

Frances [Fannie] Barrier Williams (12 Feb 1855 – 04 Mar 1944 | Brockport NY – Brockport NY) teacher, lecturer, journalist, social / civil rights activist.

Alice Woodby McKane (12 Feb 1865 – 06 Mar 1948 | Bridgewater PA – Savannah GA) poet, first female doctor in Savannah GA, co-founded McKane Training School for [Black] Nurses.

06 Feb | Women.Words.Work

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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.

01 Feb | Women.Words.Work

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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.