22 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

30 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Amalia Barney Simons Post (30 Jan 1826 – 28 Jan 1897 | Johnson VT – Cheyenne WY) pioneer, suffragist, 1869 instrumental in having franchise granted women in Wyoming Territory by the 1st Wyoming Territorial Legislature, 1871 delegate to Woman’s National Convention in Washington DC, 1873 vice-president of National Woman Suffrage Association.


Catharine Van Valkenburg Waite (30 Jan 1829 – 09 Nov 1913 | Dumfries ON – Chicago IL) author, attorney, suffragist, women’s rights activist, founded C. V. Waite & Co. publishing firm, founder / editor Chicago Law Times magazine, president of Woman’s International Bar Association.


Matilda Beatrice Samuel De Mille (30 Jan 1853 – 08 Oct 1923 | Liverpool UK – Hollywood CA) agent, playbroker, playwright, screenwriter, theatre actress, theatrical entrepreneur, aka Agnes Graham, Matilda Beatrice Samuel, Tillie Samuel, Mrs. Henry De Mille.


Emma Brown Malone (30 Jan 1859 – 12 May 1924 | Pickering ON – Cleveland OH) American Quaker, writer, social activist, co-founded Cleveland Bible School [later became Malone College], women’s ministerial activist / advocate.


Käte Frankenthal (30 Jan 1889 – 21 Apr 1976 | Kiel DEU – New York NY) German-American author, physician, memoirist, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, socialist politician, marriage / family therapist.

25 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Clarina Irene Howard Nichols (25 Jan 1810 – 11 Jan 1885 | West Townshend VT – Potter Valley CA) author, abolitionist, journalist, lobbyist, public speaker, temperance worker, women’s rights activist, Underground Railroad conductor.


Virginia Jane Kyle Campbell (25 Jan 1822 – 30 Jan 1882 | Raleigh NC – St Louis MO) Irish-American philanthropist, social / political hostess, St. Louis high society matron / activist.


Ann Ralston James (25 Jan 1853 – 06 Jul 1944 | Independence MO – Excelsior Springs MO) American folk figure, wife of Western outlaw / reformed businessman Frank James.


Bertha Feiring Tapper (25 Jan 1859 – 02 Sep 1915 | Oslo NO – New York NY) pianist, author, altruist, composer, humanitarian, music editor, music teacher.


Maud Wood Park (25 Jan 1871 – 08 May 1955 | Boston MA – Reading MA) activist, author, lecturer, playwright, suffragist.

14 Jan | Women.Words.Work

Mary Ann Frost Stearns Pratt (14 Jan 1809 – 24 Aug 1891 | Groton VT – Pleasant Grove, Utah Territory) midwife, essayist, early feminist, Mormon folk figure, legal / political activist, allegedly married to one or two original Church of Latter Day Saints founders.


Katharine Prescott Wormeley (14 Jan 1830 – 04 Aug 1908 | Ipswich UK – Jackson NH) author, philanthropist, volunteer Civil War nurse, French-English translator.


Juliet Corson (14 Jan 1841 – 18 Jun 1897 | Boston MA – New York NY) American author, teacher, social activist, cookbook author, cooking school founder.


Clara Kathleen Rogers (14 Jan 1844 – 08 Mar 1931 | Cheltenham UK – Boston MA) British-American writer, singer, composer, music educator, aka Clara Doria.


Cornelia [Nellie] Cole Fairbanks (14 Jan 1852 – 24 Oct 1913 | Marysville OH – Indianapolis IN) suffragist, US Vice-Presidential Second Lady, women’s political activist / pathfinder, founding member all-women’s Fortnightly Literary Club.