12 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

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.

08 Dec | Herstorical.Reflections

Mary Aloysia Hardey (08 Dec 1809 – 17 Jun 1886 | Piscataway MD – Paris FR) educator, administrator, religious sister, established 25 convents and schools in US, Cuba, and Canada, first American-born Mother Superior of the Society of the Sacred Heart.


Lucy Addison (08 Dec 1861 – 13 Nov 1937 | Upperville VA- Washington DC) African-American educator, school principal.


Mary Kimball Morgan (08 Dec 1861 – 13 Oct 1948 | Janesville WI – Elsah IL) Christian Science educator, founding president of Principia Schools and College in St. Louis MO.


Nellie Verne Walker (08 Dec 1874 – 10 Jul 1973 | Red Oak IA – Colorado Springs CO) sculptor.


Stella George Stern Perry (08 Dec 1877 – 07 Nov 1956 | New Orleans LA – Brooklyn NY) poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, nonfiction author.

18 Nov | Herstorical.Reflections

Henrietta Sargent (18 Nov 1785 – 11 Jan 1871 | Gloucester MA – Cambridge MA) abolitionist, founded Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.


Susan Lincoln Tolman Mills (18 Nov 1826 – 12 Dec 1912 | Enosburg VT – Oakland CA) educator, missionary, co-founded Mills College for Women.


Amanda Akin Stearns (18 Nov 1827 – 02 Feb 1911 | Pawling NY – Pawling NY) author, US Civil War nurse, memoirist.


Abigail [Abbey] Perkins Cheney (18 Nov 1851 – unknown | Milwaukee WI – unknown) pianist, author, educator, innovative researcher into therapeutic physiological effects of playing piano.

14 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Laura Askew Haygood (14 Oct 1845 – 29 Apr 1900 | Watkinsville GA – Shanghai CN) educator, missionary, memoirist, letter correspondent.


Mary Theodora [Dora] Starbuck Ebert (14 Oct 1856 – 29 Feb 1924 | Winston NC – Old Richmond NC) boarding house owner / operator, Moravian church and settlement family member.


Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore (14 Oct 1856 – 03 Nov 1928 | Clinton IA – Geneva CH) writer, geographer, photographer, Washington DC cherry-tree-planting advocate, first female board member of National Geographic Society.


Winifred Sweet Black Bonfils (14 Oct 1863 – 25 May 1936 | Chilton WI – San Francisco CA) reporter, journalist, columnist, pen names Annie Laurie and Winifred Black.

07 Oct | Herstorical.Reflections

Ann Eliza Brainerd Smith (07 Oct 1819 – 06 Jan 1909 | St Albans VT – St Albans VT) poet, author, novelist, essayist.


Abby Maria Hemenway (07 Oct 1828 – 24 Feb 1890 | Ludlow VT – Chicago IL) Vermont historian, religious convert, pioneering author / editor / publisher of Vermont Historical Gazetteers.


Margaretta [Maggie] Fox Kane (07 Oct 1833 – 08 Mar 1893 | Consecon ON – New York NY) folk figure, Canadian spiritualist, Catholic convert, one of the [in]famous Fox Sisters, co-established Spiritualist movement.


Mary Dana Hicks Prang (07 Oct 1836 – 07 Nov 1927 | Syracuse NY – Melrose MA) author, art educator, kindergarten pioneer, peace activist / reformer, Social Arts Club founder, earned Masters in Education from Harvard University aged 85.


Elizabeth McCourt Tabor (07 Oct 1854 – 07 Mar 1935 | Oshkosh WI – Leadville CO) aka Baby Doe, American folk figure, namesake of The Ballad of Baby Doe opera, aka Best Dressed Woman in the West.

25 Sep | Herstorical.Reflections

Mercy Otis Warren (25 Sep 1728 – 19 Oct 1814 | Barnstable MA – Plymouth MA) poet, political writer.


Maria Parloa (25 Sep 1843 – 21 Aug 1909 | Boston MA – Bethel CT) lecturer, cookbook / housekeeping author, cooking schools founder, aka America’s First Celebrity Cook, pioneer home economics / domestic science teacher, women’s immigrant activist / educator.


Lucy Rebecca Buck (25 Sep 1845 – 20 Aug 1918 | Warren VA – Front Royal VA) posthumous author, Confederate Civil War diarist.


Vinnie Ream Hoxie (25 Sep 1847 – 12 Jan 1914 | Madison WI – Washington DC) harpist, sculptor, creator of US Capitol Lincoln Statue, first woman / youngest person to receive government commission for sculpture.


Madeline Yale Wynne (25 Sep 1847 – 04 Jan 1918 | Newport NY – Asheville NC) artist, teacher, metalsmith, philanthropist, short fiction writer, co-founded / leader of Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts.

24 Sep | Herstorical.Reflections

Lois Lathrop Cutler (24 Sep 1788 – 23 Mar 1878 | Lebanon NH – Oak Lake MN) Mormon pioneer, mother of fourteen, Female Relief Society activist.


Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (24 Sep 1825 – 22 Feb 1911 | Baltimore MD – Philadelphia PA) poet, author, essayist, feminist, abolitionist, African-American, aka The Bronze Muse, civil rights / temperance activist.


Katharine [Kate] Brownlee Sherwood (24 Sep 1841 – 15 Feb 1914 | Poland OH – Washington DC) poet, journalist, clubwoman, women’s relief leader, Poetess of Congressional Circle.


Winifred Edgerton Merrill (24 Sep 1862 – 06 Sep 1951 | Ripon WI – Fairfield CT) astronomer, first female Columbia University graduate, first US woman PhD in mathematics.


Cornelia Bowen (24 Sep 1865 – 09 Jul 1934 | Tuskegee AL – Mount Meigs AL) writer, teacher, educator, administrator, in the first graduating class of Tuskegee Institute, founded Mount Meigs Colored Institute and Negro Boys’ Reformatory.

30 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur (30 Aug 1837 – 12 Jan 1880 | Culpeper VA – New York NY) soprano concert singer, Confederate sympathizer, wife of 21st US President [died before husband took office so posthumous US First Lady].


Lillie Rosa Minoka Hill (30 Aug 1876 – 18 Mar 1952 | St Regis Mohawk Reservation NY – Oneida WI) Mohawk, educator, physician, rural medical care pioneer, aka Yo-Da-Gent (She-Who-Cares), adopted by Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, only woman adopted by Oneida in 20th century.


Eleanor Mercein Kelly (30 Aug 1880 – 11 Oct 1986 | Milwaukee WI – Louisville KY) novelist, biographer, travel writer, short fiction author.


Margery Elizabeth Hoffman Smith (30 Aug 1888 – 08 Mar 1981 | Portland OR – San Mateo CA) artist, painter, lecturer, craftsperson, interior designer, aka Grand Dame of Arts and Crafts, WPA designer / director for Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood.


Shirley Booth (30 Aug 1898 – 16 Oct 1992 | Brooklyn NY – North Chatham MA) actress, born Thelma Booth Ford, well-known for television character Hazel, one of only 24 performers to achieve Triple Crown of Acting, won an Academy Award / two Primetime Emmy Awards / three Tony Awards.

26 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections

Eliza Maria Posey Street (26 Aug 1792 – 02 Feb 1847 | Fredericksburg VA – Agency IA) pioneer, folk / historical figure, settler wife of US Indian Agent, deeded 640 acres of Sac / Fox land.


Sarah [Annie] Turner Wittenmyer (26 Aug 1827 – 02 Feb 1900 | Adams County OH – Sanatoga PA) author, hymnist, historian, relief worker, social reformer, temperance activist.


Isabel Hampton Robb (26 Aug 1860 – 15 Apr 1910 | Welland ON – Cleveland OH) textbook author, first Superintendent of Nurses at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, nurse theorist / advocate / curriculum developer.


May Lamberton Becker (26 Aug 1873 – 27 Apr 1958 | New York NY – Epsom UK) editor, author, journalist, anthologist, literary critic, social / charitable activist, Reader’s Guide columnist, pro-British during WWII, active member of Books Across the Sea, namesake for Library Reading Room dedicated by T. S. Eliot [1960].


Zona Gale Breese (26 Aug 1874 – 27 Dec 1938 | Portage WI – Chicago IL) author, novelist, essayist, playwright, newspaper writer, education / pacifism / women’s rights activist.

17 Aug | Herstorical.Reflections


Charlotte Louise Bridges Forten Grimké (17 Aug 1837 – 23 Jul 1914 | Philadelphia PA – Washington DC) African-American poet, educator, journal writer, anti-slavery activist, volunteer Civil War Union nurse, first black teacher hired in two different US schools.


Laura de Force Gordon (17 Aug 1838 – 05 Apr 1907 | North East PA – Lodi CA) editor, lawyer, Spiritualist, women’s rights activist, second female attorney in California, first woman to run daily US newspaper [Stockton Daily Leader].


Caroline Bartlett Crane (17 Aug 1858 – 24 Mar 1935 | Hudson WI – Kalamazoo MI) educator, suffragist, journalist, civic reformer, Unitarian minister, aka America’s Housekeeper.


Geneva [Gene] Stratton-Porter (17 Aug 1863 – 06 Dec 1924 | Lagro IN – Los Angeles CA) author, naturalist, wildlife photographer, early female movie studio / production company founder.