05 Jun | Women’s Words & Works

Kate Cumming (05 Jun 1828 – 05 Jun 1909 | Scotland UK – Birmingham AL) diarist, memoirist, Confederate nurse.


Miriam Florence Folline Squier Leslie (05 Jun 1836 – 18 Sep 1914 | New Orleans LA – New York NY) author, memoirist, publisher.


Sarah Elizabeth Forbush Downs (05 Jun 1843 – 1926 | Wrentham MA – Cambridge MA) dime novelist, magazine writer, aka Mrs Georgie Sheldon, Mrs George Sheldon Downs.


Susan Stuart Frackelton (05 Jun 1848 – 14 Apr 1932 | Milwaukee WI – Kenilworth IL) artist, author, ceramics painter, Arts and Crafts movement leader.


Sarah Alice Addams Haldeman (05 Jun 1853 – 19 Mar 1915 | Cedarville IL – Chicago IL) banker, educator, social activist, craftswoman, philanthropist, Woman’s Club leader, physician’s assistant, sister of social activist Jane Addams, mother of Marcet Haldeman-Julius.

28 May | Women’s Words & Works

Sarah Butler Wister (28 May 1835 – 09 Jun 1908 | Butler PA – Philadelphia PA) author, editor, diarist.


Annie Sherwood Hawks (28 May 1836 – 03 Jan 1918 | Hoosick NY – Bennington VT) poet, hymnist.


Abby Leach (28 May 1855 – 29 Dec 1918 | Brockton MA – Poughkeepsie NY) author, educational pioneer, Greek and Roman Classicist.


Lizzie Black Kander (28 May 1858 – 24 Jul 1940 | Milwaukee WI – Milwaukee WI) educator, relief / settlement worker, cookbook writer, founded Milwaukee Settlement House, Jewish women’s activist / advocate, originated The Settlement House Cookbook.


Katharine Blunt (28 May 1876 – 29 Jul 1954 | Philadelphia PA – New London CT) author, educator, nutritionist, home economist, third president of Connecticut College.

27 May | Women’s Words & Works

Julia Evelina Smith (27 May 1792 – 06 Mar 1886 | Glastonbury CT – Hartford CT) author, suffragist, women’s tax / property activist, first female English Bible translator.


Amelia Jenks Bloomer (27 May 1818 – 30 Dec 1894 | Homer NY – Council Bluffs IA) writer, editor, speaker, publisher, suffragist, women’s dress reformer, temperance advocate, women’s tax rights activist.


Julia Ward Howe (27 May 1819 – 17 Oct 1910 | New York NY – Portsmouth RI) poet, hymnist, suffragist, abolitionist, social activist.


May Wright Sewall (27 May 1844 – 22 Jul 1920 | Greenfield WI – Indianapolis IN) educator, lecturer, letterist, reformer, suffragist, civic / social activist, philanthropist.


Alzina Parsons Stevens (27 May 1849 – 03 Jun 1900 | Parsonsfield ME – Chicago IL) journalist, labor leader, settlement worker.

24 May | Women’s Words & Works

Ynés Mexia (24 May 1870 – 12 Jul 1938 | Washington DC – Berkeley CA) artist, botanist, essayist, lecturer, photographer, independent scholar.


Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth (24 May 1878 – 02 Jan 1972 | Oakland CA – Phoenix AZ) author, engineer, biographer, memoirist, psychologist, inventor / innovator.


Elsa Maxwell (24 May 1883 – 01 Nov 1963 | Keokuk IA – New York NY) author, columnist, songwriter, scriptwriter, professional hostess, treasure hunt / scavenger hunt innovator.


Mary Madeleva Evaline Wolff (24 May 1887 – 25 Jul 1964 | Cumberland WI – Boston MA) poet, abbess, medieval scholar, non-fiction author, aka Lady Abbess of Nun Poets.


Lois Fitzhugh Foster Blount (24 May 1896 – 02 Sep 1980 | Huntsville TX – Nacogdoches TX) teacher, historian, librarian, museum curator.

14 May | Women’s Words & Works

Minerva Parker Nichols (14 May 1862 – 17 Nov 1949 | Peoria IL – Westport CT) architect, first US female architect to establish independent professional practice.


Mathilde Georgine Schley (14 May 1864 – 20 Mar 1941 | Horicon WI – Milwaukee WI) artist, landscape painter, member Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors.


Alice Boughton (14 May 1866 – 21 Jun 1943 | Brooklyn NY – Brookhaven NY) Photo-Secessionist, portrait photographer, photography-as-art innovator.


Marian Osborne (14 May 1871 – 05 Sep 1931 | Montreal QC – Toronto ON) poet, author, dramatist.


Elizabeth [Lizzie] Beatrice Cooke Fouse (14 May 1875 – 22 Oct 1952 | Lexington KY – Lexington KY) teacher, African-American women’s rights activist, member National Association of Colored Women [NACW] and Kentucky Association of Colored Women [KACW].

12 May | Women’s Words & Works

Sister Mary Irene FitzGibbon (12 May 1823 – 14 Aug 1896 | London UK – New York NY) teacher, Sister of Charity, founding director New York Foundling Hospital, born Catherine Rosamund FitzGibbon.


Sarah Elizabeth Van der Vort Emery (12 May 1838 – 10 Oct 1895 | Phelps NY – Lansing MI) editor, writer, speaker, suffragist, Universalist, Populist campaigner, Women’s Temperance Union leader.


Matilda Coxe Evans Stevenson (12 May 1849 – 24 Jun 1915 | San Augine TX – Oxon Hill MD) author, ethnologist, Zuni expert / researcher, Women’s Anthropological Society of America president, aka Tilly E. Stevenson.


Louise Phelps Kellogg (12 May 1862 – 11 Jul 1942 | Milwaukee WI – Madison WI) writer, educator, historian.


Ann Bassett (12 May 1878 – 08 May 1956 | Moffat County CO – Leeds UT) folk figure, rancher, cattle rustler, Sundance Kid cohort, Wild Bunch member, alias Etta Place, aka Queen Ann.

10 May | Women’s Words & Works

Sarah Anne Worthington King Peter (10 May 1800 – 06 Feb 1877 | Chillicothe OH – Cincinnati OH) artist, memoirist, patron of arts, philanthropist, Civil War Union nurse, Catholic convert / activist, founded Philadelphia School of Design for Women [now Moore College of Art & Design].


Lucy Louisa Flower (10 May 1837 – 27 Apr 1921 | Boston MA – Coronado CA) teacher, draftswoman, social justice activist, Chicago Board of Education member, launched Lake Geneva Fresh Air Association, founded women / children’s legal aid bureau, first woman elected to Illinois state office.


Mary [May] French Sheldon (10 May 1847 – 10 Feb 1936 | Bridgewater PA – West Kensington UK) author, explorer, essayist, publisher, translator, short fiction writer.


Emma Payne Erskine (10 May 1854 – 04 Mar 1924 | Racine WI – Tryon NC) author, peace activist, romance novelist, short story writer, patriotic Christian writer.


Sue Hastings (10 May 1884 – 1977 | Monticello NY – Coral Gables FL) artisan, master puppeteer, professor of puppetry, founder / CEO Sue Hastings Marionettes Inc.

02 May | Women’s Words & Works

Rhoda Lavinia [Vinnie] Goodell (02 May 1839 – 31 Mar 1880 | Utica NY – Janesville WI) first licensed female lawyer in Wisconsin State.


Katharine Putnam Hooker (02 May 1849 – 07 Jan 1935 | Milwaukee WI – Santa Barbara CA) socialite, philanthropist, travel writer.


Margaret Hill McCarter (02 May 1860 – 31 Aug 1938 | Carthage IN – Topeka KS) teacher, novelist, founded Western Sorosis women’s club.


Julia Barnett Rice (02 May 1860 – 18 Nov 1929 | New Orleans LA – New York NY) musician, physician, civic / social activist, documented unnecessary tugboat whistling / aided passage of 1907 Bennett Act, founding president of The Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise, founded SSUN children’s branch for NYC Board of Education.


Alice Bertha Kroeger (02 May 1864 – 31 Oct 1909 | St. Louis MO – Philadelphia PA) author, lecturer, librarian, professor, student of Melvil Dewey, founder / director of library science program at Drexel University [1892-1909].

21 Apr | Women’s Words & Works

Abigail [Abby] Williams May (21 Apr 1829 – 30 Nov 1888 | Boston MA – Boston MA) physician, social reformer, abolition / women’s / education activist, New England School Suffrage leader.


Mary Ann Brayton Woodbridge (21 Apr 1830 – 25 Oct 1894 | Nantucket MA – Chicago IL) weekly news editor, temperance reformer, local / state / national leader of National Women’s Christian Temperance Union.


Charlotte Emerson Brown (21 Apr 1838 – 04 Feb 1895 | Andover MA – East Orange NJ) club woman, co-founder / first president General Federation of Women’s Clubs [GFWC].


Cora Linn Veronica Richmond (21 Apr 1840 – 03 Jan 1923 | Cuba NY – Chicago IL) author, medium, Spiritualist, trance lecturer, co-founded National Spiritualist Association of Churches.


Belle Case La Follette (21 Apr 1859 – 18 Aug 1831 | Summit WI – Washington DC) author, attorney, suffragist, peace movement activist.

14 Apr | Women’s Words & Works

Isabella Stewart Gardner (14 Apr 1840 – 17 Jul 1924 | New York NY – Cambridge MA) philanthropist, art patron / collector, museum founder.


Jennie Drinkwater Conklin (14 Apr 1841 – 28 Apr 1907 | Portland ME – New Vernon NJ) author, editor, social welfare activist.


Johanna [Anne] Sullivan Macy (14 Apr 1866 – 20 Oct 1936 | Feeding Hills MA – Forest Hills NY) memoirist, childhood onset blindness, teacher / companion of Helen Keller.


Eda Nemoede Casterton (14 Apr 1877 – 08 Dec 1969 | Brillion WI – Palos Verdes Estates CA) painter, oil / pastel / watercolor miniature portrait artist.


Priscilla Fairfield Bok (14 Apr 1896 – 11 Nov 1975 | Littleton MA – Tucson AZ) author, astronomer, scientific collaborator with husband Bart Bok.