24 Mar | Women.Words.Work

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Margaret A. E. Parkinson McLure (24 Mar 1811 – 31 Jan 1902 | Parkersburg WV – St Louis MO) aka Mother McLure, American Civil War Confederate sympathizer, founded Missouri Confederate Home, co-founded Daughters of the Confederacy.

Frances Jane [Fanny] Crosby van Alstyne (24 Mar 1820 – 12 Feb 1915 | Brewster NY – Bridgeport CT) poet, lyricist, composer, blind activist, mission worker, autobiographical author.

Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage (24 Mar 1826 – 18 Mar 1898 | Cicero NY – Chicago IL) artist, editor, author, suffragist, Theosophist, freethinker, Native American activist.

Candace Thurber Wheeler (24 Mar 1827 – 05 Aug 1923 | Delhi NY – New York NY) textile / interior designer, women’s arts supporter, aka Mother of Interior Design.

Bertha Hedges Spafford Vester (24 Mar 1878 – 27 Jun 1968 | Chicago IL – Jerusalem ISR) social service activist for girls / women, leader / member of The American Colony in Jerusalem [founded by her parents].

20 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Harriet Eaton Stanton Blatch (20 Jan 1856 – 20 Nov 1940 | Seneca Fall NY – Greenwich CT) writer, speaker, suffragist.

Julia Morgan (20 Jan 1872 – 02 Feb 1957 | San Francisco CA – San Francisco CA) architect, Arts and Crafts Movement supporter, first female AIA Gold Medalist [posthumous award].

Zelda Paldi Sears (20 Jan 1873 – 19 Feb 1935 | Brockway Township MI – Hollywood CA) novelist, actress, lyricist, playwright, screenwriter, businesswoman.

Drusilla Dunjee Houston (20 Jan 1876 – 08 Feb 1941 | Harpers Ferry WV – Phoenix AZ) author, musician, educator, journalist, columnist, screenwriter, independent historian, co-founded Oklahoma City chapters of YWCA / Red Cross / NAACP, one of first leaders of Oklahoma Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, contributing editor to Oklahoma Black Dispatch [first black newspaper in Oklahoma City, founded by brother Roscoe Dunjee].

Irma LeVasseur (20 Jan 1877 – 18 Jan 1964 | Quebec City QC – Quebec City QC) physician, pioneering pediatrician, first French-Canadian female doctor.

15 Jan | Women.Words.Work

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Abigail [Abby] Kelley Foster (15 Jan 1811 – 14 Jan 1887 | Pelham MA – Worcester MA) suffragist, speaker, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, radical social reformer.

Constance Faunt Le Roy Runcie (15 Jan 1836 – 17 May 1911 | Indianapolis IN – Winnetka MO) poet, artist, author, pianist, composer, short story writer.

Katharine Bement Davis (15 Jan 1860 – 10 Dec 1935 | Buffalo NY – Pacific Grove CA) author, criminologist, progressive era social reformer, first female NYC Correction Commissioner, science-based prison reformer, groundbreaking female sexuality researcher, first US female PhD in economics and political science.

Loïe Fuller (15 Jan 1862 – 01 Jan 1928 | Fullersburg IL – Paris FR) dancer, memoirist, choreographer, free dance practitioner, stage lighting artist / inventor / patent holder.

Frances Benjamin Johnston (15 Jan 1864 – 16 May 1952 | Grafton WV – New Orleans LA) pioneering photographer, early female photojournalist.

14 Dec | Women.Words.Work

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Mary Tappan Wright (14 Dec 1851 – 25 Aug 1916 | Steubenville OH – Cambridge MA) novelist, short story writer.

Lavinia Norman (14 Dec 1882 – 22 Jan 1983 | Montgomery WV – Washington DC) lifelong educator, French / English / Latin teacher, original founding member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority / first sorority founded by African-American women at Howard University.

Helen Steketee (14 Dec 1882 – 23 Aug 1974 | Grand Rapids MI – Grand Rapids MI) artist, still-life / landscape painter.

Jane Bailey Cowl (14 Dec 1883 – 22 Jun 1950 | Boston MA – Santa Monica CA) playwright, stage / film actress, WWII co-director of NYC Stage Door Canteen, wrote in collaboration with Jane Murfin, often used joint pseudonym Allan Langdon Martin.

Ethel Browne Harvey (14 Dec 1885 – 02 Sep 1965 | Baltimore MD – Falmouth MA) author, zoologist, embryologist, women’s educational rights activist / advocate.

23 Aug | Women.Words.Work

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Mary Moody Emerson (23 Aug 1774 – 01 May 1863 | Concord MA – Concord MA) poet, author, literary family member, mentor to her nephew Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Lillie Hitchcock Coit (23 Aug 1843 – 22 Jul 1929 | Mobile AL – San Francisco CA) folk figure, aka Firebell Lil, philanthropist, cookbook author, Coit Tower benefactor, San Francisco Volunteer Firefighters patroness, born Elizabeth Wyche Hitchcock.

Sarah Frances Whiting (23 Aug 1847 – 12 Sep 1927 | Wyoming NY – Wilbraham MA) author, essayist, physicist, astronomer, first professor of physics at Wellesley College, funded Whiting Observatory at Wellesley.

Amelie Louise Rives Troubetzkoy (23 Aug 1863 – 15 Jun 1945 | Richmond VA – Cismont VA) poet, novelist, playwright.

Edith Lake Wilkinson (23 Aug 1868 – 19 Jul 1957 | Wheeling WV – Huntington WV) lesbian, studied at Arts Student League of New York, degree from Columbia Teacher’s College [1905], Provincetown MA artist / printmaker, committed to mental hospitals [from 1924 till her death] [Note: middle image from HBO documentary © 2022 Greenie Films and Little Mama, Inc.].

21 Jul | Women.Words.Work

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Mary Anna Morrison Jackson (21 Jul 1831 – 24 Mar 1915 | Lincoln NC – Charlotte NC) author, memoirist, military / political wife, aka Widow of the Confederacy.

Henrietta Maria Morse Chamberlain King (21 Jul 1832 – 31 Mar 1925 | Boonville MO – Kingsville TX) Texas rancher, philanthropist, public school builder.

Mary Foote Henderson (21 Jul 1842 – 16 Jul 1931 | Seneca Falls NY – Bar Harbor ME) author, suffragist, art collector, social activist, community developer, temperance leader.

Myra Horner Camden Atkinson (21 Jul 1844 – 13 Apr 1925 | Lumberport WV – Clarksburg WV) First Lady of Virginia, genealogist / family historian.

Blanche Willis Howard von Teuffel (21 Jul 1847 – 07 Oct 1898 | Bangor ME – Munich DEU) pianist, novelist.

27 Jun | Women.Words.Work

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Hannah Mather Crocker (27 Jun 1752 – 11 Jul 1829 | Roxbury MA – Boston MA) essayist, educator, school founder, women’s rights activist, advocate for women Freemasons, Revolutionary War spy, authored first American book on rights of women.

Maria Monk (27 Jun 1816 – 08 Sep 1849 | Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu QC – Roosevelt Island NY) author, memoirist, religious sister, controversial Canadian folk figure, alleged infanticide / systemic sexual abuse in Catholic convent.

Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (27 Jun 1824 – 19 Nov 1904 | Boston MA – Jamaica Plain MA) writer, editor, reformer, philanthropist, secretary of School of Design for Women.

Eugenia Scholay Washington (27 Jun 1838 – 30 Nov 1900 | Charles Town WV – Washington DC) historian, civil servant, co-founded Daughters of American Revolution / Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America.

Harriet Hubbard Ayer (27 Jun 1849 – 23 Nov 1903 | Chicago IL – New York NY) socialite, journalist, essayist, kidnap victim, proto-feminist, founded first successful US female-owned cosmetics company, editor of New York World newspaper women’s pages, highest paid US female journalist at the time of her death.

11 Jun | Women.Words.Work

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Anne Newport Royall (11 Jun 1769 – 01 Oct 1854 | Baltimore MD – Washington DC) writer, publisher, reformer, journalist, possibly first professional female journalist in America.

Caroline Le Gresley LeSueur (11 Jun 1814 – 01 Oct 1898 | Jersey, Channel Islands – St Johns AZ) Mormon, farmer, pioneer, settler, co-founder of St. Johns, Arizona.

Lucy Petway Holcombe Pickens (11 Jun 1832 – 08 Aug 1899 | La Grange TN – Edgefield SC) author, socialite, flag seamstress, Confederate icon, aka Queen of the Confederacy.

Mary Leslie (11 Jun 1842 – 01 Mar 1920 | UK – Toronto ON) artist, art teacher, columnist for McLure Syndicate, conducted Leslie’s College for Women, pen names: J.T.J., James Thomas Jones.

Olivia America Davidson Washington (11 Jun 1854 – 09 May 1889 | Mercer WV – Boston MA) teacher, Tuskegee Institute co-founder.

26 May | Women.Words.Work

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Ann Hall (26 May 1792 – 11 Dec 1863 | Pomfret CT – New York NY) miniature portrait painter.

Mary Andrews Denison (26 May 1826 – 15 Oct 1911 | Cambridge MA – Cambridge MA) editor, novelist, playwright, aka Clara Vance, Civil War nurse, short story writer.

Clara Louise Root Burnham (26 May 1854 – 20 Jun 1927 | Newton MA – Bailey Island ME) author, hymnist.

Edna Brady Cornwell (26 May 1868 – 01 Dec 1958 | Romney WV – Romney WV) newspaper publisher, West Virginia State First Lady.

Peggy Hopkins Joyce (26 May 1893 – 12 Jun 1957 | Berkley VA – New York NY) dancer, actress, folk figure, artist model, autobiographical author.

09 May | Women.Words.Work

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Eliza Seaman Leggett (09 May 1815 – 08 Feb 1900 | New York NY – Detroit MI) social activist, suffragist, abolitionist, Underground Railroad worker, public restrooms and public drinking fountain advocate.

Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston (09 May 1830 – 03 Jul 1903 | Franklin County PA – Narragansett RI) fine art collector, arts / music advocate, Native American reservation activist, acting US Presidential First Lady for uncle James Buchanan, children’s hospital founder, founded Washington Cathedral School for Choir Boys, aka First Lady of National Collection of Fine Arts.

Mary Eno Bassett Mumford (09 May 1842 – 09 May 1935 | Litchfield CT – New Britain CT) author, activist, editor, teacher.

Fanny Titus Hazen (09 May 1840 – 20 Jan 1930 | Vershire VT – Cambridge MA) Civil War nurse, suffragist, president Army Nurse Association of Massachusetts, member of Woman’s Relief Corps / Cambridge Equal Suffrage League.

Isabella Maria [Belle] Boyd (09 May 1844 – 11 Jun 1900 | Martinsburg VA [now WV] – Kilbourn [now Wisconsin Dells] WI) spy, lecturer, memoirist, aka Cleopatra of the Secession, Siren of the Shenandoah.