1660s

Sarah Kemble Knight (19 apr 1666 – 25 sep 1727 | Boston MA – New London CT) diarist, teacher, innkeeper, shopkeeper, traveled Boston-New York alone on horseback

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1740s

Sarah Bradlee Fulton (24 dec 1740 – 09 nov 1835 | Dorchester MA – Medford MA) political activist, active member of Daughters of Liberty, aka Mother of the Boston Tea Party, volunteer spy and nurse in American Revolutionary War

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1750s

Judith Sargent Murray (05 may 1751 – 09 jun 1820 | Gloucester MA – Natchez MS) poet, essayist, feminist, playwright, letter writer, pioneering women’s rights advocate

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

Hannah Adams (02 oct 1755 – 15 dec 1831 | Medfield MA – Brookline MA) historical author, first recognized US female professional writer

Hannah Webster Foster (10 sep 1758 – 17 apr 1840 | Salisbury MA – Montreal, Quebec) epistolary novelist, newspaper columnist  

Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton (17 aug 1759 – 14 may 1846 | Boston MA – Quincy MA) poet, socialite, artist’s model, pen name: Philenia

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1760s

Lucy Wright (05 feb 1760 – 07 feb 1821 | Pittsfield MA – Watervliet NY) minister, preacher, aka Mother Lucy, Shaker dance form innovator, pioneering female Shaker leader

Deborah Sampson Gannett (17 dec 1760 – 29 apr 1827 | Plympton MA – Sharon MA) diarist, memoirist, political activist, Continental soldier

Elizabeth Elkins Sanders (12 aug 1762 – 19 feb 1851 | Salem MA – Salem MA) essayist, book reviewer, Unitarian, pamphleteer, Native American rights advocate [image note: anonymous 18th c. Massachusetts woman] 

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1770s

Sally Foster Otis (10 jan 1770 – 06 sep 1838 | Boston MA – Boston MA) hostess, folk figure, Francophile, aka Queen of Boston Society

Phebe Folger Coleman (10 nov 1771 – 05 feb 1857 | Nantucket MA – Nantucket MA) poet, diarist, teacher, watercolorist, commonplace book author / illustrator

Rebecca Hammond Laird (07 mar 1772 – 28 sep 1855 | New Bedford MA – Madison IN) poet, teacher, aka the first poet in Indiana

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

Mary Tyler Palmer (01 mar 1775 – 07 jul 1866 | Watertown MA – Brattleboro VT) author, published one of earliest childcare manuals by an American woman

Laura Ingersoll Secord (13 sep 1775 – 17 oct 1868 | Great Barrington, Province of Massachusetts Bay – Village of Chippewa, Ontario) folk figure, Canadian heroine, cookbook author

Charity Bryant (22 may 1777 – 06 oct 1851 | North Bridgewater MA – Weybridge VT) poet, teacher, focus on acrostic poetry, Boston marriage partner with Sylvia Drake

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1780s

Tabitha Moffat Brown (01 may 1780 – 04 may 1858 | Brimfield MA – Forest Grove OR) educator, pioneer emigrant, social reformer, aka Mother Symbol of Oregon, orphanage co-founder / facilitator, founded Tualatin Academy [later Pacific University]

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

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’

Sarah Goodridge (05 feb 1788 – 28 dec 1853 | Templeton MA – Boston MA) miniature portrait painter

Ann Hasseltine Judson (22 dec 1789 – 24 oct 1826 | Bradford MA – Amherst, Burma [now Kyaikkami, Myanmar]) author, translator, essayist, educator, catechism writer,  aka Ann of Ava, one of first female American foreign missionaries to India and Burma

Catharine Maria Sedgwick (28 dec 1789 – 31 jul 1867 | Stockbridge MA – Boston MA) novelist, domestic fiction writer, Republican motherhood advocate

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1790s

Lucretia Coffin Mott (03 jan 1793 – 11 nov 1880 | Nantucket MA – Cheltenham PA) Quaker author, speaker, educator, suffragist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, autobiographical author

Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley (31 jul 1793 – 26 jul 1827 | Boston MA – Concord MA) scholar, educator, Unitarian, intellectual, letter correspondent 

Harriet Atwood Newell (10 oct 1793 – 30 nov 1812 | Haverhill MA – Port Louis, Mauritius) memoirist, first wave US Christian missionary to India, Burma, and Mauritius

Caroline Howard Gilman (08 oct 1794 – 15 sep 1888 | Boston MA – Washington DC) poet, editor, author, publisher

Lucy Goodale Thurston (29 oct 1795 – 13 oct 1876 | Marlborough MA – Honolulu HI) teacher, memoirist, letter correspondent, first Christian missionary wife in Hawaii

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

Sophia Smith (27 aug 1796 – 12 jun 1870 | Hatfield MA – Hatfield MA) diarist, educator, deaf activist, philanthropist, public co-educational high school founder, founded / endowed women’s Smith College

Mary Mason Lyon (28 feb 1797 – 05 mar 1849 | Buckland MA – South Hadley MA) chemist, education activist, founded Wheaton Female Seminary [later Wheaton College], founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary [later renamed Mount Holyoke College]

Rebecca Cromwell Rouse (30 oct 1799 – 23 dec 1887 | Salem MA – Cleveland OH) social reformer, women’s activist / advocate

Sarah [Tabitha] Babbitt (09 dec 1799 – 10 dec 1853 | Hardwick MA – Harvard MA) Shaker, inventor, weaver, tool-maker, member of Harvard Shaker Community, invented [though unfortunately did not patent] false teeth / circular saw / spinning wheel head

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1800s

Caroline Lee Hentz (01 jun 1800 – 11 feb 1856 | Lancaster MA – Marianna FL) author, novelist, playwright, literary figure, anti-abolitionist, short story writer

Abby May Alcott (08 oct 1800 – 25 nov 1877 | Boston MA – Concord MA) Unitarian, social activist, journal keeper, literary folk figure, one of first female social workers in Boston

Lydia Maria Child (11 feb 1802 – 20 oct 1880 | Medford MA – Wayland MA) author, activist, novelist, journalist, Unitarian, abolitionist, children’s book writer

Elizabeth [Ebe] Manning Hawthorne (07 mar 1802 – 01 jan 1883 | Salem MA – Montserrat MA) author, sister of / coauthor with Nathaniel Hawthorne

Mercy Ruggles Bisbee Jackson (17 sep 1802 – 13 dec 1877 | Hardwick MA – Boston MA) writer, lecturer, suffragist, physician, homeopath, school teacher, temperance activist, mother of eleven children, advocate for women’s medical education, professor of children’s diseases at newly-opened Boston University School of Medicine, applied for and denied access to medical training for 10 years because she was a woman

Lidian Jackson Emerson (20 sep 1802 – 13 nov 1892 | Plymouth MA – Concord MA) intellectual, literary figure / hostess, abolitionist, animal welfare activist, women’s / Native American rights advocate

Eliza Roxcy Smith Snow Young (21 jan 1804 – 05 dec 1887 | Becket MA – Salt Lake City UT) poet, Mormon historian, married to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Lorenzo Snow

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (16 may 1804 – 03 jan 1894 | Billerica MA – Jamaica Plain MA) US editor, writer, educator, translator, school founder, bookstore owner, Transcendentalist, kindergarten founder / teacher / activist 

Lucy Taft Fisher (21 mar 1805 – 20 jan 1854 | Wendell MA – Oregon City OR) pioneer, American Baptist Home missionary

Harriot Kezia Hunt (09 nov 1805 – 02 jan 1875 | Boston MA – Boston MA) memoirist, women’s right activist, pioneer female physician, first female to apply [and be denied] to Harvard Medical School

Maria Weston Chapman (25 jul 1806 – 12 jul 1885 | Weymouth MA – Weymouth MA) editor, hymnist, abolitionist, letter correspondent 

Mary Tyler Peabody Mann (16 nov 1806 – 11 feb 1887 | Cambridgeport MA – Jamaica Plain MA) author, educator, biographer, publisher, kindergarten reformer, Transcendentalist

Martha Coffin Wright (25 dec 1806 – 04 jan 1875 | Boston MA – Boston MA) Quaker, feminist, abolitionist, writing and painting teacher, Declaration of Sentiments signer, Underground Railroad activist conductor

Mary Elizabeth Moore Hewitt (20 mar 1807 – 17 sep 1884 | Malden MA – Chicago IL) poet, editor

Abigail Brown Brooks Adams (25 apr 1808 – 06 jun 1889 | Medford MA – Quincy MA) outspoken political critic, member Boston Brahmin / political family 

Hannah Chaplin Conant (05 sep 1809 – 18 feb 1865 | Danvers MA – Brooklyn NY) editor, translator, Biblical scholar

Sophia Peabody Hawthorne (21 sep 1809 – 26 feb 1871 | Salem MA – London, England) painter, illustrator, essayist, journal editor

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1810s

Mary Upton Ferrin (27 apr 1810 – 11 apr 1881 | South Danvers MA – Marblehead MA) pioneering suffragist, pamphleteer, public speaker 

Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli (23 may 1810 – 19 jul 1850 | Cambridgeport MA – off Fire Island NY) critic, editor, author, feminist, journalist, biographer, women’s rights activist

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

Frances [Fanny] Sargent Locke Osgood (18 jun 1811 – 12 may 1850 | Boston MA – New York NY) poet, author, letter correspondent

Ellen Sturgis Hooper (17 feb 1812 – 03 nov 1848 | Boston MA – Boston MA) poet, Transcendentalist

Caroline Mehitable Fisher Sawyer (10 dec 1812 – 19 may 1894 | Newton MA – Somerville MA) poet, author, essayist, translator, social activist, short fiction writer, Universalist’s women’s and children’s societies advocate

Ann Terry Greene Phillips (19 nov 1813 – 24 apr 1886 | Boston MA – Boston MA) nonviolent abolitionist, delegate to 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention, London

Hannah Maria Conant Tracy Cutler (25 dec 1815 – 11 feb 1896 | Becket MA – Ocean Springs MS) author, essayist, physician, abolitionist, social reformer, suffrage / temperance movements activist / leader

Fidelia Fiske (01 may 1816 – 26 jul 1864 | Shelburne MA – Shelburne MA) memoirist, religious missionary, women’s educational activist, Mount Holyoke Seminary college teacher, founder / first principal of Nestorian Female Seminary in Persia [Iran]

Caroline Crane Marsh (01 dec 1816 – 27 oct 1901 | Berkley MA – Scarsdale NY) poet, author, translator, women’s rights activist

Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard (28 dec 1816 – 25 jul 1897 | Ware MA – Chicago IL) author, committed by her husband / spent three years in an insane asylum, founded Anti-Insane Asylum Society, women’s mental health rights activist, advocate for those falsely accused of being insane

Amelia Stewart Knight (01 jan 1817 – 25 jan 1898 | Boston MA – Vancouver WA) diarist, memoirist, Northwest Oregon Trail pioneer / settler

Lucy Newhall Danforth Colman (26 jul 1817 – 18 jan 1906 | Sturbridge MA – Syracuse NY) author, teacher, columnist, abolitionist, Freethought writer, women’s rights activist

Mary Phinney von Olnhausen (1818 – 1902 | Massachusetts US | Boston MA) nurse, diarist, abolitionist, field nurse, awarded Iron Cross [1873], head nurse at Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria VA

Maria Mitchell (01 aug 1818 – 28 jun 1889 | Nantucket MA – Lynn MA) suffragist, professor, astronomer, first American woman to work as professional astronomer, discovered Miss Mitchell’s Comet [initially named C/1847 Ti, credited to an Italian man]

Julia Ann Gleason Stone (21 dec 1818 – 21 jul 1900 | Warren MA – Cleveland OH) seamstress, wife of well-known Midwest industrialist / New England bridge builder Amasa Stone

Lydia Estes Pinkham (09 feb 1819 – 17 may 1873 | Lynn MA – Lynn MA) women’s herbal remedy inventor / developer / entrepreneur

Elizabeth Johns Neall Gay (07 nov 1819 – 09 dec 1907 | Hingham MA – Hingham MA) poet, writer, Quaker, pacifist, abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, delegate to first World Anti-Slavery Convention [1840]

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1820s

Susan Brownell Anthony (15 feb 1820 – 13 mar 1906 | Adams MA – Rochester NY) social reformer, suffrage leader, published women’s rights newspaper, co-founded Women’s Loyal National League and American Equal Rights Association

Lucretia Peabody Hale (02 sep 1820 – 12 jun 1900 | Boston MA – Belmont MA) editor, novelist, journalist, nonfiction author

Mary Ashton Rice Livermore (19 dec 1820 – 23 may 1905 | Boston MA – Melrose MA) editor, author, essayist, journalist, memoirist, suffragist, newspaper founder, women’s biographer, Universalist minister, women’s rights activist, temperance advocate, Civil War Sanitary Commission member

Ella Elvira Gibson (08 may 1821 – 08 mar 1901 | Winchendon MA – Barre MA) poet, editor, educator, essayist, Freethinker, pamphleteer, ordained minister, first female US Army chaplain 

Mildred Olive Wiley Dee (03 dec 1901 – 07 feb 2000 | Taunton MA – Bourne MA) 1928 Olympic high jumper

Anne Whitney (02 sep 1821 – 23 jan 1915 | Watertown MA – Boston MA) poet, sculptor

Abby Morton Diaz (22 nov 1821 – 01 apr 1904 | Plymouth MA – Belmont MA) author, teacher, women’s rights organizer, Brooks Farm experimental commune member, founded Women’s Educational and Industrial Union of Boston

Clarissa [Clara] Harlowe Barton (25 dec 1821 – 12 apr 1912 | North Oxford MA – Glen Echo MD) teacher, patent clerk, humanitarian, pioneering nurse, founded Red Cross

Caroline Wells Healey Dall (22 jun 1822 – 17 dec 1912 | Boston MA – Washington DC) author, feminist, reformer, club woman, Transcendentalist 

Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (05 dec 1822 – 27 jun 1907 | Boston MA – Arlington MA) author,  educator, illustrator, textbook writer, natural history researcher, founded / facilitated Boston school for girls,  co-founded / first president of Radcliffe College

Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney (06 apr 1823 – 01 nov 1908 | Lancaster MA – Galesburg IL) poet, editor, author, educator, pen names: Julia, Minnie May, Frank Fisher, Sadie Sensible, Minister’s Wife, Rev. Peter Benson’s Daughter

Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard (06 may 1823 – 01 aug 1902 | Mattapoisett MA – Manhattan NY) poet, novelist 

Anna Eliot Ticknor (01 jun 1823 – 05 oct 1896 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, educator,  home education advocate, founded Society to Encourage Studies at Home

Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (27 jun 1824 – 19 nov 1904 | Boston MA – Boston MA) writer, editor, reformer, philanthropist, secretary of School of Design for Women

Sophia B. Packard (03 jan 1824 – 21 jun 1891 | New Salem MA – Atlanta GA) educator, African-American women’s college co-founder [Spelman Seminary which became Spelman College]

Lucy Larcom (05 mar 1824 – 17 apr 1893 | Beverly MA – Boston MA) poet, Rushlight Literary Magazine founder

Sarah Ann Lillie Bumstead Hardinge (23 mar 1824 – 13 oct 1913 | Boston MA – East Orange NJ) artist, author, teacher, inventor, watercolorist, self-taught painter, one of first females to depict Texas, patented photo-finishing process called Pearletta Pictures

Eliza Allen Starr (29 aug 1824 – 08 sep 1901 | Deerfield MA – Durand IL) poet, author, lecturer, illustrator, Catholic convert 

Adeline Dutton Train Whitney (15 sep 1824 – 21 mar 1906 | Boston MA – Milton MA) poet, children’s author, Christian Scientist, pen name: A. D. T. Whitney

Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson (08 feb 1825 – 22 dec 1911 | Boston MA – Malden MA) poet, author, mill girl, bobbin doffer, social activist, suffragist leader

Cornelia Grinnell Willis (19 mar 1825 – 24 mar 1904 | New Bedford MA – Washington DC) abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, columnist for New York Ledger, protected and purchased freedom for Harriet Jacobs, founding member of first US Woman’s Club, founded school for young women at the Willis Idelwild Estate

Mary Jane Holmes (05 apr 1825 – 06 oct 1907 | Brookfield MA – Brockport NY) novelist, short story writer

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 

Sarah Parker Remond (06 jun 1826 – 13 dec 1894 | Salem MA – Florence, Italy) author, lecturer, physician, abolitionist , African-American 

Caroline Frances Putnam (29 jul 1826 – 14 jan 1917 | Warren MA – Lottsburg VA) educator, abolitionist, Unitarian, civil rights activist, lifelong companion of Sallie Holley, co-founded Holley School for freed slaves 

Louisa Lander (08 oct 1826 – 1923 | Salem MA – Washington DC) expatriate US sculptor, narrative figure sculptor, American Civil War volunteer nurse

Maria Susanna Cummins (09 apr 1827 – 01 oct 1866 | Salem MA – Dorchester MA) short fiction writer, girls’ / young adult serial novelist

Emmeline Blance Woodward Harris Whitney Wells (29 feb 1828 – 25 apr 1921 | Petersham MA – Salt Lake City UT) poet, editor, diarist, journalist, women’s rights activist, fifth Relief Society General President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints [LDS Church]

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 

Phebe Coffin Hanaford (06 may 1829 – 02 jun 1921 | Siasconset MA – Rochester NY) poet, author, minister, suffragist, Universalist 

Martha Joanna Reade Nash Lamb (13 aug 1829 – 02 jan 1893 | Plainfield MA – New York NY) editor, author, historian, child welfare activist, Secretary of US Sanitary Commission, owner / editor-in-chief Magazine of American History

Ellen Cheney Johnson (20 dec 1829 – 28 jun 1899 | Athol MA – London UK) educator, prison reformer, homeless women’s activist / reformer

Lucretia Crocker (31 dec 1829 – 09 oct 1886 | Barnstable MA – Boston MA) author, educator, first female superintendent Boston Public Schools, educational activist / advocate / innovator

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1830s

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 

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (09 oct 1830 – 21 feb 1908 | Watertown MA – Watertown MA) neo-classical sculptor

Helen Hunt Fiske Jackson (15 oct 1830 – 12 aug 1885 | Amherst MA – San Francisco CA) poet, novelist, historian, pen name: H.H., Native American rights activist

Emily Dickinson (10 dec 1830 – 15 may 1886 | Amherst MA – Amherst MA) poet, baker, literary figure

Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson (19 dec 1830 – 12 may 1913 | Old Deerfield MA – Amherst MA) poet, writer, editor, traveler, intimate and sister-in-law of Emily Dickinson

Jean Brooks Greenleaf (01 oct 1831 – 02 mar 1918 | Bernardston MA – Rochester NY) suffragist, social / political activist

Elizabeth Storrs Billings Mead (21 may 1832 – 25 mar 1917 | Conway MA – Coconut Grove FL) author, educator, president of Oberlin and Mount Holyoke colleges

Helen Mary Knowlton (16 aug 1832 – 05 may 1918 | Littleton MA – Needham MA) artist, author, spiritual writer, art instructor 

Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton (09 dec 1832 – 08 oct 1909 | Belchertown MA – Seoul, Korea) Methodist Episcopal missionary, first Woman’s Foreign Missionary in Korea, founded Tal Syeng Day School for Women in Seoul and the Training School for Bible Women

Mary Abigail Dodge (31 mar 1833 – 17 aug 1896 | Hamilton MA – Hamilton MA) critic, editor, author, essayist, education advocate, aka Gail Hamilton

Susan Hale (05 dec 1833 – 17 sep 1910 | Boston MA – Matunuck RI) artist, author, educator, world traveler, literary / Unitarian family member

Emma Southwick Brinton (07 apr 1834 – 25 feb 1922 | Peabody MA – Washington DC)  traveler, foreign correspondent, US Civil War Army nurse, woman’s civic activist

Fidelia Bridges (19 may 1834 – 14 may 1923 | Salem MA – Canaan CT) visual artist, plein-air painter, watercolorist 

Annie Adams Fields (06 jun 1834 – 05 jan 1915 | Boston MA – Cambridge MA) author, diarist, memoirist, biographer, social reformer, philanthropist

Henrietta [Hetty] Howland Robinson Green (21 nov 1834 – 03 jul 1916 | New Bedford MA – New York NY) heiress, folk figure, millionaire, financial investor, aka The Witch of Wall Street

Elizabeth [Lizzie] Sewall Alcott (24 jun 1835 – 14 mar 1858 | Boston MA – Concord MA) writer, literary figure, literary family member

Ellen Goodell Smith (25 aug 1835 – 03 nov 1906 | Belchertown MA – Brooklyn NY) author, teacher, vegetarian, physician, hydrotherapist, co-founded first hydropathic sanitarium in St. Paul 

Sarah Fuller (15 feb 1836 – 01 aug 1927 | Weston MA – Newton Lower Falls MA) author, teacher, activist for deaf

Ann Maria Miles Sprague (15 apr 1836 – 27 nov 1917 | Petersham MA – Westminster MA) educator 

Anna Callender Brackett (21 may 1836 – 18 mar 1911 | Boston MA – Summit NJ) author, educator, translator, philosopher, first female normal school principal, editor of New England Journal of Education 

Helen Louise Gilson Osgood (22 nov 1836 – 20 apr 1868 | Boston MA – Newton Corner MA) teacher, Civil War Union volunteer nurse, co-facilitated post-war orphanage for black children

Emily Wilder Leavitt (26 dec 1836 – 02 nov 1921 | Boston MA – Boston MA) historian, professional genealogist, first female member New England Historic Genealogical Society

Minerva Amanda Sanders (11 feb 1837 – 20 mar 1912 | Marblehead MA – Pawtucket RI) teacher, first librarian of the Pawtucket Free Public Library, pioneer library services innovator

Esther Francesca [Fanny] Alexander (27 feb 1837 – 21 jan 1917 | Boston MA – Florence, Italy) author, illustrator, translator, philanthropist

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

Martha Bailey Briggs (31 mar 1838 – 28 mar 1889 | New Bedford MA – Washington DC) educator, school principal, black educational activist, professor of education at Howard University, taught slaves who escaped through Underground Railroad, first African-American female high school graduate in New Bedford MA

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]

Lucy Toulmin Smith (21 nov 1838 – 18 dec 1911 | Boston MA – Oxford UK) editor, librarian, antiquarian, translator, Anglo-American

Ellen Tucker Emerson (24 feb 1839 – 14 jan 1909 | Concord MA – Concord MA) biographer, literary family member, assisted father Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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1840s

Eliza Frances Shepard Pumpelly (14 mar 1840 – 05 feb 1915 | Dorchester MA – Newport RI) aka Mrs. Raphael Pumpelly, portrait painted by John Singer Sargent

Abigail May Alcott Nieriker (26 jul 1840 – 29 dec 1879 | Concord MA – Paris, France) artist, art teacher, literary family figure, sister of Louisa May Alcott, aka Abba and Abby 

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

Maria Louise Pool (20 aug 1841 – 18 may 1898 | Rockland MA – Rockland MA) author, social novelist, magazine writer 

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (31 aug 1842 – 13 mar 1924 | Boston MA – Boston MA) editor, publisher, journalist, suffragist, civil rights leader, anti-lynching activist

Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (03 dec 1842 – 30 mar 1911 | Dunstable MA – Boston MA) author, professor, environmental chemist, safety / industrial engineer, experimental researcher in domestic science, first to apply chemistry to study of nutrition, first American woman to obtain a degree in chemistry, first female student and professor at MIT, first American woman accepted to any school of science and technology

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

Marian Hooper Adams (13 sep 1843 – 06 dec 1885 | Boston MA – Washington DC) hostess, socialite, pioneering portrait photographer

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

Josephine Shaw Lowell (16 dec 1843 – 12 oct 1905 | Roxbury MA – New York NY) Unitarian, nonfiction author, Progressive reform leader, consumers league founder

Una Hawthorne (03 mar 1844 – 10 sep 1877 | Concord MA – England) artistic / literary family member, daughter of artist Sophia Hawthorne / author Nathaniel Hawthorne

Annetta Seabury Dresser (06 may 1844 – 10 may 1893 | Boston MA – Boston MA) pioneering New Thought practitioner

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (31 aug 1844 – 28 jan 1911 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, essayist, intellectual, social activist, women’s clothing reform advocate, aka Mary Adams, Lily Phelps, Mary Gray Phelps

Martha [Mattie] Whitney Summerhayes (21 oct 1844 – 12 may 1926 | Nantucket MA – Schenectady NY) memoirist, travel writer, world traveler, pioneer Army wife, autobiographical author

Helen Frances [Fanny] Garrison Villard (16 dec 1844 – 05 jul 1928 | Boston MA – Dobbs Ferry NY) author, speaker, suffragist, founding member National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP]

Mary Colman Wheeler (15 may 1846 – 10 mar 1920 | Concord MA – Providence RI) artist, women’s art teacher, founder / first head Wheeler School 

Caroline M. Hewins (10 oct 1846 – 04 nov 1926 | Roxbury MA – Hartford CT) librarian, travel writer, library activist, children’s author, letter correspondent, autobiographical author, founded first Children’s Reading Room in Hartford [CT], aka First Lady of the Library, founded Education Club for Parents and Teachers [later Parent-Teachers Association], first woman speaker at annual meeting of American Library Association, founded first Connecticut State Library Committee [later CT State Library Commission]

Mary Watson Whitney (11 sep 1847 – 20 jan 1921 | Waltham MA – Waltham MA) author, essayist, astronomer, head of Vassar Observatory

Jane Marie Bancroft Robinson (24 dec 1847 – 29 may 1932 | West Stockbridge MA – Detroit MI) author, scholar, historian, professor, genealogist, philanthropist

Lilla Cabot Perry (13 jan 1848 – 28 feb 1933 | Boston MA – Hancock NH) poet, artist, painter, translator, self-taught till age of 36

Cornelia Maria Clapp (17 mar 1849 – 31 dec 1934 | Montague MA – Mount Dora FL) author, academic, zoologist, marine biologist, earned both first and second American PhD degrees awarded to a woman

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1850s

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (27 feb 1850 – 14 jan 1943 | Boston MA – Gardiner ME) novelist, children’s poet, nonsense writer, biographer

Alice French (19 mar 1850 – 09 jan 1934 | Andover MA – Davenport IA) novelist, aka Octave Thanet

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

Alice Morse Earle (27 apr 1851 – 16 feb 1911 | Worcester MA – Hempstead NY) author, pioneering social historian

Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (20 may 1851 – 09 jul 1926 Lenox MA – New York NY) author, religious sister, memoirist, social worker, aka Mother Mary Alphonsa

Isabel Florence Hapgood (21 nov 1851 – 26 jun 1928 | Boston MA – New York NY) author, essayist, ecumenist, translator

Elizabeth Osborne Robinson Abbott (11 sep 1852 – 1926 | Lowell MA – Concord MA) educator, clubwoman, kindergarten education pioneer

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (31 oct 1852 – 13 mar 1930 | Randolph MA – Metuchen NJ) children’s poet / short fiction writer, adult novelist / short fiction writer

Jane Kelley Adams (30 oct 1852 – 29 jul 1936 | Woburn MA – unknown) activist, school board member, Woburn Home for Aged Women founder, Equal Suffrage League chair

Jane Maria Read (04 oct 1853 – unknown | Barnstable MA – unknown) poet, artist, author, human / animal portrait painter, taught arts / languages / mathematics

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

Maud Howe Elliott (09 nov 1854 – 19 mar 1948 | Boston MA – Newport RI) author, suffragist, patron of arts, founded Progressive, Pulitzer Prize winning biographer

Eva March Tappan (26 dec 1854 – 29 jan 1930 | Blackstone MA – Worcester MA) author, teacher, editor of Vassar [College] Miscellany, Latin / German college professor, children’s book author, historical / biographical novelist

Ellen Day Hale (11 feb 1855 – 11 feb 1940 | Worcester MA – Brookline MA) American Impressionist painter, etcher, printmaker

Mary Ella Waller (01 mar 1855 – 14 jun 1938 | Boston MA – Wellesley MA) poet, novelist, essayist, translator, short story writer

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

Mary Salome Cutler Fairchild (21 jun 1855 – 20 dec 1921 | Dalton MA – Takoma Park MD) author, librarian, library activist / educator 

Maria Louise Baldwin (13 sep 1856 – 09 jan 1922 | Cambridge MA – Boston MA) African-American educator, civic leader, master teacher

Harriette Merrifield Forbes (22 oct 1856 – 1951 | Worcester MA – Westborough MA) author, gardener, historian, photographer

Mabel Loomis Todd (10 nov 1856 – 14 oct 1932 | Cambridge MA – Hog Island ME) editor, writer, literary figure, known for editing / publishing Emily Dickinson’s poetry

Fannie Merritt Farmer (23 mar 1857 – 15 jan 1915 | Medford MA – Boston MA) school principal, culinary expert, cookbook author

Arabella H. Tucker (15 apr 1857 – 12 jun 1936 | North Brookfield MA – Auburn MA) author, botanist, educator, suffragist, clubwoman 

Anna Head (06 may 1857 – 25 dec 1932 | Boston MA – Oakland CA) pioneering educator, founder / director school for girls

Helen Dawes Brown (15 may 1857 – 05 sep 1941 | Concord MA – Montclair NJ) editor, novelist

Mary Devens (17 may 1857 – 13 mar 1920 | Ware MA – Cambridge MA) pictorial photographer, Photo-Secession member 

Anna Winlock (15 sep 1857 – 20 dec 1904 | Cambridge MA – Boston MA) computer, astronomer, one of the women referred to as ‘The Harvard Computers’ [drawing by Sara Netherway for Cosmos Magazine]

Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell (25 nov 1857 – 03 jan 1923 | Cambridge MA – Chevy Chase MD) educator, philanthropist, aka Mabel Bell, childhood onset of deafness, married Alexander Graham Bell, first president of Bell Telephone Company

Fanny Bullock Workman (08 jan 1859 – 22 jan 1925 | Worcester MA – Cannes, France) author, explorer, geographer, cartographer

Katharine Lee Bates (12 aug 1859 – 28 mar 1929 | Falmouth MA – Wellesley MA) poet, author, educator, songwriter

Mary Morton Kimball Kehew (08 sep 1859 – 13 feb 1918 | Boston MA – Boston MA) philanthropist, social reformer, women’s labor rights activist

Laura Coombs Hills (07 sep 1859 – 21 feb 1952 | Newburyport MA – Massachusetts) designer, illustrator, watercolorist, miniature portrait painter

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1860s

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

Louise Imogen Guiney (07 jan 1861 – 02 nov 1920 | Roxbury MA – Chipping Campden UK) poet, editor, essayist

Alice Locke Park (03 feb 1861 – 18 oct 1961 | Boston MA – Palo Alto CA) pacifict, suffragist, feminist, peace / women’s rights activist, WILPF leader, founded Palo Alto Women’s Peace Party, organized American Union Against Militarism [later the American Civil Liberties Union]

Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt (29 jul 1861 – 14 feb 1884 | Chestnut Hill MA – New York NY) political family figure, President Theodore Roosevelt’s first wife 

Mary Lizzie Macomber (21 aug 1861 – 04 feb 1916 | Fall River MA – Boston MA) Pre-Raphaelite painter

Adelaide Florence Chase (05 may 1862 – 23 feb 1900 | Fitchburg MA – Boston MA) author, editor, historian, publisher, member of US Women’s Relief Corps

Mabel Ward Cameron (02 mar 1863 – 22 feb 1923 | Boston MA – Hartford CT) author, biographer

Helen Francis Hood (28 jun 1863 – 22 jan 1949 | Chelsea MA – Brookline MA) pianist, composer, teacher

Estelle May Hurll (25 jul 1863 – 08 may 1924 | New Bedford MA – Wellesley MA) author, art historian, expert in aesthetics, assistant professor at Wellesley College, then full professor and head of Philosophy Department at Mount Holyoke College 

Elaine Goodale Eastman (09 oct 1863 – 22 dec 1953 | Mount Washington MA – Hadley MA) poet, author, novelist, educator, Native American Sioux advocate

Florence Adelaide Fowle Adams (15 oct 1863 – 31 jul 1916 | Chelsea MA – Pierce WA) orator, author, gesture / pantomime researcher, educator at Boston School of Oratory, focus on Delsarte method of dramatic expression, founded Boston Ideal Tableaux Company for young women staging tableaux vivants

Clara Endicott Sears (16 dec 1863 – 25 mar 1963 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, historian, preservationist, founded Fruitlands Museum

Lillie Plummer Bliss (11 apr 1864 – 12 mar 1931 | Boston MA – New York NY) art patron / collector, philanthropist

Lois Lilley Howe (25 sep 1864 – 13 sep 1964 | Cambridge MA – Cambridge MA) MIT artist, drafter, architect, librarian

Anna Chapin Ray (03 jan 1865 – 13 dec 1945 | Westfield MA – New Haven CT) author, aka Sidney Howard, adult novelist, children’s book writer, one of first three women to take Yale entrance exam

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

Belle Skinner (30 apr 1866 – 10 apr 1928 | Williamsburg MA – Paris, France) arts patron, humanitarian, philanthropist, architectural restorationist, musical instrument collector, aka La Maraine [Fairy Godmother] 

Emilie Baker Loring (05 sep 1866 – 13 mar 1951 | Boston MA – Wellesley MA) prolific romance novelist

Lutie Eugenia Stearns (13 sep 1866 – 30 dec 1943 | Stoughton MA – Milwaukee WI) author, lecturer, librarian, reformer

Josephine Domingue Sabel (03 oct 1866 – 24 dec 1945 | Lawrence MA – Patchogue NY) singer, comedian, Vaudeville performer, aka The Queen of Song

Emily Greene Balch (08 jan 1867 – 09 jan 1961 | Jamaica Plain MA – Cambridge MA) author, Quaker, economist, Nobel Prize winner

Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch (08 sep 1867 – 15 nov 1951 | Chestnut Hill MA – New York NY) author, city planner, social worker

Margaret Ruthven Lang (27 nov 1867 – 29 may 1972 | Boston MA – Boston MA) composer, devotional pamphlet writer / printer / publisher, one of first two US female composers with music performed by American symphony orchestras

Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor (25 apr 1868 – 01 jan 1960 | Salem MA – Bethel CT) artist, sculptor, curator, genealogist

Mary Parker Follett (03 sep 1868 – 18 dec 1933 | Quincy MA – Boston MA) author, social worker, philosopher, management consultant, pioneer in  organizational theory and behavior

Lida Shaw King (15 sep 1868 – 10 jan 1932 | Boston MA – Providence RI) author, essayist, college dean, classical scholar

Bertha Knight Landes (19 oct 1868 – 29 nov 1943 | Ware MA – Ann Arbor MI) Seattle WA mayor, women’s activist, first female elected to govern major US city

Mary Brewster Hazelton (23 nov 1868 – 13 sep 1953 | Milton MA – Wellesley MA) artist, portrait painter, instructor at School of Boston Museum of Fine Arts, first female artist to win US arts award open to both men and women

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1870s

Georgia Lydia Stevens (08 may 1870 – 28 mar 1946 | Boston MA – Albany NY) author, musician, religious sister, sacred music composer

Edith Guerrier (20 sep 1870 – 1958 | New Bedford MA – Boston MA) author, librarian, progressive library program activist, founded Paul Revere Pottery and Saturday Night Girls groups in North End, Boston

Susan Grimes Walker Fitzgerald (09 may 1871 – 20 jan 1943 | Cambridge MA – Jamaica Plain MA) writer, suffragist, first female Democratic MA State Representative

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

Mary Sewall Gardner (05 feb 1871 – 20 feb 1961 | Newton MA – Providence RI) novelist, public health nurse, innovative nursing instructor / administrator

Ethel Perrin (07 feb 1871 – 15 may 1962 | Needham MA – Brewster NY) author, physical education teacher

Harriet Boyd Hawes (11 oct 1871 – 31 mar 1945 | Boston MA – Washington DC) nurse, author, archeologist, relief worker, discoverer / director of one of first Minoan archaeological excavation sites

Mary Coffin Ware Dennett (04 apr 1872 – 25 jul 1947 | Worcester MA – Valatie NY) activist, author, pacifist, suffragist, sex educator 

Eleanor Hallowell Abbott (22 sep 1872 – 04 jun 1958 | Cambridge MA – Portsmouth NH) author, magazine writer, aka Mrs. Fordyce Coburn

Elizabeth Hamilton Huntington (08 oct 1872 – 1963 | South Braintree MA – Wellesley MA) artist, painter, watercolorist, founded Wellesley Society of Artists

Louise Closser Hale (13 oct 1872 – 26 jul 1933 | Springfield MA – Los Angeles CA) actress, novelist, playwright

Sara Ware Bassett (22 oct 1872 – 18 jul 1968 | Newton MA – Boston MA) children’s novelist, kindergarten teacher, educational non-fiction writer

Suzanne Adams Stern Mackay (28 nov 1872 – 05 feb 1953 | Cambridge MA – London UK) lyric coloratura soprano

Lucia Fairchild Fuller (06 dec 1872 – 20 may 1924 | Boston MA – Madison WI) artist, miniaturist, professional painter

Bernice James De Pasquali (07 dec 1873 – 03 apr 1925 | Hull MA – Omaha NE) pianist, operatic mezzo-soprano

Amy Lowell (09 feb 1874 – 12 may 1925 | Brookline MA – Brookline MA) poet, imagist, philanthropist, salon hostess, book collector

Mary Williams Dewson (18 feb 1874 – 01 oct 1962 | Quincy MA – Castine ME) feminist, social reformer, political activist

Margaret [Daisy] Sutermeister (10 apr 1875 – 30 may 1951 | Milton MA – Milton MA) glass-plate photographer, plant nursery manager, 1800+ photographic works discovered stored in her barn a few years after her death

Nellie Mabel Leonard (31 oct 1875 – 11 mar 1956 | Brookville MA – Holbrook MA) children’s book author

Isabel Weld Perkins Anderson (03 mar 1876 – 03 nov 1948 | Boston MA – Washington DC) poet, editor, heiress, travel writer, philanthropist, children’s author, WWI ARC nurse, aka Mrs Larz Anderson

Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (10 mar 1876 – 04 oct 1973 | Cambridge MA – Redding CT) artist, sculptor, philanthropist

Clara Bowdoin Winthrop (12 mar 1876 – 15 mar 1969 | Boston MA – Boston MA) poet, art collector, philanthropist

Helen Woodard Atwater (29 may 1876 – 26 jun 1947 | Somerville MA – Washington DC) editor, author, home economist

Mary Louise Curtis Bok Zimbalist (06 aug 1876 – 04 jan 1970 | Boston MA – Philadelphia PA) philanthropist, patron of the arts, founded Curtis Institute of Music,  Settlement Music School member / advocate, pen name: Mary L. Knapp

Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd (13 nov 1876 – 04 sep 1962 | Athol MA – Pippa Passes KY) educator, journalist, social reformer, founded Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes KY

Marie Josephine Sherwood Hull (03 jan 1877 – 12 mar 1957 | Newtonville MA – Bronx NY) play director, tv / stage actress

Blanche Ames Ames (18 feb 1878 – 01 mar 1969 | Lowell MA – North Easton MA) artist, writer, activist, inventor, suffragist, cartoonist

Mary Cabot Wheelwright (22 oct 1878 – 29 jul 1958 | Boston MA – Sutton Island ME) author, anthropologist, art collector, philanthropist, founded Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art [now Wheelwright Museum], funded Indian Arts Fund / New Mexico Historical Society / Spanish Colonial Arts Society

Katharine Elizabeth Fullerton Gerould (06 feb 1879 – 27 jul 1944 | Brockton MA – Princeton NJ) author, essayist, short story writer

Leonora Jackson McKim (20 feb 1879 – 07 jan 1969 | Boston MA – Baltimore MD) violinist, art collector, philanthropist, one of first American women concert violinists acclaimed internationally

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1880s

Angelina Weld Grimké (27 feb 1880 – 10 jun 1958 | Boston MA – New York NY) poet, teacher,  journalist, playwright, one of first black women to have play performed publicly

Frances [Fannie Coralie] Perkins Wilson (10 apr 1880 – 14 may 1965 | Boston MA – New York NY) memoirist, politician, US Secretary of Labor, workers’ rights activist, aka The Woman Behind the New Deal

Ruth Sawyer (05 aug 1880 – 03 jun 1970 | Boston MA – Lexington MA) storyteller, adult / children’s fiction / non-fiction author, aka The Great Lady of Storytelling

Maginel Wright (19 jun 1881 – 18 apr 1966 | Weymouth MA – East Hampton NY) artist, magazine illustrator, children’s book illustrator, aka Maginel Wright Barney; Maginel Wright Enright

Lala Fay Watts (23 dec 1881 – 08 nov 1971 | Northfield MA – Fort Worth TX) suffragist, labor activist, temperance advocate, first Texas child welfare inspector, first Chief of TX Department of Labor Women’s Division

Olive Higgins Prouty (10 jan 1882 – 24 mar 1974 | Worcester MA – Brookline MA) poet, novelist, memoirist, philanthropist, founded Smith College writers’ scholarship

Geraldine Farrar (28 feb 1882 – 11 mar 1967 | Melrose MA – Ridgefield CT) actress, memoirist, operatic lyric soprano

Bertha Everett Mahony Miller (13 mar 1882 – 14 may 1969 | Rockport MA – Ashburnham MA) children’s literature pioneer book seller / promoter / reviewer, founded Horn Book Magazine

Christine M[a]cGaffey Frederick (06 feb 1883 – 06 apr 1970 | Boston MA – Laguna Beach CA) author, lecturer, interior decorator, college instructor, pioneering home economist, consulting / contributing magazine editor

Helen Louise Birch Bartlett (27 feb 1883 – 24 oct 1925 | Boston MA – Chicago IL) poet, author, art collector, namesake for Helen Birch Memorial Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago

Margaret Morse Nice (06 dec 1883 – 26 jun 1974 | Amherst MA – Chicago IL) author, ornithologist, book reviewer, song sparrow expert

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

Eleanor Manning O’Connor (24 jul 1884 – 12 jul 1973 | Lynn MA – Mexico City, Mexico) architect, educator, watercolorist, public housing activist, Special Instructor of Architecture and Housing 

Eloise Gerry (12 jan 1885 – 09 nov 1970 | Boston MA – unknown) author, research scientist, focus on southern pine trees / production of turpentine, one of first US women to specialize in forest products research, first female appointed to professional staff of US Forest Service at Forest Products Laboratory

Margaret Harwood (19 mar 1885 – 06 feb 1979 | Littleton MA – Boston MA) astronomer, discoverer, Unitarian, photometry specialist, first director of Maria Mitchell Observatory, first female to receive honorary PhD from Oxford University

Grace Hutchins (19 aug 1885 – 15 jul 1969 | Boston MA – New York NY) author, activist, communist, pamphleteer, radical labor economist 

Ethelwyn Manning (23 nov 1885 – 01 jun 1972 | Newton Center MA – New York NY) librarian, Head Cataloguer at Amherst College Library, Chief Librarian at Frick Art Reference Library, involved in WWII Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program [MFAA]

Beatrice Banning Ayer Patton (12 jan 1886 – 30 sep 1953 | Haverhill MA – Hamilton MA) author, sailor, speaker, novelist, translator, equestrian, political figure, married to General George Patton

Florence Hope Luscomb (06 feb 1887 – 27 oct 1985 | Lowell MA – Boston MA) architect, activist

Jeanie MacPherson (18 may 1887 – 26 aug 1946 | Boston MA – Los Angeles CA) dancer, actress, screenwriter, founding member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Grace Harriet Spofford (21 sep 1887 – 05 jun 1974 | Haverhill MA – New York NY) pianist, music educator / advocate / administrator

Evelyn Fortune Lilly Bartlett (30 sep 1887 – 01 jul 1997 | Boston MA – Beverly MA) artist, gardener, art collector, philanthropist

Pearl Chase (16 nov 1888 – 24 oct 1979 | Boston MA – Santa Barbara CA) civic leader, community welfare activist, historic conservationist / preservationist

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1890s

May Greene (31 may 1890 – unknown | Boston MA – unknown) vaudeville performer, aka Mary Greenberg O’Donnell, vocal / instrumental composer, imported fabrics businesswoman

Julia Sarsfield O’Connor Parker (09 sep 1890 – 27 aug 1972 | Woburn MA – Wayland MA) labor leader, American Federation of Labor organizer

Kathleen Biggar Eaton [Kitty] Cannell (06 mar 1891 – 23 may 1974 | Boston MA – Boston MA) dancer, author, aka Rihani, expatriate, ‘static dance’ innovator, dance / fashion critic and correspondent, WWII foreign correspondent, autobiographical author

Frances Jewett Gulick (06 apr 1891 – 29 nov 1936 | Springfield MA – New York NY) author, WWI heroine, YWCA welfare worker, health and safety activist

Esther Forbes (28 jun 1891 – 12 aug 1967 | Westborough MA – Worcester MA) novelist, historian, children’s writer

Jennie Loitman Barron (12 oct 1891 – 28 mar 1969 | Boston MA – Boston MA) judge, lawyer, suffragist, first woman judge appointed for life to Municipal Court in Boston (1937) and to the Massachusetts Superior Court (1959)

Zara Frances Cully (26 jan 1892 – 28 feb 1978 | Worcester MA – Los Angeles CA) tv actress at age 74, stage play actor / writer / producer / director, aka Florida’s Dean of Drama and One of the World’s Greatest Elocutionists

Grace Longwell Coyle (22 mar 1892 – 08 mar 1962 | North Adams MA – Cleveland OH) author, educator, sociologist

Edith Francis Mulhall Achilles (06 aug 1892 – mar 1989 | Boston MA – New York NY) author, researcher, clinical and school psychologist, focus on development of memory and recognition in children

Katharine Sergeant Angell White (17 sep 1892 – 20 jul 1977 | Winchester MA – Blue Hill ME) author, gardener, New Yorker fiction editor

Abigail Adams Eliot (09 oct 1892 – 29 oct 1992 | Dorchester MA – Concord MA) author, teacher, memoirist, nursery school movement pioneer / activist / advocate

Edith Philips (03 nov 1892 – 19 jul 1983 | Boston MA – Chester PA) author, academic, professor of French, acting dean of women at Swarthmore, focus on 18th century French literature / French immigration to US, founding chair of Swarthmore’s Department of Modern Languages

Margaret Seymour Carpenter (03 apr 1893 – 30 mar 1987 | Boston MA – Boston MA) novelist

Dorothy Davenport (13 mar 1895 – 12 oct 1977 | Boston MA – Los Angeles CA) actress, screenwriter, producer, film director

Millia Crotty Davenport (30 mar 1895 – 18 jan 1992 | Cambridge MA – New York NY) author, scholar, historian, costumer, theatre designer

Ruth Cheney Streeter (02 oct 1895 – 30 sep 1990 | Brookline MA – Morristown NJ) memoirist, biographer, first US Marine Corps Women’s Reserve director

Ruth Schoedsack Rose (16 jan 1896 – 08 jun 1978 | Somerville MA – Santa Monica CA) screenwriter, King Kong classic movie writer / editor

May Edward Chinn (15 apr 1896 – 01 dec 1980 | Great Barrington MA – New York NY) physician, first African-American female graduate Bellevue Hospital Medical College and intern Harlem Hospital

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

Ruth Gordon (30 oct 1896 – 28 aug 1985 | Quincy MA – Edgartown MA) actress, playwright, screenwriter

Constance Mabel Winchell (02 nov 1896 – 23 may 1983 | Northampton MA – New Paltz NY) Columbia University reference librarian, published Guide to Reference Books (7th and 8th eds.) aka The Winchell

Helen C. White (26 nov 1896 – 07 jun 1967 | New Haven CT – Norwood MA) novelist, essayist, educator, short fiction writer, aka The Purple Goddess, president of AAUW, first female full professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison

Elisabeth Coit (07 sep 1897 – 02 apr 1987 | Winchester MA – Amherst MA) architect, affordable low-income housing advocate

Elizabeth Reynard (04 oct 1897 – 09 jan 1962 | Massachusetts – Bedford NY) author, professor, WAVEs leader / innovator

Julia [Jerry] Grout (01 apr 1898 – 23 apr 1984 | Brookfield MA – Chapel Hill NC) author, lecturer, essayist, researcher, women’s physical education advocate, first director of physical education at Duke University

Marita [Marieta] Bonner (16 jun 1899 – 06 dec 1971 | Boston MA – Chicago IL) writer, essayist, playwright

Caroline Farrar Ware (14 aug 1899 – 05 apr 1990 | Brookline MA – Mitchelville MD) author, New Deal activist, history / social work professor

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1900s

Pauline Alice Young (17 aug 1900 – 26 jun 1991 | West Medford MA – Wilmington DE) author, teacher, librarian, historian, lecturer, humanitarian, individualist, community activist, African-American

Helenka Tradusa Adamowska-Pantaleoni (22 nov 1900 – 05 jan 1987 | Brookline MA – New York NY) silent film actress, humanitarian, founding Director US Committee for UNICEF

Elizabeth Bayley Willis (09 may 1902 – 30 jun 2003 | Somerville MA – Bainbridge Island WA) curator, teacher, art historian, art collector, museum director, children’s book author, folk arts preservationist of Japan / India / Taiwan / Vietnam / Morocco

Irene Rice Pereira (05 aug 1902 – 11 jan 1971 | Chelsea MA – Marbella, Spain) poet, artist, writer, philosopher

Louise Dickinson Rich (14 jun 1903 – 09 apr 1991 | Huntington MA – Mattapoisett MA) novelist, essayist, memoirist, autobiographical author

Ruth Graves Wakefield (17 jun 1903 – 10 jan 1977 | East Walpole MA – Plymouth MA) cook, cookbook author, Tollhouse cookie inventor / purveyor

Beatrice Laura Goff (04 dec 1903 – 26 mar 1998 | Andover MA – Suffolk MA) author, archaeologist, biblical scholar, research focused on ceramic patterns of ancient Near East symbols of literature and mythology

Helen Huntington Howe (11 jan 1905 – 01 feb 1975 | Boston MA – Boston MA) novelist, genealogical author, satirical sketch performance artist

Miriam Look MacMillan (13 jun 1905 – 18 aug 1987 | Clinton MA – Provincetown MA) author, curator, explorer, photographer, school founder

Helen Battles Sawyer Hogg (01 aug 1905 – 28 jan 1993 | Lowell MA – Richmond Hill, Ontario) journalist, astronomer, pioneer researcher in variable stars and globular clusters, first female president of several astronomical organizations

Lois Mailou Jones (03 nov 1905 – 09 jun 1998 | Boston MA – Washington DC) Harlem Renaissance visual artist

Harriet Louise Hardy (23 sep 1906 – 13 oct 1993 | Arlington MA – Boston MA) author, research toxicologist, pioneer in occupational medicine, first female professor at Harvard Medical School

Lillian Gertrud Asplund (21 oct 1906 – 06 may 2006 | Worcester MA – Shrewsbury MA) folk figure, rare Titanic survivor with memories of event

Mary-Louise Fitkin Hooper (12 jun 1907 – 14 aug 1987 | Swampscott MA – Klamath Falls OR)  writer, editor, heiress, civil rights / anti-apartheid activist

Arlene Francis Kazanjian (20 oct 1907 – 31 may 2001 | Boston MA – San Francisco CA) actress, memoirist, radio talk show host, tv game show panelist, autobiographical author

Anna Wescott [Nancy] Hale (06 may 1908 – 24 sep 1988 | Boston MA – Charlottesville VA) novelist, memoirist, playwright, short fiction writer, co-founded Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

Ruth Petersson Bancroft (02 sep 1908 – 26 nov 2017 | Boston MA – Walnut Creek CA) teacher, gardener, landscape architect, created Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek CA [first US garden preserved by The Garden Conservancy]

Elizabeth George Speare (21 nov 1908 – 15 nov 1994 | Melrose MA – Tucson AZ) children’s author, historical novelist, two-time Newberry Medal winner

Virginia Lee Burton (30 aug 1909 – 15 oct 1968 | Newton Centre MA – Boston MA) children’s book author / illustrator

Norma Holzman Farber (06 aug 1909 – 21 mar 1984 | Boston MA – Cambridge MA) poet, children’s book writer, classical soprano

Alice Mary Dowse Weeks (26 aug 1909 – 29 aug 1988 | Sherborn MA – Wynnewood PA) twin, geologist, advocate for women geologists, focus on radioactive deposits

Eunice Marion Dowse (26 aug 1909 – 22 jul 1991 | Sherborn MA – Sudbury MA) twin, US Navy officer

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1910s

Mary Newton Torrey (02 feb 1910 – 07 jan 1998 | Worcester MA – unknown) mathematical statistician and quality control specialist for Bell Laboratories, co-developer of the Dodge-Torrey continuous sampling plans, elected as Fellow of American Statistical Association

Lillian Rutstein Roth (13 dec 1910 – 12 may 1980 | Boston MA – New York NY) singer, actress, memoirist, autobiographical author

Elizabeth Bishop (08 feb 1911 – 06 oct 1979 | Worcester MA – Boston MA) poet, short story writer

Joanne Bird Shaw (31 mar 1911 – jun 1982 | East Walpole MA – Peterborough NH) aka Mrs. Arthur Johnson, founded Bird School in Peterborough NH for summer learning

Carleen Maley Hutchins (24 may 1911 – 07 aug 2009 | Springfield MA – Wolfeboro NH) science teacher, violin maker, violin acoustics researcher, free-plate tuning innovator, created the violin octet family of eight proportionally-sized violins

Patricia Clapp (09 jun 1912 – 10 dec 2003 | Boston MA – Upper Montclair NJ) author, novelist, journalist, children’s playwright

Mary Josephine Lavin (11 jun 1912 – 25 mar 1966 | East Walpole MA – Dublin, Ireland) author, novelist, feminist, short story writer

Charlotte Snyder Turgeon (21 jun 1912 – 22 sep 2009 | Marblehead MA – Amherst MA) gourmet cook, cookbook author, cookbook reviewer

Alice Bourneuf (02 oct 1912 – 07 dec 1980 | Haverhill MA – Boston MA) author, economist, professor, Marshall Plan consultant

Lilian Jackson Braun (20 jun 1913 – 04 jun 2011 | Chicopee MA – Landrum SC) journalist, serial mystery writer

Anne Froelick Taylor (08 dec 1913 – 26 jan 2010 | Hinsdale MA – Los Angeles CA) novelist, playwright, screenwriter

Ruth Posselt (06 sep 1914 – 19 feb 2007 | Medford MA – Gulfport FL) violinist, educator, university professor

Marjorie Harris Carr (26 mar 1915 – 10 oct 1997 | Boston MA – Gainesville FL) author, zoologist, land preservationist, environmental activist

Isabella Stewart [Belle] Gardner (07 sep 1915 – 07 jul 1981 | Newton MA – Manhattan NY) poet, heiress, author, character actor, editor of Poetry magazine, aka The Other Isabella Stewart Gardner

Dorothy Louise Simpson Bridges (19 sep 1915 – 16 feb 2009 | Worcester MA – Los Angeles CA) poet, actress, acting family matriarch

Emily [Wendy] Marshall Morison Beck (15 oct 1915 – 28 mar 2004 | Boston MA – Canton MA) book editor, literary archaeologist

Edna Hibel (13 jan 1917 – 05 dec 2014 | Chelsea MA – Palm Beach Gardens FL) artist, humanitarian

Marietta Peabody Tree (17 apr 1917 – 15 aug 1991 | Lawrence MA – New York NY) socialite, political supporter, US rep to UN Commission on Human Rights

June Lucille Foray (18 sep 1917 – 26 jul 2017 | Springfield MA – Los Angeles CA) author, cartoon voice actress, autobiographical author, instrumental in lobbying for and creating category of Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

Alexandra [Sandra] Winifred Illmer Forsythe (20 may 1918 – 02 jan 1980 | Newton MA – Santa Clara County CA) mathematician, pioneer computer scientist, textbook co-author, published first-ever computer science textbook

Naomi Gilpatrick (15 jun 1918 – 05 jun 2011 | Holyoke MA – Rockport MA) author, novelist, professor

Mary McGrory (22 aug 1918 – 20 apr 2004 | Boston MA – Washington DC) columnist, journalist, Vietnam anti-war activist, awarded Pulitzer Prize for Commentary

Rose Marie Kennedy (13 sep 1918 – 07 jan 2005 | Boston MA – Jefferson KS) aka Rosemary, victim of lobotomy, political family figure, institutionalized for life

Frances Flynn Alexander (16 jun 1919 – 15 may 2010 | Salem MA – Beverly MA) educator, state politician, civic / social activist, WWII General Electric factory worker, founded / directed Mrs. Alexander’s [Nursery] School

Edith Fisher Hunter (03 dec 1919 – 28 apr 2012 | Roxbury MA – Weathersfield VT) editor, author, gardener, social activist, public radio commentator

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1920s

Mary Slattery Stoltz (24 mar 1920 – 15 dec 2006 | Boston MA – Longboat Key FL) magazine writer, adult fiction writer, children / young adult novelist

Carolyn Shaw Bell (21 jun 1920 – 13 may 2006 | Framingham MA – Arlington VA) author, professor of economics, female economists’ mentor, founding chair of Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession

Mary Curtis-Verna (09 may 1921 – 04 dec 2009 | Salem MA – Seattle WA) operatic lirico spinto soprano, voice teacher / head of Washington University Voice Department

Barbara Marshall McLeod Rhoades (25 apr 1921 – 02 mar 2013 | Reading MA – Hardwick VT) artist, teacher, sculptor, coffee shop owner, art / architecture educator

Ruth Marion Watson Batson (03 aug 1921 – 28 oct 2003 | Roxbury MA – Boston MA) author, civil rights activist, desegregation / equal education advocate

Ruth Orkin (03 sep 1921 – 16 jan 1985 | Boston MA – New York NY) filmmaker, photographer

Elma Ina Lewis (15 sep 1921 – 01 jan 2004 | Boston MA – Boston MA) activist, arts educator, founded The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts and the National Center of Afro-American Artists

Esther Geller (26 oct 1921 – 22 oct 2015 | Boston MA – Boston MA) artist, essayist, abstract expressionist painter, leading expert on encaustic painting techniques

Marion Jessie Mainwaring (21 apr 1922 – 12 dec 2015 | Boston MA – Framingham MA) critic, author, translator

Marilyn Priscilla Johnson (19 jun 1922 – Boston MA) diplomat, language teacher, former US Ambassador to Togo

Charlotte Gilbertson (11 nov 1922 – 12 apr 2014 | Boston MA – Palm Beach FL) painter, printmaker

Jane Gillson Langton (30 dec 1922 – 22 dec 2018 | Boston MA – Lincoln MA) author, children’s books and adult novel illustrator

Judith Josephine Grossman (21 jan 1923 – 12 sep 1997 | Boston MA – Toronto CAN) editor, political activist, science fiction author, pen name Judith Merril, short fiction writer, aka The Little Mother of Science Fiction

Dania Krupska (13 aug 1923 – 27 aug 2011 | Fall River MA – East Hampton NY) dancer, choreographer

Gloria Shayne Baker (04 sep 1923 – 06 mar 2008 | Brookline MA – Stamford CT) composer, songwriter

Marie Cosindas (23 sep 1923 – 25 may 2017 | Boston MA – Boston MA) author, still life / portrait photographer, one of first to use color in photographic works

Sonya Rapoport (06 oct 1923 – 01 jun 2015 | Boston MA – Berkeley CA) digital, New Media, conceptual, interactive installation, participatory, web-based artist

Daphne Athas (19 nov 1923 – 28 jul 2020 | Gloucester MA – Chapel Hill NC) author, novelist, travel writer, WWII NYC Office of War Information worker, Fulbright Professor of American Literature at University of Tehran, created Glossolalia, a stylistics course which encourages students to experiment with grammatical style and rhythm

Caroline Doris Gentile (24 jan 1924 – 19 sep 2008 | Newton MA – Presque Isle ME) academic, physical education instructor, longest-serving faculty member at University of Maine at Presque Isle, largest-ever donor to UMainePI for health and physical education complex, namesake for UMainePI scholarship in Health, Physical Education and Recreation or Elementary Education

Patricia Kennedy Lawford (06 may 1924 – 17 sep 2006 | Brookline MA – Manhattan NY) author, socialite, political figure, addictions activist, National Committee of Literary Arts founder

May Stevens (09 jun 1924 – 09 dec 2019 | Boston MA – Santa Fe NM) author, educator, feminist artist, political activist

Zelda Diamond Fichandler (18 sep 1924 – 29 jul 2016 | Boston MA – Washington DC) educator, Master Teacher, artistic director, stage producer / director

Carol Haney (24 dec 1924 – 10 may 1964 | New Bedford MA – Saddle Brook NJ) American dancer, actress, choreographer

Ethel Grodzins Romm (03 mar 1925 – Lowell MA) editor, author, journalist, former CEO of environmental technology company, former co-chair of Lyceum Society of New York Academy of Sciences

Adele Addison (24 jul 1925 – Springfield MA) lyric soprano, voice teacher

Alice Parker (16 dec 1925 – Boston MA) composer, arranger, conductor

Nancy Walker Bush Ellis (04 feb 1926 – 10 jan 2021 | Milton MA – Concord MA) social activist, environmentalist, political family figure

Anne Inez McCaffrey (01 apr 1926 – 21 nov 2011 | Cambridge MA – Dragonhold-Underhill, Ireland) romance / science fiction novelist

Jane Carter Goodale (18 may 1926 – 05 nov 2008 | Boston MA – Bedford MA) author, anthropologist, professor, photographer

Nancy Burr Deloye Fitzroy (05 oct 1927 – Pittsfield MA) retired engineer, specialist in heat transfer / fluid dynamics, one of first US female helicopter pilots, first female president of American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Estelle Margaret Parsons (20 nov 1927 – Lynn MA)  film / theatre / television actress / director

Jean Kennedy Smith (20 feb 1928 – 17 jun 2020 | Boston MA – New York NY) author, diplomat, former US Ambassador

Lillian Drazek Gallo (12 apr 1928 – 06 jun 2012 | Springfield MA – Woodland Hills CA) tv producer, Marine Corps Captain, pioneering Hollywood collaborator with female screenwriter

Barbara Zimmerman Epstein (30 aug 1928 – 16 jun 2006 | Boston MA – Manhattan NY) editor, book reviewer, book review magazine founder

Anne Sexton (09 nov 1928 – 04 oct 1974 | Newton MA – Weston MA) confessional poet

Rosalind Elias (13 mar 1929 – 03 may 2020 | Lowell MA – New York NY) operatic mezzo-soprano

Barbara Walters (25 sep 1929 – Boston MA) author, essayist, memoirist, broadcast journalist, tv host / personality

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1930s

Sarah P. Gibbs (25 may 1930 – 25 sep 2014 | Boston MA – Newport NH) editor, essayist, zoologist, professor emerita of biology, American-born Canadian

Bettye Lane (19 sep 1930 – 19 sep 2012 | Boston MA – Manhattan NY) photographer, photojournalist, born Elizabeth Foti, focus on feminist / civil rights / gay rights movements, aka “The Official Photographer of the Women’s Movement”

Elizabeth [Betty] Bottomley Noyce (07 oct 1930 – 18 sep 1996 | Auburn MA – Bremen ME) art collector, philanthropist, established Libra Foundation

Judith A. Toups (30 nov 1930 – 27 feb 2007 | Gloucester MA – Decatur AL) birder, author, columnist, elder-hostel educator

Brooke E. Sheldon (29 aug 1931 – 11 feb 2013 | Lawrence MA – Santa Fe NM) librarian, educator, past president of American Library Association

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (13 sep 1931 – Boston MA) essayist, novelist, non-fiction author, anthropologist, animal behavior researcher

Ann Chester Coursen Bodtker (29 sep 1931 – 29 dec 2016 | Brockton MA – Klamath Falls OR) pianist, musician, organist, piano teacher, church choir director, social / community activist, WWII Special Services pianist in Japan

Muriel Roberta Latow (27 sep 1931 – 04 feb 1973 | Springfield MA – Oxford UK) art expert, erotic author, gallery owner, interior designer, Pop Art participant

Margaret Bryan Davis (23 oct 1931 – Boston MA) author, research scientist, palynologist,  paleoecologist, focus on plant pollen and past vegetation

Barbara McMartin (18 nov 1931 – 27 sep 2005 | Boston MA – Canada Lake NY) author, mathematician, environmentalist, Adirondacks Mountain advocate

Ruth Carol Taylor (27 dec 1931 – Boston MA) nurse, first female African-American flight attendant, women’s rights / consumer affairs activist

Sara Delano Roosevelt Whitney diBonaventura Wilford (13 mar 1932 – Boston MA) professor, psychologist, director of  Art of Teaching graduate program, early childhood education activist / advocate

Constance Frye [Connie] Martinson (11 apr 1932 – Boston MA) writer, book critic, tv talk show host

Sylvia Plath (27 oct 1932 – 11 feb 1963 | Boston MA – London UK) poet, novelist, short story writer

Helen Hennessy Vendler (30 apr 1933 – Boston MA) author, poetry / literary critic

Phyllis Katsakiores (22 sep 1934 – Wakefield MA) politician, newspaper reporter

Roberta L. Hazard (08 nov 1934 – 25 mar 2017 | Boston MA – Escanaba MI) third female Rear Admiral in US Navy, first female Commander US Naval Training Command

Joanna Barnes (15 nov 1934 – Boston MA) author, actress, novelist, columnist

Rita Rossi Colwell (23 nov 1934 – Beverly MA) author, essayist, researcher, scientific administrator, environmental microbiologist

Leslie Parrish (18 mar 1935 – Melrose MA) actress, environmentalist, political activist / organizer, in-depth television news coverage / interview program innovator, created bumper sticker slogan ‘Suppose they gave a war and no one came’, founded Spring Hill Wildlife Sanctuary on Orcas Island WA

Joan Kugell Darling (14 apr 1935 – Boston MA) actress, film / television director, dramatic arts instructor

Svetlana Leontief Alpers (10 feb 1936 – Cambridge MA) critic, author, professor, art historian, co-founded interdisciplinary journal Representations, specialist in Dutch Golden Age painting

Katharine Dickson [Kitty] Dukakis (26 dec 1936 – Cambridge MA) memoirist, political family  member, refugee / children’s activist

Sylvia Edwards (30 jan 1937 – 25 oct 2018 | Boston MA – London UK) abstract artist, known for UNICEF cards / poster prints / limited edition silk-screen prints

Patricia Goldman-Rakic (22 apr 1937 – 31 jul 2003 | Salem MA – Hamden CT) author, researcher, neurobiologist, focus on frontal lobe / cellular basis of working memory

Linda Solomon (10 may 1937 – Boston MA) editor, music critic, memoirist, popular culture commentator

Susan Howe (10 jun 1937 – Boston MA) Anglo-Irish poet, critic, scholar, essayist

Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee (09 feb 1938 – Waltham MA) pedagogue, contemporary classical composer

Nancy Holt (05 apr 1938 – 08 feb 2014 | Worcester MA – New York NY) land artist, photographer, public sculptor, installation artist, artist’s book author

Nancy Garden (15 may 1938 – 23 jun 2014 | Boston MA – Carlisle MA) lesbian novelist, children’ s / young adult author, supernatural fiction writer

Janet Fish (18 may 1938 – Boston MA) still-life / realist painter, university art instructor

Ellen Banks (07 jun 1938 – 18 may 2017 | Boston MA – Brooklyn NY) painter, African-American, multi-media artist, used printed musical scores as inspiration for paintings

Mary Ann Glendon (07 oct 1938 – Pittsfield MA) author, essayist, Harvard professor of law, former US Ambassador to the Holy See, focus on bioethics / pro-life issues

Florence R. [Flo] Steinberg (17 mar 1939 – 23 jul 2017 | Boston MA – New York NY) editor, original staff member of Marvel Comics, independent comic books publisher

Matina Souretis Horner (28 jul 1939 – Roxbury MA) author, psychologist, educator, women’s biographer, sixth President of Radcliffe College, pioneered ‘fear of success’ concept

Laura Cunningham Wilson (13 oct 1939 – Norwell MA) author, lecturer, photographer

Jane Quigley Alexander (28 oct 1939 – Boston MA) author, actress, former director of National Endowment for the Arts

Nancy Stevenson Graves (23 dec 1939 – 21 oct 1995 | Pittsfield MA – New York NY) sculptor, painter, printmaker, filmmaker

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1940s

Arlie Russell Hochschild (15 jan 1940 – Boston MA) author, academic, founder of the sociology of emotion, professor emerita, sociological specialist of emotions, genders, and politics

Joan Tavares Avant (14 apr 1940 – Mashpee MA) writer, historian, columnist, aka Granny Squannit, Mashpee Wampanoag tribal leader, retired Director of Indian Education in Mashpee Public Schools

Rachel Holmes Ingalls (13 may 1940 – 06 mar 2019 | Boston MA – London UK) novelist, short story writer

Alice Azure (30 jul 1940 – North Adams MA) poet, Mi’kmaq Métis writer

Phyllis Chesler (01 oct 1940 – Brooklyn NY) author, psychotherapist, psychology / women’s studies professor emerita

Toby Lerner Ansin (03 jan 1941 – Boston MA) ballet enthusiast, founded Miami City Ballet dance company, community arts advocate / supporter

Elaine Cottler Showalter (21 jan 1941 – Boston MA) critic, author, scholar, feminist, developed concept / practice of gynocritics, co-founded US academic field of feminist literary criticism

Catherine Norris Norton (24 jan 1941 – 22 dec 2014 | Massachusetts – Falmouth MA) librarian, first Director of Information Systems at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Barbara Bluestein Simons (26 jan 1941 – Boston MA) author, computer scientist, electronic voting specialist, founder / former chair US Public Policy Committee for ACM [Association for Computing Machinery]

Andrea Conte (13 feb 1941 – Great Barrington MA) registered nurse, former First Lady of Tennessee, escaped kidnapping attempt [1988], victims’ rights activist, TN child advocacy centers advocate, lead project to restore / renovate Tennessee Governor’s Residence

Ellen Holtz Goodman (11 apr 1941 – Newton MA) speaker, journalist, columnist, commentator

Marilyn [Lyn] Ruth Snow (13 may 1941 – 18 dec 2013 | Fall River MA – Portland ME) nurse, artist, family therapist, floral watercolorist

Lesley Rene Stahl (16 dec 1941 – Lynn MA) journalist, news reporter, autobiographer

Mimi Smith (13 may 1942 – Brookline MA) early feminist / conceptual artist, clothing sculptor, drawing installation artist

Priscilla Taylor McLean (27 may 1942 – Fitchburg MA) author, composer, performer, video artist, music reviewer

Vivien Casagrande (07 jun 1942 – 21 jan 2017 | Belmont MA – Nashville TN) author, professor, essayist, neuroscientist, visual system researcher

Sue Owen (05 sep 1942 –  Cambridge MA) poet activist, dark humor poet, poetry professor

Deborah Hopkinson (13 sep 1942 – Lowell MA) children’s historical fiction novelist

Myrna Lamb (22 nov 1942 – 09 jun 2014 | Boston MA – Providence RI) author, astrologer, art teacher, radio personality

Jean Kilbourne (04 jan 1943 – Brookline MA) author, feminist, speaker, filmmaker, alcohol / tobacco addictions activist, women’s media image reformer / researcher

Janet Sternburg (18 jan 1943 – Boston MA) poet, essayist, memoirist, fine art photographer

Susan Batson (27 feb 1943 – Roxbury MA) author, actress, producer, acting coach. life member of Actors Studio

Ann Wolpert (01 oct 1943 – 02 oct 2013 | Boston MA – Cambridge MA) essayist, digital library pioneer, long-time MIT Libraries Director

Noreen Corcoran (20 oct 1943 – 15 jan 2016 | Quincy MA – Van Nuys CA) actress, dancer, theatre arts / dance member

Denise Eisenberg Rich (26 jan 1944 – Worcester MA) US-born Austrian socialite, philanthropist, singer-songwriter, political fundraiser

Joy Williams (11 feb 1944 – Chelmsford MA) novelist, essayist, short-story writer

Dorothy [Dossie] Marguerite Easton (26 feb 1944 – Andover MA) poet, non-fiction author, family therapist

Margaret A. [Peggy] Shaw (27 jul 1944 – Belmont MA) actor, author, memoirist, producer, former social worker, theatre set painter, teen-age missionary to Costa Rica, founding member Split Britches and WOW Cafe Theatre

Cheryl Theriault Cohen-Greene (09 sep 1944 – Salem MA) author, speaker, sexual surrogate partner

Eugenia Zukerman (25 sep 1944 – Cambridge MA) flutist, novelist, memoirist, journalist, arts biographer, non-fiction author, classical music correspondent

Frances Daly Fergusson (03 oct 1944 – Boston MA) author, academic, art historian, Vassar president

Stephanie Braxton (11 dec 1944 – Boston MA) actress, playwright, television scriptwriter

Sandra Faber (28 dec 1944 – Boston MA) editor, author, astronomer, co-discoverer of Faber-Jackson relation, co-designer of Keck telescopes in HI

Lois Galgay Reckitt (31 dec 1944 – Cambridge MA) feminist, essayist, marine biologist, state legislator, LGBT / human rights activist, domestic violence awareness advocate, former Executive Director of Family Crisis Services, co-founded: first NOW Chapter in Maine, Human Rights Campaign Fund, Maine Women’s Lobby, Maine Coalition for Human Rights

Barbara Delinsky (09 aug 1945 – Boston MA) novelist, non-fiction author, pen names: Bonnie Drake and Billie Douglass

Carol Beckwith (12 nov 1945 – Boston MA) artist, author, photographer, photojournalist

Nancy Page Ridenour Buchanan (30 aug 1946 – Boston MA) video / installation / performance artist

Suzyn Waldman (07 sep 1946 – Newton MA) sportscaster, former musical theatre actress

Sandy Skoglund (11 sep 1946 – Weymouth MA) photographer, installation artist

Ronnie R. Brown (08 nov 1946 – Brockton MA) American-Canadian poet, creative writing teacher

Margaret Mills (09 nov 1946 – Boston MA) author, folklorist, professor emerita

Bonnie Zacherle (14 nov 1946 – Norwood MA) illustrator, designer, original creator of My Little Pony toy line

Jeannine Claudia Oppewall (28 nov 1946 – Uxbridge MA) film art director, set designer / decorator

Karen McCarthy (18 mar 1947 – 05 oct 2010 | Haverhill MA – Overland Park KS) politician, women’s activist, Congresswoman

Donna Fournier Cuomo (19 mar 1947 – Lawrence MA) state politician, violence prevention activist / educator, September 11 World Trade Center survivor

Carol Dunlop (02 apr 1947 – 02 nov 1982 | Boston MA – Paris, France) writer, activist, translator, photographer

Mary Temple Grandin (29 aug 1947 – Boston MA) author, professor, autistic activist, animal behavior consultant

Mary Fell (22 sep 1947 – Worcester MA) poet, academic

Rebecca Eaton (07 nov 1947 – Boston MA) editor, author, tv / film producer, PBS Masterpiece executive producer

Valerie Bobbett Gardner (14 dec 1947 – Boston MA) author, violinist, pedagogue

Katharine Holabird (23 jan 1948 – Cambridge MA) children’s author, nursery school teacher, former freelance journalist

Laura Shapiro Kramer (27 jul 1948 – Boston MA) author, producer, filmmaker, independent consultant, former chair of Resources for Children with Special Needs, founder / chair of Advisory Board for Iyengar Yoga of Greater NY

Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe (02 sep 1948 – 28 jan 1986 | Boston MA – Cape Canaveral FL) teacher, astronaut, one of seven crew members killed in Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

Jewelle Gomez (11 sep 1948 – Boston MA) poet, critic, author, playwright

Susanna Kaysen (11 nov 1948 – Cambridge MA) author, memoirist

Pearl Cleage (07 dec 1948 – Springfield MA) African-American poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, non-fiction author

Karen Eve Augusta (24 dec 1948 – 26 oct 2019 | Norwood MA – North Westminster VT) educator, fashion icon, entrepreneur, preservationist, historical fashion consultant

Barbara Flavin Richardson (25 mar 1949 – Gardner MA) child health advocate, anti-domestic violence activist, former First Lady of New Mexico State, created New Mexico Immunizations Coalition, NM Chair of Read Across America, Big Brothers / Big Sisters fundraiser

Marjorie O’Neill Clapprood (24 sep 1949 – Boston MA) past state politician, university instructor, late-night public affairs radio talk show host of Clapprood Live

Jan Brett (01 dec 1949 – Norwell MA) children’s book author / illustrator

Eileen Myles (09 dec 1949 – Cambridge MA) poet, author, novelist, librettist, playwright, performance artist

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1950s

Karen Kondazian (27 jan 1950 – Newton MA) novelist, columnist, non-fiction author

Cheryl Savageau (14 apr 1950 – Massachusetts US) poet, painter, Abenaki, feminist, visual artist, quiltmaker, children’s author

Janet L. Robinson (11 jun 1950 – Fall River MA) publishing executive, former NYTimes CEO / President

Marcie Berman Ries (25 aug 1950 – Boston MA) US diplomat, former Ambassador to Bulgaria, specialist in arms control and security issues

Elinor Lipman (16 oct 1950 – Lowell MA) novelist, essayist, short story writer

Nancy Segal (02 mar 1951 – Boston MA) author, essayist, twins researcher, behavioral geneticist, evolutionary psychologist

Darra Goldstein (28 apr 1951 – Williamstown MA) cookbook author, food scholar, professor of Russian language, founding editor of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture

Susan Fletcher (28 may 1951 – Pasadena CA) children’s / young adult speculative fiction author

Edith Anne [Edie] Widder Smith (11 jun 1951 – Arlington MA) author, oceanographer, marine biologist, Ocean Research & Conservation Association founder / CEO / Senior Scientist

Liane Hansen (29 sep 1951 – Worcester MA) reporter, journalist, radio personality, senior host of National Public Radio news magazine Weekend Edition Sunday

Marianne Leone Cooper (02 jan 1952 – Boston MA) essayist, memoirist, screenwriter, tv / film actress, disabled children’s activist

Brooke de Lench (15 feb 1952 – Plymouth MA) author, journalist, filmmaker, youth sports safety / rights / welfare activist

Emily Mann (12 apr 1952 – Boston MA) author, playwright, artistic director

Grace Paine Terzian (19 oct 1952 – Boston MA) chief communications officer of MediaDC

Diane Andrews McGuire (01 dec 1952 – Brockton MA) short fiction mystery writer, aka D. A. McGuire

Julie Taymor (15 dec 1952 – Newton MA) author, costume designer, film / stage / opera director

Susan Estrich (16 dec 1952 – Marblehead MA) author, lawyer, professor, political operative, feminist advocate, political commentator

June Anderson (30 dec 1952 – Boston MA) coloratura soprano, bel canto performer

Alicia C. Shepard (27 apr 1953 – Boston MA) author, journalist, media writer, Woodward / Bernstein expert

Kathleen Hirsch (01 jun 1953 – Massachusetts US) author, writing professor

Judith Regan (17 aug 1953 – Massachusetts US) editor, producer, book publisher, radio / television talk show host, head of Regan Arts at Phaidon Press

Debra Bermingham (18 sep 1953 – Northampton MA) visual artist, vineyard owner / founder

Lesley Candace Visser (11 sep 1953 – Quincy MA) sports writer, sportscaster, radio personality, first female NFL analyst, first woman recognized by Pro Football Hall of Fame

Stephanie Sinclaire (28 feb 1954 – Boston MA) poet, artist, curator, painter, producer, film / theater director, aka Stephanie Crawford, born Stephanie Anne Weiss, director of Dragonlady Films and Theatre

Lili Fini Zanuck (02 apr 1954 – Leominster MA) film producer and director

Regina [Gina] McCarthy (03 may 1954 – Brighton MA) professor, politician, US EPA administrator, air quality / environmental health expert

Kathleen Horton O’Toole (09 may 1954 – Pittsfield MA) first female commissioner of Boston Police Department, first Chief Inspector of Garda Inspectorate in Ireland, current Chief of Police for Seattle Police Department

Nnenna Freelon (28 jul 1954 – Cambridge MA) jazz singer, arranger, composer, producer, former health professional, Babysong leader / innovator, born Chinyere Nnenna Pierce, arts education activist / advocate

Andrea Barrett (16 nov 1954 – Boston MA) novelist, short fiction writer

Chirlane Irene McCray (29 nov 1954 – Springfield MA) writer, editor, political figure, First Lady of New York City, public relations / communications professional

Nancy Lee Worden (29 nov 1954 – Boston MA) artist, metalsmith, jewelry designer

Susan Howlet Butcher Day (26 dec 1954 – 05 aug 2006 | Cambridge MA – Seattle WA) dog musher, Iditarod champion, veterinary technician, children’s book author

Jane Ira Bloom (12 jan 1955 – Boston MA) jazz composer, soprano saxophonist, Guggenheim Fellow in composition, namesake for asteroid 6083 Janeirabloom

Nancy Oliver (08 feb 1955 – Framingham MA) playwright, screenwriter

Susan E. Dudley (27 may 1955 – Massachusetts US) author, academic, regulatory official

Nina Blackwood (12 sep 1955 – Springfield MA) author, disc jockey, music journalist

Susan Jolliffe Napier (11 oct 1955 – Cambridge MA) author, professor, Japanese literature expert

Emily Yoffe (15 oct 1955 – Newton MA) author, journalist, contributing editor to The Atlantic Magazine

Gina Cunningham (26 nov 1955 – Springfield MA) multidisciplinary artist, subject focus on immigrants

Virginia Elizabeth [Geena] Davis (21 jan 1956 – Wareham MA) writer, actress, film producer, former archer, social activist, founded Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

Suzanne Bump (18 feb 1956 – Weymouth MA) former MA State Representative, first-ever female elected Massachusetts State Auditor

Julia Glass (23 mar 1956 – Boston MA) painter, novelist, freelance editor / journalist

Jane Kelleher Fernandes (21 aug 1956 – Worcester MA) deaf educator, university president / administrator, first female president of Guildford College, former President Designate of Gallaudet University, first-ever deaf female US college or university leader

Mary Courtney Kennedy-Hill (09 sep 1956 – Boston MA) political family member, former associate at Children’s Television Workshop, former representative for UN AIDS Foundation

Julie Michelle Palais (02 sep 1956 – Massachusetts) author, glaciologist, climate change researcher, namesake for Palais Glacier and Palais Bluff in Antarctica

Susan Minot (07 dec 1956 – Boston MA) poet, painter, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, short fiction author

Cornelia Nixon (25 mar 1957 – Boston MA) novelist, professor, short-fiction writer

Ellen McLaughlin (09 nov 1957 – Cambridge MA) playwright, film / stage actor

Kathryn Reiss (04 dec 1957 – Cambridge MA) children’s / young adult fiction author

Nancy Donahue (16 feb 1958 – Lowell MA) co-author, former pastry chef, former fashion model, certified personal trainer in Pilates / yoga, co-developed the BelleCore body-buffer

Carla DeSantis Black (21 feb 1958 – Boston MA) writer, magazine founder, women in music activist / advocate, aka The Gloria Steinem of Rock, founded Musicians for Equal Opportunities for Women [MEOW]

Marjory Heath Wentworth (03 jun 1958 – Lynn MA) poet, South Carolina Poet Laureate

Evelyn Kathleen Samuels Welch (30 jan 1959 – Boston MA) American-English, Renaissance-Early Modern arts scholar / author / researcher

Shannon Patricia Elizabeth O’Brien (30 apr 1959 – Boston MA) politician, consumer advocate, gubernatorial candidate, CEO Patriot’s Trail Girl Scout Council

Carol Twombly (13 jun 1959 – Concord MA) beader, fiber artist, sketch artist, typographer, basket maker, former digital font designer for Adobe

Barbara Jean Burns Comstock (30 jun 1959 – Springfield MA) author, politician, former lobbyist / political consultant

Mary Kerry Kennedy (08 sep 1959 – Boston MA) writer, human rights activist

Kathleen Merrigan (06 oct 1959 – Pittsfield MA) professor of public policy, food / environmental advocate, former head USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, first female chair of UN Ministerial Conference of Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO]

Caroline Knapp (08 nov 1959 – 03/04 jun 2002 | Cambridge MA – Cambridge MA) author, essayist, memoirist, Boston Phoenix columnist