1760s
Anne Newport Royall (11 jun 1769 – 01 oct 1854 | Baltimore MD – Washington DC) writer, publisher, reformer, journalist, possibly first professional female journalist in America
1800s
Mary Aloysia Hardey (08 dec 1809 – 17 jun 1886 | Piscataway MD – Paris, France) nun, educator, administrator, established 25 convents and schools in US, Cuba, and Canada, first American-born Mother Superior of the Society of the Sacred Heart
1810s
Anna Murray-Douglass (19 oct 1813 – 04 aug 1882 | Denton MD – Washington DC) African-American abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, first wife of Frederick Douglass
Anna Ella Carroll (29 aug 1815 – 19 feb 1893 | Pocomoke City MD – Washington DC) author, reporter, lobbyist, politician, pamphleteer, US Presidential consultant, informal member of Lincoln’s Cabinet, never officially recognized for her strategic contributions
Mary Frame Myers Thomas (28 oct 1816 – 19 aug 1888 | Sandy Spring MD – Richmond IN) Quaker, abolitionist, suffragist, women’s rights leader, first female physician west of the Alleghenies
Josephine Louise Le Monnier Newcomb (31 oct 1816 – 07 apr 1901 | Baltimore MD – New Orleans LA) philanthropist, founded H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College at Tulane University
Amelia Ball Coppuck Welby (03 feb 1819 – 03 may 1852 | St Michael’s MD – Louisville KY) poet
1820s
Araminta Harriet Ross Tubman (29 jan 1820 – 10 mar 1913 | Bucktown MD – Auburn NY) African-American, US folk figure, former slave, Civil War spy / nurse, abolitionist leader, Underground Railroad conductor
Virginia Clemm Poe (15 aug 1822 – 30 jan 1847 | Baltimore MD – Fordham NY) literary folk figure, wife / first cousin of Edgar Allan Poe
Mary Elizabeth Surratt (04 may 1823 – 07 jul 1865 | Waterloo MD – Washington DC) boarding house owner / operator, historical / political folk figure, tried as Lincoln assassination co-conspirator, first American female sentenced by US goverment to execution by hanging
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (24 sep 1825 – 22 feb 1911 | Baltimore MD – Philadelphia PA) poet, author, essayist, feminist, abolitionist, African-American, aka The Bronze Muse, civil rights / temperance activist
Martha Jane Coston (12 dec 1826 – 09 jul 1904 | Baltimore MD – Philadelphia PA) businesswoman, patented first emergency marine flare, inventor / purveyor of Coston emergency marine flares
1830s
Amanda Berry Smith (23 jan 1837 – 24 feb 1915 | Long Green MD – Sebring FL) singer, teacher, autodidact, missionary, autobiographical author
Martha McClellan Brown (06 apr 1838 – 31 aug 1916 | Baltimore MD – Dayton OH) newspaper publisher, temperance activist, women’s college vice-president, Ohio Temperance leader
Laura Redden Searing (09 feb 1839 – 10 aug 1923 | Somerset County MD – San Mateo County CA) poet, journalist, songwriter, pen name: Howard Glyndon, onset of deafness at age 11
1840s
Charlotte Champe Stearns Eliot (22 oct 1843 – 10 sep 1929 | Baltimore MD – Cambridge MA) poet, teacher, social worker, literary family member [wife of T. S. Eliot]
Mary T. Waggaman (21 sep 1846 – 1931 | Baltimore MD – unknown) prolific children’s author and religious novelist
1850s
Annie Armstrong (11 jul 1850 – 20 dec 1938 | Baltimore MD – Baltimore MD) religious leader, letter correspondent, women’s mission founder
Mary Elizabeth Garrett (05 mar 1854 – 03 apr 1915 | Baltimore MD – Montgomery County PA) suffragist, social activist, philanthropist, Friday Evening women’s group co-founder, school for girls co-founder, women’s medical education activist / advocate
Lizette Woodworth Reese (09 jan 1856 – 17 dec 1935 | Waverly MD – Baltimore MD) poet
Martha Carey [Minnie] Thomas (02 jan 1857 – 02 dec 1935 | Baltimore MD – Philadelphia PA) linguist, suffragist, Bryn Mawr founder / president, first female Johns Hopkins’ student / honorary graduate
1860s
Nellie Arnold Plummer (07 sep 1860 – 01 jan 1933 | Ellicott’s Mills MD – Hyatsville MD) author, teacher, former slave, first female student at Wayland Seminary, biographical / autobiographical writer
Esther B. Singleton (04 nov 1865 – 02 jul 1930 | Baltimore MD – Stonington CT) author, journalist, Shakespeare researcher
Clara Dutton Noyes (03 oct 1869 – 03 jun 1936 | Port Deposit MD – Washington DC) nurse, author, educator
1870s
Emily Price Post (27 oct 1872 – 25 sep 1960 | Baltimore MD – New York NY) author, etiquette expert, private school founder
Rida Johnson Young (28 feb 1875 – 08 may 1926 | Baltimore MD – Stamford CT) lyricist, librettist, playwright
Mary Cromwell Jarrett (21 jun 1876 – 04 aug 1961 | Baltimore MD – New York NY) author, educator, researcher, psychiatric social worker
Mary K. Bryan (13 feb 1877 – 22 feb 1962 | Prince George’s County MD – Napa CA) academic, botanist, research phytopathologist, focused on cankars / leaf spots
Rachel Marshall Hawks (20 mar 1879 – 1964 | Port Deposit MD – Ruxton MD) sculptor, decorator, medal artist
1880s
Edith Clarke (10 feb 1883 – 29 oct 1959 | Howard County MD – Olney MD) author, essayist, first US female electrical engineer, first US female professor of electrical engineering, first woman to earn MS in electrical engineering from MIT, invented / patented Clarke calculator / Clarke transformation, first female Fellow of American Institute of Electrical Engineers
Helen Dryden (26 nov 1883 – oct 1972 | Baltimore MD – Brentwood NY) costume / fashion / industrial artist-designer, automobile hardware designer, prolific women’s magazine cover illustrator
Ethel Browne Harvey (14 dec 1885 – 02 sep 1965 | Baltimore MD – Falmouth MA) author, zoologist, embryologist, women’s educational rights activist / advocate
Clara Strouse Beranger de Mille (14 jan 1886 – 10 sep 1956 | Baltimore MD – Hollywood CA) German-American, author, journalist, producer, screenwriter, USC School of Cinematic Arts faculty
Nancy Woodbridge [Sylvia] Beach (14 mar 1887 – 05 oct 1962 | Baltimore MD – Paris, France) bookseller, publisher, expatriate, memoirist, literary folk figure
1890s
Katharine Butler Hathaway (02 oct 1890 – 24 dec 1942 | Baltimore MD – Blue Hill ME) poet, short fiction author, children’s stories writer, autobiographical author
Crystal Bird Fauset (27 jun 1894 – 27 mar 1965 | Princess Ann MD – Philadelphia PA) politician, first black woman elected to US state legislature, Swarthmore Institute of Race Relations executive secretary, US Presidential Black Cabinet member
Sarah Tilghman Hughes (02 aug 1896 – 23 apr 1985 | Baltimore MD – Dallas TX) lawyer, politician, political activist, federal judge, swore in LBJ after JFK assassination, advocated bill allowing women in Texas to sit on juries [enacted 1954]
Miriam O’Brien Underhill (22 jul 1898 – 07 jan 1976 | Forest Glen MD – Lancaster NH) feminist, mountaineer, environmentalist, numerous first ascents for women, ‘manless’ climbing innovator
1900s
Hattie Elizabeth Alexander (05 apr 1901 – 24 jun 1968 | Baltimore MD – New York NY) essayist, pediatrician, microbiologist, developed first effective remedy against Haemophilus influenzae infection, one of first scientists to study / identify antibiotic resistance
Ruth Krauss (25 jul 1901 – 10 jul 1993 | Baltimore MD – Westport CT) children’s book author, playwright, theatrical poet for adults
Margaret Walton Mayall (27 jan 1902 – 06 dec 1995 | Iron Hill MD – Cambridge MA) essayist, astronomer, focused on photometry / spectral classes of viable stars
Elizabeth Paepcke (28 aug 1902 – 15 jun 1994 | near Baltimore MD – Aspen CO) philanthropist, arts and culture supporter, aka The Grand Dame of Aspen, co-founded Aspen Music Festival and School
Anne Schumacher Hummert (19 jan 1905 – 05 jul 1996 | Baltimore MD – New York NY) journalist, advertising executive, multimillionaire, radio serials scriptwriter, pioneering soap opera writer
Claire McCardell (24 may 1905 – 22 mar 1958 | Frederick MD – New York NY) ready-to-wear fashion designer / style innovator
Helen Dodson Prince (31 dec 1905 – 04 feb 2002 | Baltimore MD – Arlington VA) author, astronomer, pioneer solar flare researcher, women astronomers’ advocate
Mary Hamman (02 aug 1907 – 18 nov 1984 | Baltimore MD – New York NY) author, humorist, magazine editor
Florence Riefle Bahr (02 feb 1909 – 12 jan 1998 | Baltimore MD – Elkridge MD) portrait / landscape artist, social / civil rights activist
1910s
Anna Pauline [Pauli] Murray (20 nov 1910 – 01 jul 1985 | Baltimore MD – Pittsburgh PA) author, lawyer, women’s / civil rights activist, first black US female ordained Episcopal priest
Augusta Braxton Baker (01 apr 1911 – 23 feb 1998 | Baltimore MD – Columbia SC) African-American author, librarian, storyteller, children’s literature advocate
Georgeanna Seegar Jones (06 jul 1912 – 26 mar 2005 | Baltimore MD – Portsmouth VA) author, medical researcher, in-vitro-fertilization pioneer [in partnership with husband Howard W Jones]
Anne Wiggins Brown (09 aug 1912 – 13 mar 2009 | Baltimore MD – Oslo, Norway) soprano, radio / concert singer
Carolyn Elizabeth Creighton Long (13 jun 1915 – 03 oct 1991 | Cambridge MD – Cambridge MD) operatic soprano and concert singer
Louise Lyles Kerr Hines (15 mar 1916 – 09 apr 2007 | Baltimore MD – Baltimore MD) reporter, civil rights activist, secretary for Baltimore NAACP
Irene Amos Morgan Kirkaldy (09 apr 1917 – 10 aug 2007 | Baltimore MD – Gloucester County VA) civil rights activist, Seventh-day Adventist
Edith Anna Maslin Ronne (13 oct 1919 – 14 jun 2009 | Baltimore MD – Bethesda MD) explorer, aka Jackie, memoirist, first woman working member of Antarctica expedition, Antarctica’s First Lady
Elaine Danforth Harmon (26 dec 1919 – 21 apr 2015 | Baltimore MD – Rockville MD) private pilot, independent real estate appraiser, US WWII aviator, member Women Airforce Service Pilots [WASP]
1920s
Elaine Hamilton O’Neal (13 oct 1920 – 15 mar 2010 | Catonsville MD – Woodstock MD) muralist, abstract painter
Anne Truitt (16 mar 1921 – 23 dec 2004 | Baltimore MD – Washington DC) painter, sculptor, installation artist
Florence [Flo] Aaronson Ayres (12 jul 1923 – Baltimore MD) radio actress / producer, radio / communications professor, AFTRA-SAG chapter founder, children’s CD writer / actress / producer
Betty Lee Sung (03 oct 1924 – Baltimore MD) author, activist, memoirist, professor emerita of Asian-American Studies
Neena Betty Schwartz (10 dec 1926 – 15 apr 2018 | Baltimore MD – Evanston IL) author, feminist, LGBT activist, memoirist, endocrinologist, founding member Association for Women in Science (AWIS), Women in Endocrinology co-founder / president
Louise Daniel Hutchinson (03 jun 1928 – 12 oct 2014 | Ridge MD – Washington DC) author, historian, civil rights / community activist
Sarah Elizabeth Wright (09 dec 1928 – 13 sep 2009 | Wetipquin MD – New York NY) poet, novelist, biographer, nonfiction author
Adrienne Cecile Rich (16 may 1929 – 27 mar 2012 | Baltimore MD – Santa Cruz CA) poet, essayist, feminist
1930s
Jennie [formerly John] Alexander (08 dec 1930 – 12 jul 2018 | Baltimore MD – Baltimore MD) lawyer, author, pianist, jazz musician, woodworker, coined term greenwoodworking, known for two-slat post-and-rung shaving chair
Nedda Casei (09 sep 1932 – 20 jan 2020 |Baltimore MD – New York NY) operatic mezzo-soprano, Opera Quarterly guest editor
Jean Hogarth Harvey Baker (09 feb 1933 – Baltimore MD) author, biographer, American historian, professor emerita of history at Goucher College
Anita Huffington (25 dec 1934 – Baltimore MD) stone / bronze figurative sculptor
Mary Tabor (03 mar 1946 – Baltimore MD) novelist, memoirist, professor, short fiction writer, radio show host
Junetta Jones (12 mar 1936 – 17 feb 2015 | Baltimore MD – Washington DC) operatic soprano, long-time member Baltimore Advisory Committee for Art and Culture
Lucille Clifton (27 jun 1936 – 13 feb 2010 | Depew NY – Baltimore MD) poet, writer, educator
Barbara Mikulski (20 jul 1936 – Baltimore MD) author, novelist, politician, first female Senator from Maryland
Joan Claybrook (12 jun 1937 – Baltimore MD) lawyer, civic activist, former president of Public Citizen, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA]
Mary Downing Hahn (09 dec 1937 – College Park MD) young adult novelist
Patti Hawn (24 mar 1938 – Takoma Park MD) author, publicist, sister of Goldie Hawn
Donna Brogan (12 jul 1939 – Baltimore MD) statistician, mathematician, professor emerita of statistics, founded Caucus for Women in Statistics, focus on areas of mental health and analysis of complex survey data
Catherine Mackin (28 aug 1939 – 20 nov 1982 | Baltimore MD – Baltimore MD) pioneer news anchor / broadcast journalist, first female NBC correspondent to serve as floor reporter at national political convention
1940s
Janet Polun Lawson (13 nov 1940 – Baltimore MD) jazz singer, jazz / voice educator
Beverly Johnson (22 apr 1942 – 03 apr 1994 | Annapolis MD – Ruby Mountains NV) rock climber, adventurer, documentary filmmaker
Louise Virginia Snodgrass (28 jun 1942 – 12 jun 2009 | Baltimore MD – Dover DE) mayor, politician, special needs activist / advocate
Joan Doran Hedrick (01 may 1944 – Baltimore MD) author, historian, biographer, professor, awarded Pulitzer Prize for Biography and Autobiography [1995]
Emily C. Hewitt (26 may 1944 – Baltimore MD) judge, author, co-author, hiker, long distance walker
Martha Clarke (03 jun 1944 – Baltimore MD) author, choreographer, theater director
Jaimy Gordon (04 jul 1944 – Baltimore MD) creative writer, creative writing professor
Julie Smith (25 nov 1944 – Annapolis MD) mystery novelist, short fiction writer
Nancy Barbara Bond (08 jan 1945 – Bethesda MD) librarian, professor, children’s author
Linda Melson Harrison (26 jul 1945 – Berlin MD) film / television actress, director, producer
Dinitia Smith (26 dec 1945 – Cumberland MD) author, novelist, educator, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, former culture reporter for New York Times
Vashti Murphy McKenzie (28 may 1947 – Baltimore MD) first female Bishop of African American Methodist Episcopal Church, national chaplain of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
Kathryn Kraemer Troutman (05 oct 1947 – Baltimore MD) author, consultant, career trainer
Gina Kolata (25 feb 1948 – Baltimore MD) author, science journalist
Jessica Williams (17 mar 1948 – Baltimore MD) jazz pianist, jazz / electronic music composer
Susan Meiselas (21 jun 1948 – Baltimore MD) author, publisher, documentary photographer
Sherry Wolf (27 jan 1949 – Baltimore MD) photorealist painter, jewelry / fashion designer, former commercial artist, member / fundraiser Bereaved Parents of the USA
Dorothy Karen [Cookie] Mueller (02 mar 1949 – 10 nov 1898 | Baltimore MD – New York NY) author, actress, memoirist, art critic, journalist, health columnist, short fiction writer
Lillian Elaine Fishburne (25 mar 1949 – Patuxent River MD) author, retired US Navy officer, first African-American female appointed to rank of Rear Admiral
Alice Tangerini (25 apr 1949 – Takoma Park MD) curator, teacher, botanical illustrator for Department of Botany at National Museum of Natural History
Claudine K. Brown (07 aug 1949 – 17 mar 2016 | Baltimore MD – Washington DC) artist, lawyer, mentor, educator, patron of arts, non-profit executive, museum director / advocate
Judith Beatrice [Judi] Bari (07 nov 1949 – 02 mar 1997 | Silver Spring MD – near Willits CA) author, Earth First! organizer, labor / social justice / environmental activist
1950s
Margaret Garrand Warner (12 feb 1950 – Chevy Chase MD) former reporter, broadcast journalist, senior correspondent for The PBS NewsHour
Anna Deavere Smith (18 sep 1950 – Baltimore MD) author, actress, playwright, professor
Nora Roberts (10 oct 1950 – Silver Spring MD) romance novelist, arts / literacy activist, philanthropist, pen names: J.D. Robb, Jill March, Sarah Hardesty
Nina R. Harper (15 oct 1950 – Baltimore MD) retired businesswoman, Maryland state politician
Marsha Sue Ivins (15 apr 1951 – Baltimore MD) engineer, former US astronaut, veteran of five space shuttle missions
Robin Quivers (08 aug 1952 – Pikesville MD) author, actress, radio personality, autobiographical author, former US Air Force officer, survivor of childhood sexual assault
Karen Hesse (29 aug 1952 – Baltimore MD) children’s / young adult historical and biographical novelist
Sharon Lee Backof (11 sep 1952 – Baltimore MD) sci-fi / fantasy / mystery novelist /short story writer
Rebecca Alban Hoffberger (25 sep 1952 – Baltimore MD) author, American Visionary Art Museum founder / director, intuitive / self-taught artists’ activist / advocate / researcher, aka The P.T. Barnum of Outsider Art
Amina Wadud (25 sep 1952 – Bethesda MD) author, Qur’an scholar, Islamic women’s rights activist / educator
Tara Brach (17 may 1953 – Bethesda MD) author, Buddhist, psychologist
Elinor DeWire (03 aug 1953 – Frederick MD) author, editor, blogger, educator, public speaker, freelance writer, lighthouse preservationist, pen names: Jessica Scott and Aline Matthews
Jamie Luskin McCourt (05 dec 1953 – Baltimore MD) vintner, investor, visiting professor, patron of the arts, former co-owner Los Angeles Dodgers, highest ranking woman in Major League Baseball
Bonnie Cullison (24 mar 1954 – Baltimore MD) teacher, politician, labor official,one of eight openly LGBT members of Maryland General Assembly
Sharon Matola (03 jun 1954 – Baltimore MD) radio show host, environmentalist, founding director of Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center
Elizabeth Burmaster (26 jul 1954 – Baltimore MD) educator, college administrator
Robin Michal Koontz (29 jul 1954 – Wheaton MD) children’s author / illustrator, middle school non-fiction reader author
Susan Kolb (26 nov 1954 – Havre de Grace MD) doctor, author, integrative medicine advocate, women’s breast implant / complications specialist
Ruth Milkman (18 dec 1954 – Annapolis MD) author, editor, essayist, professor, sociologist, labor historian, academic director
Barbara Kingsolver (08 apr 1955 – Annapolis MD) poet, novelist, essayist
Laura Amy Schlitz (28 may 1955 – Baltimore MD) librarian, storyteller, children’s book author
Shan Goshorn (03 jul 1957 – 01 dec 2018 | Baltimore MD – Tulsa OK) multi-media artist, Eastern Band Cherokee, human rights activist
Jo Ann Bowman Hardesty (15 oct 1957 – Baltimore MD) civil rights activist, Oregon state politician, former member US Navy
Jane Mead (13 aug 1958 – 08 sep 2019 | Baltimore MD – Napa CA) poet
Loretta J. Mester (24 oct 1958 – Baltimore MD) banker, essayist, adjunct professor of finance at Wharton, president of Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, editor / co-editor of numerous financial journals
Nina Jane Easton (27 oct 1958 – Chevy Chase MD) author, journalist, entrepreneur, television commentator
Laura Miller (18 nov 1958 – Baltimore MD) journalist, columnist, investigative reporter, former Mayor of Dallas, Texas, environmental activist
Dana Kletter (21 oct 1959 – Baltimore MD) musician, novelist, essayist, short fiction writer