Women | US-ME | Maine

1800s

Dorothea Lynde Dix (04 apr 1802 – 17 jul 1887 | Hampden ME – Trenton NJ) nurse, author, mental health patient advocate, insane asylum activist / reformer

Eunice Hale Waite Cobb (27 jan 1803 – 02 may 1880 | Kennebunk ME – East Boston MA) author, activist, memoirist, public speaker

Sybil Jones Jones (28 feb 1808 – 04 dec 1873 | Brunswick ME – Dirigo Corner ME) Quaker minister, foreign missionary


1810s

Mary Richardson Walker (01 apr 1811 – 21 nov 1877 | Baldwin ME – Forest Grove OR) diarist, frontier missionary to Spokan Indians, co-founded Columbia Maternal Association, one of first six women to travel over Rocky Mountains 


1820s

Eliza Allen Billings (27 jan 1826 – 1866 | Eastport ME – Eastport ME) memoirist, adventurer, disguised male soldier George Mead in Mexican-American War


1830s

Rebecca Sophia Clarke (22 feb 1833 – 10 aug 1906 | Norridgewock ME – Norridgewock ME) aka Sophie May, children’s serial novelist

Augusta Pierce Tabor (29 mar 1833 – 30 jan 1895 | Augusta ME – Pasadena CA) folk figure, social activist, mining entrepreneur / millionaire

Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford (03 apr 1835 – 14 aug 1921 | Calais ME – Deer Island MA) poet, novelist, short story writer 

Persis Foster Eames Albee (30 may 1836 – 07 dec 1914 | Newry ME – Templeton MA) aka PFE Albee and The First Avon Lady, women’s business trainer / advocate, professional saleswoman for California Perfume Company [later Avon Products] 

Ellen Russell Emerson (16 jan 1837 – 12 jun 1907 | New Sharon ME – Cambridge MA) author, sketcher, ethnologist

Abba Louisa Goold Woolson (30 apr 1838 – 06 feb 1921 | Windham Center ME – Portland ME) poet, author, lecturer, historian, women’s dress reform advocate

Anna Eliza Hardy (26 jan 1839 – 15 dec 1934 | Bangor ME – Jamaica Plain MA) artist, floral still-life specialist


1840s

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

Julia Thompson von Stosch Schayer (07 jan 1842 – 29 mar 1928 | Deering ME – Bronxville NY) short fiction author

Elizabeth Armstrong Reed (16 may 1842 – 18 jun 1915 | Winthrop ME – Chicago IL) editor, author, Oriental scholar 

Lillian M. N. Ames Stevens (01 mar 1844 – 06 apr 1914 | Dover-Foxcroft ME – Portland ME) philanthropist, humanitarian, community activist, women’s right advocate, founder / president Maine WCTU and president of US National WCTU [Women’s Christian Temperance Union]

Ursula Newell Gestefeld (22 apr 1845 – 22 oct 1921 | Augusta ME – Chicago IL) Christian Scientist, New Thought author, women’s press founder 

Clara L. Brown Dyer (13 mar 1849 – 02 mar 1931 | Cape Elizabeth ME – Portland ME) artist, reader, lecturer, landscape painter, social club woman, one of first members of the Society of Art and the Portland Art League, organizing president of National Society of United States Daughters of 1812 in State of Maine 

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


1850s

Martha Gallison Moore-Avery (06 apr 1851 – 08 aug 1929 | Steuben ME – Medford MA) author, religious / political activist

Effie Carlton Crockett (04 mar 1856 – 07 jan 1940 | Rockland ME – Boston MA) actress, composer, singer-songwriter, created “Rock-A-Bye Baby”


1860s

Alice Harriman Browne (12 mar 1861 – 24 dec 1925 | Newport ME – Hollywood CA) poet, editor, novelist, publisher, short story writer, nonfiction author, aka The Only Woman Publisher in the World

Fannie Pearson Hardy Eckstorm (18 jun 1865 – 31 dec 1946 | Brewer ME – Brewer ME) author, folklorist, ornithologist

Susan Marcia Oakes Woodbury (20 jun 1865 – 07 nov 1913 | South Berwick ME – Ogunquit ME) artist, author, painter, Dutch portrait specialist, Dutch Masters art commentator

Alice May Douglas (28 jun 1865 – 06 jan 1943 | Bath ME – Bath ME) poet, peace activist, children’s author, newspaper editor, founder and composer of Peace Makers’ Band, head of Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s Peace and Arbitration

Maxine Elliott (05 feb 1868 – 05 mar 1940 | Rockland ME – Cannes, France) born Jessie Dermott, film / stage actress, theater founder / owner / manager


1870s

Alice Mary Baldwin (24 jan 1879 – 12 oct 1960 | Lewiston ME – Durham NC) American educator, historian, memoirist, non-fiction author, women’s history activist / proponent, academic dean / administrator


1880s

Edith Nourse Rogers (19 mar 1881 – 10 sep 1960 | Saco ME – Boston MA) aviator, politician, social welfare activist, created US GI Bill, veterans advocate, Women’s Army Corps founder, longest tenured US State representative 

Mary Gould Davis (13 feb 1882 – 15 apr 1956 | Bangor ME – New York NY) author, librarian, storyteller, wrote about / practiced the art of storytelling

Ninetta [Nettie] May Runnals (14 jan 1885 – 01 jun 1980 | Dover-Foxcroft ME – Waterville ME) Colby College Dean of Women, student / faculty gender equality activist / advocate, founded Waterville ME branch of  American Association of University Women [AAUW]

Mary Ellen Chase (24 feb 1887 – 28 jul 1973 | Blue Hill ME – Northampton MA) critic, novelist, educator, essayist, children’s author


1890s

Edna St. Vincent Millay (22 feb 1892 – 19 oct 1950 | Rockland ME – Austerlitz NY) poet, activist, playwright


1900s

Marion E. Martin (14 jan 1900 – 10 jan 1987 | Bangor ME – Hallowell ME) politician, founded  National Federation of Republican Women’s Clubs

Dorothy Clarke Wilson (09 may 1904 – 26 mar 2003 | Gardiner ME – Orono ME) author, playwright


1910s

Marjorie Craig Crowley (09 mar 1912 – 20 feb 2003 | Bangor ME – Naples FL) self-help / fitness author, Elizabeth Arden Salon of Exercise Director

Dorothy Estelle Murphy Healy (21 mar 1914 – 16 oct 1990 | Boothbay ME – Portland ME) curator, educator, historian, turkey farmer

Norma Bradford (19 mar 1915 – 07 jun 2014 | Wayne ME – Middletown CT) artist, historian, social activist, federal IRS worker, one of first WWII Navy WAVES


1920s


1930s

Jessica Gagnon McClintock (19 jun 1930 – Presque Isle ME) former schoolteacher, retired fashion designer, CEO / founder / president of women’s retail apparel company

Nancy Randall Clark (06 may 1938 – 28 dec 2015 | Freeport ME – Freeport ME) state politician, schoolteacher, civic / social activist


1940s

Eugenia Theresa Thomas (10 jun 1941 – 27 oct 2015 | Indian Island ME – Indian Island ME) Penobscot poet, writer, storyteller, visual artist, social worker, known as ssispis

Martha Fuller Clark (14 mar 1942 – York ME) state politician, community activist, architectural historian

Andrea Louise Martin (15 jan 1947 – Portland ME) singer, author, actress, American-Canadian

Olympia Jean Bouchles Snowe (21 feb 1947 – Augusta ME) author, politician, former Maine Senator, former First Lady of Maine

Tabitha Jane Spruce King (24 mar 1949 – Old Town ME) novelist, nonfiction author, social /  literacy activist

Angela Hill (28 mar 1949 – Portland ME) journalist, talk show host, documentary filmmaker


1950s

Susan Tifft (14 feb 1951 – 01 apr 2010 | Rumford ME – Cambridge MA) author, journalist, educator

Dorianne Laux (10 jan 1952 – Augusta ME) poet, creative writing professor

Elizabeth Strout (06 jan 1956 – Portland ME) novelist, academic, short fiction writer, Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction

Lyn Mikel Brown (12 feb 1956 – Vanceboro ME) author, essayist, academic, feminist, community activist, Colby College Director of Women’s, Gender, Sexuality Studies

Cynthia McFadden (27 may 1956 – Lewiston ME) author, Crohn’s disease activist, news host / anchor / correspondent

Pamela Dorothy [Pam] Iorio (27 apr 1959 – Waterville ME) author, politician, Tampa FL Mayor

Victoria Lynn Rowell (10 may 1959 – Portland ME) actress, dancer, memoirist, foster care activist