Susan Archer Talley Weiss was born in Hanover County, VA on February 14. A Woman of the Century lists her birth year as 1835, but other sources list it as 1822. Her family moved to Richmond when Susan was eight, and she lost her ability to hear two…
Catharine Waugh McCulloch was born in Ransomville, New York, on June 4, 1862. She graduated from Rockford Female Seminary, earning both a bachelor's degree and master's degree, and attended Union College of Law.A temperance advocate from an early…
Lydia Louisa Anna Very was born on November 2, 1823, in Salem, Massachusetts, the youngest child of Jones and Lydia Very. Her father passed away when Lydia was just a year old.
In December of 1841, Lydia began teaching at Mason Street Public School…
Temperance worker Sarah C. Acheson was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, on February 20, 1844.Sarah, sometimes known as Sadie, married Dr. Alexander Wilson Acheson and became the mother to several children. The family moved to Denison, Texas, in the…
Katharine Johnson Jackson, daughter of former Massachusetts senator and representative Hon. Emerson Johnson, was born in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, on April 7, 1841. Following periods of public school and home school instruction, she entered a…
Author Susanna Valentine Aldrich was born in Hopkinton, MA on November 14, 1828. She later lived in Roxbury, MA.
Having loved writing from an early age, Susanna became a contributor to periodicals and magazines. She also was a very talented hymn…
Rosa Miller Avery was born in Madison, Ohio, on May 21, 1830. She married Cyrus Avery in 1853 and became the mother of Cyrus Miller Avery. Her family lived in Ashtabula, Ohio, Erie, Pennsylvania, and then Chicago, Illinois.A passionate reformer, Rosa…
Author, lecturer, and reformer Lepha Eliza Bailey was born in Battle Creek, Michigan on January 21, 1841. She began her writing career by contributing to newspapers. Lepha married Lewis Bailey in 1873 and started a family. They lived in Battle Creek…
Mary D. Lowman, who served as mayor of Oskaloosa, Kansas, was born in Shelocta, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, on January 27, 1842. She married George W. Lowman in 1866 and moved to Kansas. Mary became the mother of two children.She taught for many…
Julia E. Houston West was born in Ashburnham, MA on June 22, 1832. She began singing for Edward Everett Hale's South Congregational Church in Boston in 1856. After briefly singing for the Old South Church, she returned to Hale's church.As the…
Mary Emily Bennett Coues was born in New York, New York on August 26, 1835.After traveling to and living abroad, Mary Emily married Philadelphia merchant Joseph W. Bates. In addition to their Philadelphia mansion at 1814 Chestnut Street, the couple…
Inventor Helen Augusta Blanchard was born in Portland, Maine on October 25, 1840. She was the daughter of a wealthy shipowner and businessman. When her father's business failed and he eventually died in 1866, Helen took to patent development and…
Alice "Allie" C. Rosseter Willard was born on April 13, 1860, near Nauvoo, Illinois. During her childhood, Allie's family moved to Grand City, Nebraska, then to Loup City, Nebraska. An avid learner, she dedicated herself to her studies. Interested in…
Ella A. Giles was born near Madison, Wisconsin, on February 2, 1851. Growing up in the home of a father who was a philanthropist and a mother who fostered Ella’s love of art and literature, she pursued interests in those areas throughout her life. As…
Born in Stockbridge, MA, Catharine Maria Sedgwick was the sixth of the seven surviving children of Theodore Sedgwick and Pamela Dwight Sedgwick. Catharine’s mother was ill for most of her childhood and died when Catharine was seventeen. A year later,…
Caroline Wells Dall was born in Boston, Massachusetts on June 22, 1822. Her parents, Mark Healey and Caroline Foster, provided her with an exclusive education, consisting of private tutoring and private schooling, until she was 15 years old. From…
Author Abba Louise Goold Woolson was born on her family compound in Windham, Maine, on April 30, 1838. She was the daughter of author and Maine historian William Goold. Her family had long-established roots in Maine and resided in Windham for several…
Boston club consisting of Transcendentalists, philosophers, and authors. The Boston Radical Club was founded in Spring, 1867 and disbanded in 1880. Its members included Ednah Dow Cheney, Mary Grew, Julia Ward Howe, Nora Perry, Mary Elizabeth Fiske…
Lollie Belle Wylie was born in Bayou Coden, near Mobile, AL, on October 21, 1858. After growng up in Georgia, she married Hart Wylie at age seventeen.She published a book of poems while her husband was ill, and began writing for The Atlanta Journal…
Dorothea, whose birth name was Mary Dorothea Rhodes, was born on November 9, 1857, in Chillicothe, Ohio. After moving to Portsmouth, Ohio, and attending Portsmouth Female College at the age of sixteen, Dorothea, sometimes called Dolly, pursued her…
Nora Perry was a New England poet, newspaper correspondent, and author. Her poems “Tying her Bonnet under her Chin” and “After the Ball” shot her to literary fame and were reprinted in newspapers across the country. Her early success led her to write…
Clara Doty Bates was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on December 22, 1838. A writer from an early age, Clara attended private schools. She married Morgan Bates, a newspaperman, in 1876 and the couple moved to Chicago, Illinois.A well-known writer of…
Emma Lazarus was born in New York, New York on July 22, 1849 and died there on November 19, 1887.Emma was inspired and mentored by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1868, she mailed her book to Ralph Waldo Emerson which resulted in a mentor-mentee…
Elizabeth Blackwell, who was born in Bristol, England, on February 3, 1821, became one of the first women physicians in the United States. She persisted in applying to various medical schools as her applications were rejected because she was a woman.…
The New England Conservatory of Music was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee and was located at the Music Hall in Boston. In the 1880 course catalog, he noted: "Twenty-five years have now elapsed since the Director inaugurated the Conservatory system…