Figures

Women In History - Historical Figures

These figures bring Ohio History to life.

V These figures are available via virtual presentation only (e.g., Zoom or Webex).

Bella Abzug (1920-1998)

United States Congresswoman and rights activist.

Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818)

Wife of John Adams, 2nd President of the United States and mother of John Quincy Adams, 6th President. Known for her letters and opinions on society.

Jane Addams (1860-1935)

Social Activist, founder of Hull House, charter member of the NAACP, Nobel Peace Prize winner and labor union organizer.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

Seamstress, servant, teacher, Civil War nurse, and finally, author and novelist

Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906)

Napoleon of the women's suffrage movement, mother of the 19th Amendment, abolitionist

Sara Lucy Bagby (1833-1906)

One of the last fugitives to be surrendered by the North and returned to the South under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act. After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Lucy walked to freedom

Josephine Baker (1906-1975)

V African-American international star, civil rights activist, World War II heroine

Ida B. Wells Barnett (1862-1931)

African-American educator, newspaperwoman, anti-lynching campaigner, founder NAACP

Clara Barton (1821-1912)

Civil War nurse, founder of the American Red Cross

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)

African-American educator, founder of Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Florida, Presidential advisor, recipient of Spingarn Medal

Mary Elizabeth Bowser ( 1839-?)

V African-American Union spy in the Confederate White House

Margaret "Molly" Tobin Brown (1867-1932)

Titanic survivor and a woman who was determined to break the rules of "high society"

Eliza Bryant (1827-1907)

V African American founder of The Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People

Margret Manor Butler (1898-1971)

Lakewood author and historian

Martha Jane "Calamity Jane" Cannary (1852-1903)

A lone woman in the wilds of the Rocky Mountain west

Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

Marine biologist, science writer, and environmentalist

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893)

African-American born pioneer journalist and lecturer

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947)

Suffragette, founder of the League of Women Voters

Cassie L. Chadwick (1857-1907)

Most infamous Cleveland financial con-artist

Bessie Coleman (1893-1926)

V American civil aviator, African American

Dorothy Dandridge (1923-1965)

Actress, singer and dancer. Star of Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess

Phyllis Diller (1917 – 2012)

American comedian

Amelia Earhart (1897-1937)

Aviatrix, first woman to be a passenger on a transatlantic flight and co-navigated the first round-the-world flight.

Sarah Emma Edmonds (1841-1898)

Served as a man with the Union Army

Ruth Etting (1897-1978)

Singing star and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film.

Mary Fields (1832?-1914)

African-American entrepreneur, stagecoach driver, pioneer

Betty Ford (1918-2011)

Wife of President Gerald Ford, first lady of the United States from 1974-1977

Dorothy Fuldheim (1893-1989)

Jewish-American news journalist and television broadcaster; developed format for television news programming

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933 – 2020)

Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

Vilified in her day as the "most dangerous woman in America," this Russian emigrant earned her title, “Queen of the Anarchists” as labor leader, lecturer, writer, women’s rights activist and free love advocate

Julia Boggs Dent Grant (1826-1902)

Wife of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States, was a determined woman who despite family objections married the man she loved. Outspoken, she also created her own plans for ending the Civil War and holding a secret Presidential Inauguration.

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)

African-American sharecropper turned civil rights worker and founder of the MS Freedom Democratic Party

Florence Harding (1860-1924)

Wife of Warren Harding, 29th President of the United States, the first presidential wife able to vote for her husband. Scandal plagued this First Lady throughout her life

Sally Hemings (1773-1835)

V Sally Hemings (1773-1835) is one of the most famous African American women in U.S. history.

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, USNR (1906-1992)

Computer pioneer and the oldest officer in active duty when she retired in 1986

Hedda Hopper (1890-1966)

In the golden age of Hollywood, Hedda could make or break careers. Gossip was her business and J. Edgar Hoover was her pen pal

Jane Edna Hunter (1882 – 1971)

African-American social worker, attorney, founder of Phyllis Wheatley Association of Cleveland

Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643)

A Puritan woman who defied the male-dominated Massachusetts Bay Colony and after banishment helped settle Rhode Island and New York

Mahalia Jackson (1912-1972)

Extraordinary gospel singer and the first African-American woman to gain national acclaim for gospel music

Rebecca Cox Jackson (1795-1871)

V African-American eldress of the Shaker sect in Cleveland

“Mother” Mary Harris Jones (1837-1930)

Irish immigrant who lost her family to yellow fever and became the self-proclaimed mother and “hell-raiser” for the downtrodden American laborer, especially children

Elizabeth Keckley (1820-?)

V Personal maid, best friend and confidant to Mary Todd Lincoln. Wrote tell-all book after leaving Mrs. Lincoln's employ

Jacqueline Kennedy (Onassis) (1929-1994)

Wife of President John F. Kennedy

Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882)

Wife of President Abraham Lincoln, misrepresented by popular history and maligned by her peers

Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927)

Founder of the American Girl Scouts

Ida Saxton McKinley (1847-1907)

Wife of William McKinley, 25th President of the United States, developed a unique way of coping with her epileptic seizures during her public appearances as First Lady

Lucretia Mott (1793-1880)

Founding Mother of the Women’s Movement. Suffragist, Abolitionist, Quaker

Louise Nevelson (1899-1988)

Russian born New York sculptor famous for her shadow box, wall sculptures and her flamboyant personality

Florence Nightingale (1810 – 1920)

Founder of Modern Nursing

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986)

Famed American artist who defied convention in both her art and her private life

Louella Parsons (1893-1965)

Hollywood gossip columnist, who dominated Hollywood's Golden Era. Louella's relationship with William Randoph Hearst and her own three marriages made her life as stormy as any Hollywood movie

Alice Paul (1885-1977)

The woman who rescued the woman suffrage movement (1910) and made sure women got the vote

Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

V Civil rights activist, know for refusing to give up her bus seat

Molly Pitcher (Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley) (1754-1832)

Born Mary Ludwig, this revolutionary heroine followed the Continental Army for more than 3 years, doing what was needed to free the colonies from the tyranny of England

Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973)

First woman to hold federal office in the United States.

Sally Ride (1951 - 2012)

First American woman to fly in space.

Eleanor Anna Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, first activist First Lady

Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994)

V African American sprinter, track star Olympiad

Sacajawea (1788 – 1812 or 1884)

Shoshone Native American woman who traveled the Louisiana Purchase with Lewis and Clark

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)

First president of the National Woman's Suffrage Association

Annie Sullivan (1866-1936)

Helen Keller's teacher

Helen Herron Taft (1861-1943)

Wife of William H. Taft, 27th President of the United States, always longed to live in the White House. Known for planting Washington D.C.’s legendary cherry trees

Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954)

V African-American lecturer, suffragette, civil rights leader

Sojourner Truth (Isabella Baumfree) (1797-1883)

African-American abolitionist, Civil War nurse, suffragette

Harriet Tubman (1820?-1913)

V Underground Railroad conductor, Army scout, African-American suffragette

Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900)

Crazy Bet, an abolitionist in the South during the Civil War, who feigned insanity to help free slaves and help the Union Army

Dorothy Vaughan (1910-2008)

V African American mathematician and human computer featured in the movie "Hidden Figures"

Women In History - Historical Figures

﻿Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818)﻿​

​Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

Margret Manor Butler (1898-1971)

Phyllis Diller (1917 – 2012)

​Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

​Julia Boggs Dent Grant (1826-1902)

​Hedda Hopper (1890-1966)

​Elizabeth Keckley (1820-?)

​Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)