Women In History - Historical Figures
V These figures are available via virtual presentation only (e.g., Zoom or Webex).
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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
Judge Florence Allen (1884-1966)
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First woman to serve as a state Supreme Court Justice (Ohio)
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Marion Anderson (1897-1993)
African American Contralto
Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906)
Napoleon of the women's suffrage movement, mother of the 19th Amendment, abolitionist
Sara Lucy Bagby (1833-1906)
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One of the last fugitives to be surrendered by the North and returned to the South under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act before the Civil War.
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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
Sarah Bernhardt (1844 - 1923)
French Stage Actress at the turn of the last century
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)
African-American educator, founder of Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Florida, Presidential advisor, recipient of Spingarn Medal
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)
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V African American founder of The Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People
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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)
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Most infamous Cleveland financial con-artist
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Julia Child (1912-2004)
American chef, author, and television personality
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
English Mystery Writer
Bessie Coleman (1893-1926)
V American civil aviator, African American
Dorothy Dandridge (1923-1965)
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Actress, singer and dancer. Star of Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess
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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)
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African-American entrepreneur, stagecoach driver, pioneer – “Stagecoach Mary”
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Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996)
African American Jazz singer – the First Lady of Song
Betty Ford (1918-2011)
Wife of President Gerald Ford, first lady of the United States from 1974-1977
Dorothy Fuldheim (1893-1989)
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Jewish-American news journalist and television broadcaster; developed format for television news programming
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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)
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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.
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Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)
African-American sharecropper turned civil rights worker and founder of the MS Freedom Democratic Party
Margaret Hamilton (1902-1985)
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Best known for her iconic portrayal of The Wicked Witch of the West
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Florence Harding (1860-1924)
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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
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Sally Hemings (1773-1835)
Thomas Jefferson’s concubine. For more than 200 years, her name has been linked to Thomas Jefferson's, obscuring the facts of her life and her identity. She was a daughter, mother, sister, aunt, inherited as property, seamstress, world traveler, enslaved woman, and liberator. But was she his mistress or his slave?
Billie Holiday (1915-1959)
African American Jazz singer/songwriter – “Lady Day”
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, USNR (1906-1992)
Amazing Grace! Computer pioneer and Navy veteran
“We’ve tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question."
“We’ve tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question."
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)
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African-American social worker, attorney, founder of Phyllis Wheatley Association of Cleveland
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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)
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V African-American eldress of the Shaker sect in Cleveland
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Katherine Johnson (1918-2020)
American Mathematician, NASA Pioneer and Educator
“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 Enslaved woman who bought her freedom and became an entrepreneur; personal modiste, dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln
Jacqueline Kennedy (Onassis) (1929-1994)
Wife of President John F. Kennedy
Gypsy Rose Lee (1911 – 1970)
Stripper, Vaudevillian, Movie Star, Author, Playwright, TV Talk Show Host
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
Katie Luther (1449-1552)
The First Lady of the Reformation, beloved wife of Martin Luther
Loretta Lynn (1932-2022)
The Coal Miner’s Daughter - Country Western Singer and Song Writer
Ida Saxton McKinley (1847-1907)
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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
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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
Salem Witch Trials: Rebecca Nurse (1621 - 1692)
Woman accused and convicted of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692
Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-2023)
The first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986)
Famed American artist who defied convention in both her art and her private life
Louella Parsons (1881-1972)
In the golden age of Hollywood, Louella was a pioneer in the gossip industry
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.
Rosie the Riveter
Media icon associated with female defense workers during World War II.
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
Sacagawea (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
Harriet Beecher Stowe ( 1811-1896)
Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Annie Sullivan (1866-1936)
Helen Keller's teacher
Helen Herron Taft (1861-1943)
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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
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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)
Underground Railroad conductor, Army scout, African-American suffragette
Tasha Tudor (1915 - 2008)
Children's Book Illustrator, avid gardener
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"
Madame C.J. Walker (1867-1919)
V African-American entrepreneur, millionaire and philanthropist
Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919)
Prisoner of war during the Civil War, writer, doctor, fashion trend-setter and the only female to receive the Medal of Honor
Mae West (1892-1980)
First woman to earn a million dollars in the movie business
Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)
Famed children’s author and “storyteller of the prairie”
Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927)
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First woman to run for President, center of a scandal that rocked the nation
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