Category: Civil War Women

Civil War Women
Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Women Artists

Harriet Hosmer

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One of the First Women Artists in the United States Harriet Hosmer was an American sculptor who emigrated to Rome at age 22 and became part of an expatriate community of American writers and artists, including a circle of prominent independent women. Hosmer was celebrated as one of our country’s most respected artists, and is credited with opening the field of sculpture to women. She worked primarily in marble, and the quality of her surviving work is extraordinary. Hosmer brought honor to both her country and her gender, proving that Americans can be sculptors and that a woman can handle a chisel as well as a palette and a brush. Her work was celebrated and drew thousands to galleries across…

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Authors, Civil War Women

Constance Fenimore Woolson

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Pioneer Novelist and Short Story Writer Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894) was a novelist and short story writer, and grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, her mother’s uncle. The settings of her writing included what was then the frontier of the Great Lakes region, Florida and the Reconstruction South. Before she was forty Woolson lost almost everyone in her large family; she then moved to Europe where she lived and wrote for the rest of her life. Using her powers of keen observation, Woolson recorded both her natural surroundings and the customs of the people she encountered. She wrote travel sketches, poems and a children’s novel under the pseudonym Anne March, as well as a novella, four novels and more than fifty…

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Authors, Civil War Women, Famous Firsts

Lucy Larcom

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One of the First Lowell Mill Girls Lucy Larcom (1824–1893) was an American poet and one of the Lowell Mill girls. Although Larcom was a well-published poet in her lifetime, she is best known today for writing A New England Girlhood (1889). This autobiography is a classic book about the age of industrialization and her role in it as a textile mill worker in Lowell, Massachusetts – beginning at age eleven. Lucy Larcom was born on March 5, 1824 in the coastal village of Beverly, Massachusetts, the ninth of ten children born to Benjamin and Lois Barrett Larcom. Lucy’s life was greatly affected when her father, a retired sea captain, died when she was eight. The fate of widows with…

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Civil War Women, Educators, Famous Firsts

Elizabeth Peabody

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Founder of the First Public Kindergarten Elizabeth Peabody (1804–1894), the oldest of the three Peabody sisters of Salem, was one of the most important women of her time. She was an educator and education reformer who opened the first kindergarten in the United States. Long before most teachers, Peabody embraced the premise that children’s play has intrinsic developmental and educational value. Her sisters were painter Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, wife of author Nathaniel Hawthorne and writer Mary Peabody Mann, wife of educator Horace Mann. Elizabeth Peabody spent her early years in Salem, Massachusetts, and was drawn to the world of education and ideas early in life. Peabody was born in Billerica, Massachusetts on May 16, 1804, the daughter of Nathaniel and…

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Civil War Women, Women in Business

Lydia Pinkham

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Businesswoman and Feminist in the Civil War Era Lydia Pinkham concocted a patent medicine tonic – Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound – to treat menstrual and menopausal symptoms. She began selling her home-brewed herbal remedy to make ends meet after her wealthy husband went bankrupt, and developed a patent medicine empire. In an age when women were second-class citizens, Lydia Pinkham not only succeeded in a man’s world, she was one of the most successful American businesswomen of the 19th century. In the field of marketing, she is considered a pioneer and an innovater. Lydia Estes was born February 9, 1819 in Lynn, Massachusetts, the tenth of the twelve children of William and Rebecca Estes, radical Quakers. William Estes was a…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, First Ladies, Philanthropists

Harriet Lane

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First Lady for Her Bachelor Uncle, James Buchanan Harriet Lane (1830-1903) was the niece of lifelong bachelor and 15th United States President James Buchanan. At age 26 she moved into the White House and acted as First Lady of the United States from 1857 to 1861, one of the few women to hold that position while not being married to the president. Known as the Democratic Queen, Lane was admired for her beauty and vivaciousness, and she used her position to advocate for better living conditions for Native Americans. Harriet Lane was born May 9, 1830 in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the youngest child of merchant Elliott Tole Lane and Jane Ann Buchanan Lane. Harriet’s mother died when she was nine…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Feminists

Frances Willard

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First Woman College President in the United States Frances Willard was an author, educator, public speaker, social reformer and suffragist. A pioneer in the temperance movement, Frances Willard is also remembered for her contributions to higher education. From the time she assumed presidency of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1879 until her death, Willard used her powerful position to pursue her broad vision for sweeping social reforms to benefit women, including women’s suffrage, women’s economic rights, as well as prison, education and labor reform. Willard captivated the imaginations and mobilized the sentiments of countless women. Her vision progressed to include federal aid to education, free school lunches, unions for workers, the eight-hour work day, work relief for the poor,…

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Civil War Women, Women Artists

Lilly Martin Spencer

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Portrait and Genre Artist of the Mid-19th Century Probably the most famous woman painter of her time, Lilly Martin Spencer was known for her sentimental scenes of family life. While living in New York City with her husband and children, she attended night classes at the National Academy of Design and supported her family through the sale of her art. Today she is acknowledged as one of America’s premier genre painters. Image: Self-portrait of the artist Angelique Marie Martin, nicknamed Lilly, was born on November 26, 1822 in Exeter, England, the only daughter of Gilles Marie Martin and Angelique Perrine LePetit Martin. Her parents had grown up in late eighteenth century France when women were first admitted to the French…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Women Lawyers

Arabella Mansfield

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First Woman Lawyer in the United States Arabella Mansfield (1846-1911) became America’s first woman lawyer when she was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1869. She was allowed to take the bar exam and passed with high scores, despite a state law restricting applicants to white males over the age of 21. Mansfield also became one of the first female college professors and administrators in the United States. She was born Belle Aurelia Babb on May 23, 1846 on a family farm in Burlington, Iowa, the second child of Mary Moyer and Miles Babb. Her older brother Washington Irving Babb was Arabella’s lifelong friend. While she was still young, her father Miles Babb left for California and the Gold Rush….

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Authors, Civil War Women

Ann Stephens

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Writer and Magazine Editor in the Civil War Era During the mid-nineteenth century, Ann Stephens (1810-1886) enjoyed a long, lucrative career as one of America’s best known and most respected women writers. In addition to serving as editor for six popular magazines for more than twenty-six years, she wrote some forty-five works of fiction and manuals on the domestic arts. Stephens was one of the first generation of women to assert themselves as professional writers, entering the literary field for the sake of earning a living. Childhood and Early Years Ann Sophia Winterbotham was born on March 30, 1810 in Humphreysville, Connecticut, the daughter of Ann and John Winterbotham, manager of a woolen mill. Ann’s mother died when Ann was…

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