May 23rd

Born this day in 1810, Margaret Fuller (full name Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli)American journalist, critic and Women's Rights Advocate. Fuller was educated by her father,she was reading by the age of three and a half; she received the same education as any of Timothy Fuller's sons. This education was not lost on his daughter, she used her education to better the world.
Fuller taught at Alcott's school(Louisa May Alcott's father's school) And when the school closed, Fuller continued a dialogue with women by holding weekly "Conversations." Each conversation, Fuller would ask a question and the answers were discussed. Fuller's art of the conversation was provocative and thought provoking and very popular.
Fuller's next job was the first editor of the transcendentalist journal, "The Dial" in 1840. In 1844, Fuller joined the New York Tribune. It was said that Margaret
Fuller had the reputation as, "the best read person (male or female) in New England."
She was the first woman allowed to use the Harvard College Library.
In 1845, Fuller wrote the book,"Women in the Nineteenth Century" it is considered the first major feminist work in the United States.
Fuller was then sent to Europe as a correspondent for the New York Tribute, the first women to hold this job. In Italy, she met the love of her life,Giovanni Ossoli.
She gave birth to their son. Sadly, on the Ossoli's journey back to the United States, the ship wreaked on a sandbar off Fire Island. The Ossoli family did not survive.








1955 Presbyterian Church begins accepting women ministers

May 22nd

Born this day in 1844, Mary Cassatt,artist. Cassatt is one of the more famous and successful female painters of the 19th and early 20th century. Cassatt's most famous paintings capture the mother and child relationship.
Cassatt was born in the Pennsylvania and to a family of money. They believed in world travel and education. But, as open as her father was, he did not approve of his daughter's art career. And at this time in history, women were limited as to how far their art studies could go- for example women were not allowed to draw the from the live nude model. And this is even today an important part of studying drawing and painting and sculpture.
Cassatt moved to Paris, France to study her art. And her Mother and sister came along to chaperon. Throughout Cassatt's life she traveled back and forth between the United States and Paris France, but most of her life was in France. She studied with several artists of the day and she worked her way into the Art salons of the time and it is at this time she befriended Edgar Degas. Cassatt exhibited along with the Impressionists. And she died in France in 1926.

May 21st

On this day in 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.

On this day in 1918, the House of Representatives past an amendment ALLOWING women to vote.

On this day in 1932, Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly the transatlantic solo flight.

On this day in 1945,the classic film couple Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart got married.

On this day in 1997, Susan Lucci, for the 17th time, lost the 24th Emmy Daytime Award.

Born this day in 1867,Frances Theresa Dansmore,ethnomusicologist whose life work was to preserve Native American Music by making recordings, and collecting musical instruments and other objects. Dansmore began her studies in music as a child and moved to Boston to study piano at Harvard College. It is here that Dansmore, learns about another pioneer in ethnomusicologist, Alice Cummingham FLetcher and her work with Omaha Indians in 1880.

In 1893 Densmore began a ten-year preparatory period of study during which Fletcher was a teacher, mentor, and friend. Densmore began to give public lectures on musicological subjects, during this time. The year 1901 brought Densmore's first publication, her first visit to the Chippewa of Ontario, and her first transcription of a Sioux song.

In 1907, after submitting a recording of Indian songs to William H. Holmes, then chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) of the Smithsonian Institution, Densmore began a fifty year relationship with the BAE. During this time, Densmore recorded American Indian music for preservation, and collected musical instruments, herbs, and other materials used in conjunction with songs; recorded a wealth of ethnographic data, and took numerous photographs.

"My work has been to preserve the past, record observations in the present, and open the way for the work of others in the future"-Densmore 1942.

May 20th

Born this day in 1825,Antoinette Brown Blackwell , minister. Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to be an ordained minister. Brown began her journey to the pulpit at an early age. Welcomed into her family's church Congregational Church at the age of nine and began her public speaking as young person.
Educated at Monroe County Academy which after, she taught school. But, this was what Brown wanted to do with her life. She wanted a degree in theology from Oberlin College and a career in the pulpit.
Brown earned the tuition and with the help from her parents who believed in higher learning for all, not just white men. Enrolling in 1848, after finishing all the courses women were allowed to study. And after much discussion, the school finally allow Brown to study but she was allowed to practice because the school board believed women were not suitable to being ministers. But, Brown was a prolific writer and powerful public speaker. After graduation, Oberlin still denied her a minister licence.
But, as they say, you can't hold a great woman down. Brown wrote for Frederick Douglass' abolitionist paper, The North Star.

Brown was also a woman who believed in Women's Rights and understood the Bible as not a text to subjugate women. This was a little unusual for one in the ministry.
She spoke at the first National Women's Rights Convention in 1850. A speech that was well received and lead to many speaking tours about abolition, temperance and Women's rights. Brown went ot speak at many future Women's Rights Conventions.
It must be noted, Antoinette Brown Blackwell was the only woman who attend the first National Women's Convention and was still alive when the 19th amendment.

The Sexes Throughout Nature in 1875in which she argued that evolution resulted in two sexes that were different but equal. She answered Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer who she considered to be the most influential men of her day aware she would be considered presumptuous for criticizing evolutionary theory but wrote that "will never be lessened by waiting". Darwin had written a letter to her in 1869, thanking her for a copy of her book, Studies in General Science. She also wrote a novel, The Island Neighbors, in 1871, and a collection of poetry, Sea Drift, in 1902.

On this day in 1867, the British Parliament rejected John Stuart Mills law on Women Suffrage.

May 19th

Born this day in 1930, Lorraine Hansberry, playwright. Hansberry is best known for her outstanding play, A Raisin In the Sun This play was the story of her family's struggle and legal battle against segregated housing laws in Washington Park subdivision Southside Chicago. Hansberry also wrote political speeches, letters and essays. College in the mid-west was not for Hansberry, so a move to New York City. It was 1950 and Hansberry was studying at The New School, there she worked on the school's newspaper Freedom, under the name Paul Robeson. It is at the time Hansberry wrote A Raisin In the Sun. It was first play written by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway At the age of 29 she was also became the youngest American playwright AND only the 5th woman to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Other plays produced on Broadway in her lifetime were The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window which closed after 110 performances which was also the day Lorraine Hansberry died,at the young age of 34.
Hansberry's ex-husband Robert Nemiroff was the executor of her unfinished manuscripts.
Nemiroff adapted several of her writings into the play, To Be Young, Gifted and Black the longest running Off Broadway play of the 1968-69 season. He also made some minor changes the play Les Blancs which Julius Lester felt was her best work. Lorraine Hansberry's work has remained important to the Arts, to Life and wow, we only had her for a very few moments on this Earth, but those moments have turned into generations of influence in our culture.






1568 English queen Elizabeth I arrests Scottish queen Mary