In 1831, Prudence Crandall opened the Canterbury Female Boarding School in Canterbury, Connecticut, in order to provide an education to wealthy daughters of Eastern Connecticut families. After a successful inaugural year, Crandall received a request from twenty-year-old Sarah Harris, the daughter of a prosperous free African-American farmer and his wife, to attend the boarding…
Tag: connecticut women
June 26: Education Pioneer Sarah Pierce Born in Litchfield
On this day in 1767, education pioneer Sarah Pierce was born in Litchfield. As a teenager, her older brother sent her to New York after the death of her father, to learn to become a teacher so she could financially support herself and her siblings. Upon her return to Litchfield in 1792, Pierce opened…
June 15: Honoring Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Mohegan Culture Keeper
June 15, 1999 was officially declared “Gladys Tantaquidegon Day” by Connecticut Governor John Rowland in honor of the 100th birthday of a remarkable medicine woman who became one of the most influential cultural and spiritual leaders of the Mohegan Nation. Born on the Mohegan reservation in southeastern Connecticut in 1899, Gladys Iola Tantaquidegon was…
June 6: Seconds Before Jumping, A D-Day Message From Home
In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, Private Robert C. Hillman became one of over 13,000 American paratroopers to leap out of a plane over Normandy as part of the “D-Day” invasion of occupied France — one of the largest offensives of World War II. A member of the legendary 101st Airborne…
May 28: Preparing Connecticut Women for Full Citizenship
On May 21, 1919, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of legislation that would give American women the right to vote — legislation that would eventually become the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Even though the legislation still had to be approved by the U.S. Senate and ratified by 3/4…
May 20: Catharine Beecher Opens Hartford Female Seminary
Today in 1823, the first classes were held at the Hartford Female Seminary, a revolutionary new school for girls founded by author and education pioneer Catharine Beecher. One of the few extant images of the Hartford Female Seminary’s building on Pratt Street. Born into the wealthy and influential Beecher family in 1800, Catharine Beecher…
May 15: “Queen of Mean” Leona Helmsley Checks Into Danbury Prison
Leona Helmsley was one of the most infamous celebrity billionaires of late 20th century New York, a hotel and real estate magnate who gained national notoriety for her reportedly tyrannical treatment of her staff. The wife of hotelier Harry Helmsley, Leona became the face of a marketing campaign that cast her as a “queen”…
May 12: Katharine Hepburn born in Hartford
Today in 1907, film star Katherine Hepburn was born in Hartford. Widely considered to be one of the greatest film and theater actresses in American history, Hepburn holds the record for the most Academy Awards ever won by an actor or actress (four) and starred in over 80 feature films, TV shows, and stage…
May 5: Mary Kies Becomes First Woman to Receive a U.S. Patent
On this day in 1809, Mary Kies of Killingly, Connecticut became the first woman in American history to obtain a patent. Kies’ invention was described as “a new and useful improvement in weaving straw with silk or thread.” Little is known about Kies or the specifics of her patent, which was destroyed in 1836…
March 11: Beatrice Fox Auerbach, Innovative Businesswoman and Philanthropist
When Beatrice Fox Auerbach became president of Hartford’s G. Fox & Company in 1938, in an era where there were scarcely any female retail executives to be found in the United States, neither she nor any of the popular department store’s board members expected her to remain in the position for very long. But…
March 10: Clare Boothe Luce, Connecticut’s Extraordinary First Congresswoman
Connecticut’s first congresswoman, Clare Boothe Luce, was one of the most professionally-accomplished women of her time. Born Ann Clare Boothe on March 10, 1903, her parents instilled in her a love of music and the performing arts. After acting in a few minor theater roles as a young adult, she married New York City…
February 13: Dorothy Hamill Goes for the Gold
On this day in 1976, 19-year-old ice skater Dorothy Hamill captivated audiences worldwide with her masterful, gold-medal-winning performance at the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. Unbeknownst to her at the time, her routine would catapult her to international stardom and set her on a path to becoming one of the most beloved U.S….