Today in 1767, education pioneer Sarah Pierce was born in Litchfield. Her father died when Sarah was a teenager, and as a result, the family was financially pressed. In response, Sarah’s brother sent her to New York to learn to be a teacher. Having acquired that ability, he thought, she would be able to…
Tag: womens history
June 6: In the Skies of France, A D-Day Message From Mom
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 to Exercise Their Rights as Citizens
On May 21, 1919, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a constitutional amendment 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…
March 10: Actor, Socialite, Editor, Playwright, Filmmaker, War Correspondent, Ambassador, & Connecticut’s 1st Congresswoman
Connecticut’s first congresswoman, Clare Boothe Luce, was one of the most professionally accomplished women of her time. Ann Clare Boothe was born on March 10, 1903. Her parents encouraged her early love of music and the performing arts. After acting in a few minor theater roles as a young adult, she married New York…
February 20: Patriotic Connecticut Women Organize For “God, Home, and Country”
Following the centennial of American Independence in 1876, numerous civic organizations and heritage societies sprang up across the United States in response to increased national interest in early American history. In many cases, however, civically inclined women met with frustration when they were barred from joining prominent clubs founded by men. In 1890, after…
February 7: Amelia Earhart Lands at the Altar, but Not without a Pre-Nup.
It may or may not not have been a marriage made in heaven, but aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart’s wedding to publishing magnate George P. Putnam was not entered into through flighty considerations. Putnam succeeded in landing the famed aviator as a bride only after his sixth proposal, and when they did tie the knot…
January 19: Connecticut’s First African-American Woman Pharmacist
Born in Hartford on January 19, 1886, young Anna Louise James was the eighth of 11 children born to Willis James, a former slave who had successfully escaped from a Virginia plantation via the Underground Railroad. As a child, Anna’s family moved from Hartford to Old Saybrook, where she graduated high school and, as…
January 4: A Girl with Soaring Ambitions.
In the heady days of early American aviation, when tales of plucky pilots and ingenious innovators were a dime a dozen, few pilots stood out from the crowd as much as Mary Goodrich Jenson, the first woman to earn a pilot’s license in the state of Connecticut. Born in Hartford in 1907, young Mary…
November 27: Connecticut Passes Its Own Equal Rights Amendment
In 1972, Connecticut was one of over 30 states that voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) as passed by Congress, which expressly prohibited discrimination based on a person’s sex. The federal E.R.A would have become the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution upon ratification by 3/4 of the states in the Union,…
October 28: The Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association Formed
On this day in 1869, at a meeting in Hartford attended by civil rights luminaries including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and William Lloyd Garrison, Isabella Beecher Hooker and her husband John formally established the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association. Isabella was born into the famous Beecher clan of Litchfield in 1822. She and…
September 27: A Designing Woman’s Architectural Masterpiece
As one of the first licensed woman architects in the United States and the first to be licensed in both Connecticut and New York State, Theodate Pope Riddle was one of Connecticut’s great designers and innovators of the early 20th century. Born into a wealthy family in 1867, young Effie Pope attended school at…
September 14: Connecticut Ratifies the 19th Amendment, One State Too Late. Or Was It?
Today in 1920, nearly 52 years after they first convened, members of the Connecticut Women’s Suffrage Association watched as the Connecticut General Assembly finally ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving all American women the right to vote. For decades, Connecticut suffragists had picketed, petitioned, and frequently found themselves arrested as they…