Award-winning author Joan Koster writes historical fiction about forgotten women and books about the craft of writing.
Laura Matilda Towne was a trained homeopathic physician. However, she was also an abolitionist. When calls went out for volunteers to help the freed slaves in the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Towne volunteered to go.Read More →
Born a slave and freed by the 13th Amendment, Dr. Eliza Ann Grier, at first, set out to become a teacher. Then she set her sights higher.Read More →
Did you send a valentine to someone this year? Perhaps it was an ecard or maybe a commercially printed product. Or did you make your own? Meet Esther Allen Howard (1828-1904).Read More →
Many romance writers of the past have quietly slipped into oblivion despite popularity during their lifetimes. One such author is Caroline Howard Jervey.Read More →
Widow, Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1877) wrote and worked to support her family. As editor of first the American Lady’s Book and then Godey’s Lady Book she was arbitrator of American fashion and letters for over forty years.Read More →
Harriet Kesia Hunt might not have had a medical degree, but she is considered America’s first female doctor as well as a vehement women’s rights defender.Read More →
Ella Maria Dietz was a successful Shakespearean actress and acclaimed poet who fought against the restrictions placed on women in the 1800s.Read More →
The first woman to make a living solely from her writing is Aphra Behn (1640-1689) who lived in the time of the English Restoration under Charles the 2nd.Read More →
Edmonia Lewis was a self-made, internationally renowned woman sculptor at a time when few women were able to get their artwork seen and recognized.Read More →
Mary Ashton Livermore was an author and poet, a noted journalist, abolitionist, public lecturer, and women’s right’s advocate. Read More →
In 1902, Mary Harris Jones was being called “the most dangerous woman in America” because of her effectiveness. at labor organizing. Read More →
Beatrice Potter Webb is best known for the work she did as a social reformer and economist with her husband, Sidney Webb.Read More →