unsung women

How the Daughter of a Slave Became the First African-American Woman to Earn a Bachelor’s Degree

By Erin Blakemore

The Woman Who Helped Stop an Early Attempt on Abraham Lincoln's Life

By Erin Blakemore

This Little-Known Abolitionist Dared to Speak in Public Against Slavery

By Erin Blakemore

How the First American Woman to Be a Political Journalist Got Her Start

By Erin Blakemore
More in unsung women

The Teenage Girl Who Circled the Globe in a Model T

Her name was Aloha Wanderwell, and she became famous as the most well-traveled girl in the world

By Erin Blakemore

The Surprising Story of America’s Most Famous Female Stagecoach Robber

Pearl Hart, who participated in a turn-of-the-century stagecoach robbery, turned her life of crime into national fame

By Erin Blakemore

This Piano Prodigy Was the First African-American Woman to Host Her Own TV Show

She was also a "tabloid fixture"

By Joanna Scutts

The Songwriter Who Broke Barriers in the 1950s

At the time, women songwriters were almost unheard of

By Erin Blakemore

The Doctor Who Saved Countless Newborn Babies

Because she was a woman, she was discouraged from becoming a surgeon

By Erin Blakemore

The Woman Who Helped Save New York City's Historic Buildings

Before she came along, a favorite building was doomed to demolition

By Joanna Scutts

The Woman Who Worked to Save 19th-Century Victims of Sex Trafficking

She was born into slavery

By Joanna Scutts

The Society Girl Who Became a Martyr for Women's Suffrage

By the time she graduated from college in 1909, Inez Milholland was on her way to being nationally famous

By Joanna Scutts

This Woman May Have Helped Win the Union Win the Civil War

She served as an adviser to Abraham Lincoln

By Erin Blakemore

The Manhattan Project Physicist Who Fought for Equal Rights for Women

The world she graduated into, on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attacks, was rife with sexism and anti-Asian racism

By Joanna Scutts

The Woman Who Spied on Confederates In Jefferson Davis’ Own Home

Born a slave, Mary Richards Bowser returned to the South during the Civil War to spy on Confederate leaders

By Erin Blakemore

The Mysterious Woman Behind J.P. Morgan's Library

Belle da Costa Greene knew the power of secrets

By Joanna Scutts

The Officer Who Opened the U.S. Navy for Asian-American Women

Cuddy recalled that a white male pilot once disobeyed her orders. “Down here,” she told him, “you will shoot when I tell you to shoot.”

By Erin Blakemore

The Woman Who Kicked Down Wall Street's Doors

Muriel Siebert was used to being the only woman in the room

By Joanna Scutts

The Journalist Who Lived at the White House

Her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt has long raised eyebrows

By Joanna Scutts

The Writer Once Called 'The World's Greatest Girl Reporter'

She was also called the "Mother-Confessor of Hollywood" for her talent at extracting sob-stories from starlets

By Joanna Scutts
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