Who Am I?

In honor of Women’s History Month, see how many of these

outstanding women you recognize.

I was just 17 years old when an enemy army took over my family home in Virginia. During the day I would listen carefully to the soldiers in my home. They didn’t pay much attention to me because they thought I was just a girl.

At night when they were sleeping, I would slip out and go to the Confederate camp and saved a lot of lives with the information I shared.

Boyd Belle(1844-1900)

When I was young, girls did not go to school. They were not allowed to get an education.

As a child, I was sick a lot. I couldn’t spend much time out of doors, so I spent my time in my father’s study.

I taught myself many things from the books in his library, including literature and French.

When I grew up and married, my husband went off to war. I had to take care of our 4 children and manage our farm on my own.

For the 10 years that he was gone, I wrote him letters every day to let him know how his family was doing and to share news of the war and politics back home.

When my husband became a member of Congress, I often cautioned him to “Remember the Ladies”, both of us knew that women needed a say in the government that ruled them as well as men.

People say that I was an important influence on at least two American presidents, my husband, John Adams and my son, John Quincy Adams.

Many of my letters have been preserved and offer a good description of life during the American Revolution.

Abigail Adams(1744 - 1818)

When I was just a young woman, my husband died and left me an upholstery business.

All my friends thought I would, of course, sell it to a man. But I didn’t. I chose to run it myself.

It was quite a successful business. In 1776, when our country was just starting up, a friend of mine asked for my help.

I used the supplies and equipment in my business to make the first flag of the United States of America for General George Washington.

Betsy Ross (1752-1836)

I am better known as Captain Molly. In 1776, during the American Revolution, I was with my husband when he was shot and killed. I didn’t take time to stop and think or cry.

I immediately took his place and kept the cannon booming. It was very hard work because the cannon balls and firing powder were very heavy, but I did my best.

Margaret Corbin (1751-1800)

I was just 17 years old when an enemy army took over my family home in Virginia. During the day I would listen carefully to the soldiers in my home. They didn’t pay much attention to me because they thought I was just a girl.

At night when they were sleeping, I would slip out and go to the Confederate camp and tell the soldiers there what the enemy had planned.

One day, while helping in the kitchen, I heard some news that couldn’t wait for nightfall. I went to the stables, took a horse and road out as fast as I could.

The soldiers were so stunned by the sight of me riding off in my kitchen clothes with my apron flapping in the wind, that they forgot to try to stop me. I made it to the Confederate troops and saved a lot of lives with the information I shared.

Belle Boyd (1844-1900)

When I received my medical degree in 1849, 20,000 people were there to watch, as I became the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree.

Twenty-nine schools turned me down before I was admitted to Geneva College in New York.

The all-male student body thought it was a joke when they were asked to vote on accepting a woman student, but I proved them wrong.

Despite their poor treatment of me, I was an excellent student.

Later, as a doctor, no one would rent me office space so I had to buy my own house and turn it into a hospital. I also started a medical college just for women.

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 - 1910)

As nurse during the Civil War, I was shocked by the lack of medical supplies available to the wounded soldiers.

I advertised in the newspaper for people to help gather bandages, medicine, blankets and food.

When I got the supplies, I loaded them on mules, took them to the battlefield and helped to save the lives of many soldiers.

After the war, I helped veteran’s families by writing over 60,000 letters to help find missing fathers, sons and brothers.

Later I started the American National Red Cross, which helps people during wars, epidemics, and natural disasters. They also teach people ways to help them stay safe, even when they are not involved in an emergency.

Maybe you or someone you know has taken a babysitting course or a first aid course offered by the Red Cross.

Clara Barton (1821 - 1912)

At 20 years old I had studied to be a teacher for the blind. One day I was asked to go to Alabama to work with a seven-year-old girl who had become not only blind but deaf as well.

Her name was Helen Keller. It was a very difficult job, but I taught her to read Braille, and to feel sign language.

Helen was a remarkable student, who also learned to speak five languages by feeling and imitating mouth movements.

I traveled with Helen as her translator when she lectured in support of the American Foundation for the Blind.

Anne/Annie Sullivan (Macy) (1866-1936)

I was born a slave in Washington, D.C. My aunt worked for two years to save enough money to buy my freedom for $125.

When I was 14, I worked as a servant for an author. While I was there, I was given some time off, one hour every other day. I used the time to pursue my own studies.

I became a teacher and used my skills to help educate other African Americans.

After I married my husband, Reverend Levi Coppin, we moved to Cape Town, Africa, were I worked as a missionary teaching African children to read and write.

Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837-1913)

When I was just 11 years old, I started writing wild adventure stories in my imagination book.

Later during the Civil War when I was an adult, I went to Washington, D. C. to help nurse wounded soldiers. I used my experience to write a very successful book called, Hospital Sketches.

Later, a publisher asked me to use my writing skills to publish books for young ladies.

Even though I wrote these books more than a hundred years ago they are still popular today, and have even been made into a movie. Maybe you have read the story of my sisters and I called, Little Women.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

When I started writing in my diary as a young girl living on a small farm in South Dakota, I never would have dreamed that children would be reading about my life more than a hundred years later.

I was 65 years old when my first book, “Little House in the Big Woods”, was published. My “Little House” books have been made into a hit TV series and more than 20,000,000 copies of the books have been sold.

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867 - 1957)

I was a secretary with a big problem—my poor typing. I thought about how artists and sign painters simply paint over their mistakes.

I mixed up a little bottle of white tempera paint and took it and a small paintbrush to the office. When my co-workers saw me painting over typing errors, they wanted my recipe.

Fifteen years later my company sold more than 10,000 bottles of “Liquid Paper” a day and earned more than $1 million a year.

After I sold the company for $47.5 million my son, Michael Nesmith, a member of the 1970’s pop group, The Monkees, used part of the money to help pioneer music videos.

Bette Nesmith Graham (1924-1980)

When I was just 12 years old I saw a worker in a textile mill injured by a moving part on his loom. I invented a safety device for the loom.

That started me on a life as an inventor and eventually I held 27 patents. People called me "the female Edison." I invented things like window sashes, shoe cutting machines, and automotive parts.

My most famous invention made one of the most useful objects in any store or household even today. I invented the machine that made the square-bottomed brown paper bag.

Margaret Knight (1838-1914)

In the 1880’s, I was working for a newspaper. There were other women working for newspapers at the time but they were only allowed to write about weddings, social events and recipes.

I wanted to write about things that were happening in the world.

I read a book by Jules Verne that was a made up story about a man who went around the world in 80 days.

We didn’t have any airplanes or jets in those days, so most people thought it was impossible to do. I talked my publisher into letting me try.

Everyday I sent back a story to the newspaper about my adventures. Millions of Americans read the story.

72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes after I left, I returned to New York City. After my trip the readers who followed my adventure, were anxious to read my other articles.

I was able to write about a lot of important American issues and have people listen to me.

Nellie Bly (1864-1922)

I carried my camera wherever I went: the tops of New York skyscrapers, the bottom of South American mines, across the American South, and into a German concentration camp.

During World War II, I scooped the world with my photos of Europe and the Soviet Union.

I flew on bombing missions and was torpedoed on a boat off North Africa. I was the U.S. Army’s first female war correspondent.

Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971)

I was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. I loved to fly. I was the first president of the Ninety-Nines, which is a female pilots' organization.

The group was named for the number of female pilots who each paid $1.00 to join. Ruth Nichols, Jacqueline Cochran, and Kathryn Cheung were among the first members. There are now about 6,400 Ninety-Nines members from all over the

world.

Amelia Earhart(1897-1937)

Even when I was a child I could shoot a gun more accurately than anyone I knew, man or boy. I helped to feed my family by shooting game.

I sold some of it to get the money we needed to pay the mortgage on our home. When I was a teenager I entered a shooting contest against a champion marksman named Frank Butler.

Not only did I win the contest; I won a husband, too. Frank and I were married and traveled the world with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

Thomas Edison used his new invention to capture my sharp shooting on film. A long time after I died a famous playwright wrote a play about my life.

Annie Oakley (1860 - 1926)

When I was 4 years old I couldn’t move my leg because of polio and scarlet fever. My family devoted themselves to helping me walk again, giving me massages four times a day and encouraging my efforts. Their determination – and mine – paid off.

When I was 20 years old, I was nicknamed “La Gazelle,” was the fastest woman runner in the world and the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympics.

Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994)

I loved to swim. From 1921 to 1925, I set national and international swimming records and won Olympic swimming medals.

In 1926, when I was 19 years old, I became the first woman ever to swim across the English Channel. My time of 14 hours and 31 minutes was almost two hours faster than any man’s record.

Gertrude Ederle (1906 - 2003)

I graduated from college and became a college professor. While I was studying in Switzerland, I saw the Matterhorn for the first time.

That’s when I became interested in mountaineering. I practiced at smaller climbs for nearly 10 years before I became the third woman to climb the Matterhorn.

On many of my mountaineering expeditions, I planted flags on the mountain that said, “Votes for Women”.

When I climbed Mount Huascaran in 1908, I was the first mountaineer, man or woman, to scale the peak. I made my last climb, of Mount Madison, at the age of 82.

Annie Smith Peck(1850-1935)

When a local coach saw me playing paddle tennis and gave me my first tennis racket, he started me on a record setting career.

I knew that I was an unusually, talented girl…I didn’t need to prove it to myself. I only wanted to prove it to my opponents.

I was the first African American woman to compete in and win both the tournaments at Forest Hills and Wimbledon. I wasn’t satisfied, however with just playing tennis.

I studied hard and earned a college degree from Florida A&M. Being named to the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the Black Athletes Hall of Fame has honored me.

Althea Gibson (1927- 2003)

In 1939, I was a very accomplished opera singer. I had gotten great compliments from conductors all over Europe.

But when I wanted to sing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution said, “NO”.

They wouldn’t let me sing there because of my skin color. When the President’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, heard what had happened, she resigned from the DAR and arranged a concert at the Lincoln Memorial. 75,000 people attended the concert.

Marian Anderson (1897 - 1993)

As a teenager on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma, I studied to become a concert pianist. Then I discovered ballet.

I started my professional ballet career after high school and became one of the most accomplished ballerinas in the United States.

Maria Tallchief (1925- )

As a girl, I was never afraid of bugs. That is a good thing, because I made my greatest discovery while I was studying beetles.

I found out about X and Y chromosomes. That is a fancy way of saying I found out how an unborn animal or child becomes a male or female.

It was quite a discovery and has paved the way for myself and other scientists to discover many other things about chromosomes and cell generation.

Nettie Stevens (1861-1912)

I studied to be a chemist at the University of Pennsylvania. In the early 1900’s, people were moving from farms into the city.

One of their biggest problems was getting fresh food to the city without having it spoil. I helped to develop a new kind of food preservation called refrigeration.

When I applied for a job with the Department of Agriculture, I used the name, M. E. Pennington.

I became the first chief of the U. S. Food Research Laboratory before officials realized they hadn’t hired a man.

As chief, I devised methods of preserving and handling perishable foods that were adopted by the food handling industry and I set the standards for railroad refrigerator cars.

Dr. Mary Engle Pennington (1872-1953)

I was 32 years old when I boarded the space shuttle Challenger and became the first American woman in space and the youngest American astronaut to ever circle the Earth.

Nearly 250,000 people jammed into the areas surrounding Cape Kennedy Space Center to see me lift off into space and history. When the Challenger landed, the five-person crew I was a member of had traveled 2.5 million miles.

Dr. Sally Ride (1951- )

When I was a little girl, my father always said I had my head in the stars. Little did he know that as an adult I would become famous for just that.

Along with my partner, Williamina Fleming, I have discovered over 300 rare stars and classified nearly 400,000 other stars. I developed a way to classify stars by their temperature that scientists still use today.

Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941)

In the 1860’s my sister and I, were the first women to own and operate a successful stockbrokerage. Our business made nearly half a million dollars in its first year.

In 1871, I was the first woman to address the House Judiciary Committee. I talked to them about my belief that women should have the right to vote in United States’ elections.

There is a lot of talk now a days about a woman running for president, but I was the first female presidential candidate in the United States. That was way back in 1872.

You probably already know that I lost the election but my campaign made a lot of people aware of how much women cared about political issues.

Victoria Claflin Woodhull (1838-1927)

When I was younger, I used to make pictures with thread and yarn, but when I got arthritis, I had to give up making them.

I started painting instead, using old canvas and house paint. Later I began to use real artist paint. I have painted about 2,000 pictures. Many of them are hanging in museums around the world.

I was over 70 years old when I displayed some of my paintings in a drugstore window in Hoosick Falls, New York.

By the time I died at the age of 101, people throughout the United States and Europe knew my work.

Grandma Moses (1860-1961)

I taught zoology before I became director of the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. While director, I worked to increase public interest in science and supported environmental research. I published a book about the environment called, “Trashing the Planet.”

I was the first woman to head the Atomic Energy Commission and the second woman to be elected a governor without being married to a man leaving the office.

Dixie Lee Ray (1914-1994)

As a medical student in Michigan I wanted to improve health care services for all people, especially women and children. My medical career and dedication to public service must have impressed President George Bush because he nominated me as Surgeon General of the United States, the nation’s highest medical officer. Congress approved, and on March 9, 1990, I became the first woman and first Hispanic Surgeon General.

Antonia Novello (1944 - )

Even though I graduated 3rd in my class from law school, I found that legal firms were not eager to hire a woman lawyer. I went into government work instead.

The day I became the first woman ever appointed to the United States Supreme Court, I said, “I happily share the honor with millions of American women of yesterday and today. ”

Sandra Day O'Connor (1930 - )

I wanted to become a lawyer but many schools would not allow me the chance. I didn’t give up. I kept trying and I finally earned a law degree from the National University Law School.

Later the U.S. Supreme court would not allow me to argue a case before them because I was a woman.

It took three years of hard work but I finally convinced them to change the law to allow any lawyer of good reputation, no matter the sex, the right to address the Supreme Court.

Belva Lockwood (1830-1917)

I grew up with my grandmother on a farm in Mississippi. Later I lived in the ghettos of Milwaukee with my mother.

When I was 12 years old I moved to Nashville, Tennessee with my father. He insisted that I get a good education.

I was still a student at Tennessee State University when I became the first African-American woman to anchor the local evening news.

I have gone on to host several different TV shows and become one of the highest paid entertainers in the country. Having been a victim of child abuse, I spend my off-stage time supporting programs to help prevent child abuse. I also founded a program for young girls in Chicago’s housing projects and another to train people of color for jobs in film and television.

Oprah Winfrey (1954 - )