Biographies generously sponsored by Susan D. Whiting.

Biographies

American women played an active role in American history. Explore some of the lesser known and famous women who impacted our nation. New biographies are regularly added, so check back to discover new stories.

Featured Biographies

Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a prominent journalist, suffragist, activist, and researcher.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Known as the founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low created the largest and most successful organisation for girls in the world.

Juliette Gordon Low

Nancy Hart made it her mission to rid the Georgia territory of British Loyalists.

Nancy Hart

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Lucretia Mott

Lucretia Mott argued as ardently for women’s rights as for black rights, including suffrage, education, and economic aid.

Biography

Judith Sargent Murray

A prominent essayist of the American republic, Judith Sargent Murray was an early advocate of women’s equality, access to education, and the right to control their earnings.

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Mary Musgrove

Mary Musgrove become a negotiator between English and Native American communities and played an important role in the development of Colonial Georgia.

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Florence Nightingale

Nurse Florence Nightingale is best known for making hospitals a cleaner and safer place to be.

Biography

Mary Adelaide Nutting

Mary Adelaide Nutting had a profound impact on American nursing. She was one of the key figures in modernizing the profession and her work is still influential in the field today.

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Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley is a famous markswoman known for her sharpshooting.

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Miné Okubo

Miné Okubo is well known for her representations of daily life and humanity in drawings depicting Japanese American internment during WWII.

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Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and set in motion one of the largest social movements in history, the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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Alice Paul

A vocal leader of the 20th century women’s suffrage movement, Alice Paul advocated for and helped secure passage of the 19th Amendment.

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Ethel L. Payne

Ethel Payne is known as the First Lady of the Black Press, because of her fearlessness as a journalist and a Civil Rights activist.

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Pocahontas

Among the most famous women in early American history, Pocahontas is credited with helping the struggling English settlers survive.

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Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is the first African American woman to hold several positions, including Secretary of State.

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Sally Ride

Sally Ride was the first American woman in space.

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Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt grew up to become one of the most important and beloved First Ladies, authors, reformers, and female leaders of the 20th century.

Biography

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is the senior US Representative from Florida, the first Latina elected to the US Congress, and the first Republican in congress to publicly support the passage of the marriage equality act.

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Betsy Ross

Considered essential to the American Revolution, Betsy Ross is credited with sewing the first United States flag.

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Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph relentlessly pursued her dreams becoming an international track and field star.

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Marla Runyan

Legally blind since childhood, Olympic track and field athlete and marathon runner Marla Runyan never let her vision loss stand in the way of her athletic dreams.

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Sacagawea

Sacagawea is best known for joining Louis and Clark on their expedition westward from the Mississippi to the Pacific Coast.

Biography

Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson disguised herself as a man and joined the Patriot forces during the American Revolution. She was the only woman to earn a military pension for participation in the Revolutionary army.