26 chapters
17 hour read
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26 chapters
Preface
Preface
The world is full of books that narrate the deeds and utter the praises of men. The lives of eminent men of our own time are made familiar to us in newspapers and magazines, in individual sketches and autobiographies, as well as in histories, dictionaries of biography, cyclopedias and other works of greater or less range of subject and extent of information. But, while many things have been written both by and for women, and much information has been published in One form and another in respect
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Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is One of the fortunate of the earth. Inheriting from nature a striking and beneficent talent, she was able to cultivate that talent in circumstances the most favorable that could be imagined, and, finally, to exercise it on the grandest scale in the sight of all mankind. Whatever difficulties may have beset her path, they were placed in it not by untoward fortune; they existed in the nature of her work, or were inseparable from human life itself. She has had the happiness,
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Lydia Maria Child
Lydia Maria Child
To those of us who are by Twenty years or more the juniors of Mrs. Child, she presents herself rather as an object of love than of cool criticism, even if we have rarely met her face to face. In our earliest recollections she comes before us less as author or philanthropist than as some kindly and omnipresent aunt, beloved forever by the heart of childhood,— some One gifted with all lore, and furnished with unfathomable resources,— some One discoursing equal delight to all members of the househo
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Fanny Fern-Mrs. Parton
Fanny Fern-Mrs. Parton
Sara Payson Willis, daughter of Nathaniel and Sara Willis, was born in Portland, Maine, in midsummer of the year of our Lord 1811. In that fine old town, in that fine old State, where as she says, “The timber and the human beings are sound,” she spent the First Six years of her life. During those years, our country passed through a troublous time, -a supplementary grapple with the old country,— final, let us hope, and eminently satisfactory in its results, to One party at least. But it is not pr
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Lydia H. Sigourney
Lydia H. Sigourney
Were any intelligent American citizen now asked to name the American woman, who, for A quarter of a century before 1855, held a higher place in the respect and affections of the American people than any other woman of the times had secured, it can hardly be questioned that the prompt reply would be, Mrs. Lydia Huntley Sigourney. And this would be the answer, not simply on the ground of her varied and extensive learning;: nor on that of her acknowledged poetic gift|; nor o that of her voluminous
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Mrs. Frances Anne Kemble
Mrs. Frances Anne Kemble
There was excitement and expectation among the play-goers of New York, in the early days of September, 1832. Stars, new to the firmament of America, were about to appear,— a great event in those simple days, when Europe supplied us with almost all we ever had of public pleasure. Charles Kemble, brother of Mrs. Siddons the peerless, and of John Kemble the magnificent, was-coming to America, accompanied by his daughter, “Fanny Kemble,” the most brilliant of the recent acquisitions to the London st
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Eugenie, Empress Of The French
Eugenie, Empress Of The French
The city of Malaga, in Spain, was the birthplace of Eugenie, the Empress of the French. This quaint old Moorish town, containing about Sixty thousand inhabitants, is situated on the shores of the Mediterranean, at the head of a bay which constitutes so fine a harbor that the city has been, for centuries, One of the most important seaports of the Spanish peninsula. Bleak, barren, rugged mountains encircle the city, approaching so near to the sea that there is scarcely room for the streets of mass
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Grace Greenwood-Mrs. Lippincott
Grace Greenwood-Mrs. Lippincott
About Thirty years ago, when Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren lived in the White House; when questions of a National bank and a protective tariff interested without arousing the popular mind; when the great and glorious Valley of the Mississippi still gave homes to the red man and haunts to wild beasts; when Bryant was fresh from those native hills, broad, round, and green, where he dreamed the Thanatopsis; when visions of Absalom and Jephthah's daughter were floating fresh and sacred before
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Alice And Phebe Cary
Alice And Phebe Cary
Years ago— a full score, at least— the readers of some religious, and those of many rural, newspapers First noted the fitful appearance, in the poet's corner of their respective gazettes, of verses by Alice Cary. Two or Three years later, other such-like, and yet different-also irradiated, from time to time, the aforesaid corner, purporting to be from the pen of Phebe Cary. Inquiry at length elicited the fact that the writers were young sisters, the daughters of a plain, substantial farmer, who
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Margaret Fuller Ossoli
Margaret Fuller Ossoli
Travelling by rail in Michigan, some Ten years ago, I found myself seated next to a young Western girl, with a very intelligent face, who soon began to talk with me about literary subjects. She afterwards gave me, as a reason for her confidence, that! “Looked like One who would enjoy Margaret Fuller's writings,”— these being, as I found, the object of her special admiration. I certainly took the remark for a compliment; and it was, at any rate, a touching tribute to the woman whose intellectual
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Gail Hamilton-Miss Dodge
Gail Hamilton-Miss Dodge
“Will I write a sketch of Gail Hamilton?”Will I touch off a Parrott gun? I thought, and will it “Kick” if I do? However, I ventured to send the following missive:— A book is in prospect. Many of our well-known literary people are to write for it. Its title is to be Eminent women of the time. You and I are to be in it. I am to do You. Who is to serve me up, the gods only know. Will you be good enough to inform me at your earliest convenience, when and where you cut your First tooth, whether you h
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
There has probably lived within the past century no woman whose genius, character, and position are more full of interest than Mrs. Browning's. She was not only far above all the female poets of her age, but ranked with the First poets. She was not only a great poet, but a greater woman. She loved and honored art, but she loved and honored humanity more. Born and reared in England, her best affections were given to Italy, and her warmest friends and most enthusiastic admirers are found in Americ
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Jenny Lind Goldschmidt
Jenny Lind Goldschmidt
There are those who think it unjust that we should bestow upon the children of song honors such as are seldom given to the most illustrious servants of their kind. What a scene does the interior of an opera-house present when a great singer comes upon the stage, or leaves it after a brilliant display of her talent! In Italy the whole audience spring to their feet, and give cheer upon cheer, continuing their vociferation for several minutes; and it has occasionally happened that a great crowd has
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Our Pioneer Educators Emma Willard
Our Pioneer Educators Emma Willard
To woman rather than to man, and to woman in this century rather than in any former One, belongs the credit of preparing the way for the future liberal education of women. Heretofore the aids to her education have been few and defective. A really liberal education for her has hardly been possible. Collegiate and University courses have been closed against her; so that if occasionally a woman has succeeded in gaining the reputation of a scholar, it has been mainly due to her own unaided exertions
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Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher, daughter of Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., was born in the town of Litchfield, in the State of Connecticut, on the 14th day of June, In the year of our Lord 1812. Her father, than whom no man of his generation is more reverently and affectionately remembered, was One of the sturdiest and grandest men that New England has produced. Among American divines his position as a theologian was One of distinction, and as a pulpit orator he stood full abreast with the most eloquent. There hav
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Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
I once watched an artist while he tried to transfer to his canvas the lustre of a precious stone. His picture, after his utmost skill, was dull. A radiant and sparkling woman, full of wit, reason, and fancy, is a whole crown of jewels. A poor, opaque copy of her is the most that One can render in a biographical sketch. Elizabeth Cady, daughter of Judge Daniel Cady and Margaret Livingston, was born November 12th, 1816, in Johnstown, New York,— Forty miles North of Albany. Birthplace is a secondar
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The Woman's Rights Movement And Its Champions In The United States Sarah And Angelina Grimke
The Woman's Rights Movement And Its Champions In The United States Sarah And Angelina Grimke
We may date the Woman's Rights cause proper, from the division in the anti-slavery organization in 1840; though before that time, Frances Wright, an Englishwoman of rare gifts both as a writer and speaker, had visited this country, and addressed large audiences, demanding at that early day all that the champions of woman's rights now claim. She was followed by Ernestine L. Rose, a native of Poland,— a woman of great beauty, refinement, and cultivation,— of generous impulses, liberal views, and o
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Victoria, Queen Of England
Victoria, Queen Of England
Great Britain wanted a monarch. James the Second had abandoned his throne, and had been driven from his country. William and Mary, who succeeded him were childless, and without hope of offspring. Anne, Seventeen times in her life, gave the kingdom hopes of an heir, and then disappointed those hopes. She was childless, and it was well known to her household that she was destined to die childless. As it was part of the fundamental law of the kingdom that the sovereign must be a Protestant, the son
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Eminent Women Of The Drama Adelaide Ristori
Eminent Women Of The Drama Adelaide Ristori
No record of Eminent Women would be complete without some reference to representative actresses. In these the his tory of the stage, especially within the last Two hundred years, is abundantly rich. Since the theatre was re-established in England, at the restoration of the monarchy, in 1660, many brilliant women have practised its art and won its laurels. Many bright names, therefore, appear in the catalogue of famous actresses, from the time of Eleanor Gwynn and Mrs. Sanderson to the time of He
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Anna Elizabeth Dickinson Correspondence
Anna Elizabeth Dickinson Correspondence
In listening to the many interesting incidents of this young girl's life, not all entrusted to me for publication, my feelings have vacillated between pity and admiration,— pity, for all the trials of her childhood and youth, in loneliness, poverty, and disappointment; and admiration for the indomitable will, courage, and rare genius, by which she has carved her way, with her own right hand, to fame and independence. While so many truly great women, of other times and countries, have marred thei
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Woman As Physician D.
Woman As Physician D.
The care of the sick has from earliest ages devolved on woman. A group by One of our sculptors, representing Eve with the body of Abel stretched upon her lap, bending over it in bewildered grief, and striving to cherish or restore the vital spirit which she can hardly believe to have departed, is a type of the province of the sex ever since pain and death entered the world. To be First the vehicle for human life, and then its devoted guardian, to remove or alleviate the physical evils which affl
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Camilla Urso
Camilla Urso
“The violin is the violet,” says the Chevalier Seraphael in that most imaginative and fantastic of musical novels, “Charles Auchester.”How came the fancy to the writer's brain? Was it because the violet, with its trembling blue petal and its evanescent fragrance, reminds One of the woods, the mingling harmonies of brook and bird-voice, of wind-swept trees and restless wind? Or, was it because to the artist the violet was the most perfect of flowers and the violin of instruments? An instrument it
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Harriet G. Hosmer
Harriet G. Hosmer
The number of women who have acquired celebrity in the art of painting is large; but half a score would probably include all the names of those who have achieved greatness in sculpture. Without raising the question whether women are intellectually the equals of men, or the other question, which some affirm and some deny, whether there is “Sex of the soul,” they differ; and there are manifest reasons of the hand, the eye, and the taste, for which it should be anticipated that they would generally
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Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur
The happy and beautiful name which heads this article is befitting the career of One of the most famed and brilliant of women; but, apt as it is, it fails to give us an idea of the remarkable energy and brave persistency of character by which its possessor has fairly acquired her fame. About Ten years ago, a gallery of French paintings of some of the most noted modern artists was opened for exhibition in the City of New York, in which, notwithstanding Two vigorous pictures by Dubufe, senior, and
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Mrs. Julia Ward Howe
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe
Fourteen years ago there came from the famous press of Ticknor & Company, a small volume of Poems, whose First page, beside the imprint of the publishers, bore only the simple title-line Passion Flowers. An anonymous book of poetry does not commend itself to the reading mob, and not many copies were sold. But the critics read it, and the scholars, and that small public which had heard that it was Mrs. Howe's book, and desired to know what sort of verses a woman of society, a wit, a housewife
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Advertisement: The Philosophy Of Housekeeping Conditions
Advertisement: The Philosophy Of Housekeeping Conditions
By Joseph B. Lyman, Agricultural Editor of N. Y. Tribune, Associate Editor of “Hearth and home,” and Laura E. Lyman, Author of the Agriculturist Prize Essay on Housekeeping, Writer in Home Circle Department of N. Y. World, “And Hearth and Home.”A Manual of the Domestic Arts; a Scientific and practical Guide in the Selection and Preparation of every kind of Food; a Compendium of the best practical Rules for the Preservation of Health, the Care of Infants, the Food, Clothing, and Comfort of Childr
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