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'American history books give us vivid pictures of 18th century Boston, Massachusetts men, many involved in pre-American Revolutionary War politics, particularly leading up to and including the Boston Tea Party. But what about Boston's ladies?
Boston as been the home of many noteworthy women, from the beginning of this country's history through the present. In 1989 a group of Boston schoolteachers, librarians, and students created the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. It is a series of walking tours in Boston leading past sites important to Boston women's history. More than 200 Boston women are included on the tours, including artists, composers, poets, social reform leaders, and more.
The following is a list of the ladies included on the walking tours. Please add their profiles to the project, or those of other Boston women we may find included in the future!
* Emily Greene Balch, economist, sociologist and pacifist; winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
* Amy Beach, composer
* Isabella Stewart Gardner, art collector and founder of the Gardner Museum
* Catherine Hammond Gibson, original owner of the Gibson House Museum
* Harriet Hemenway, founder of the Massachusetts Audubon Society
* Minna Hall, founder of the Massachusetts Audubon Society
* Julia Ward Howe, abolitionist, activist, and author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"
* Elma Lewis, arts educator and founder of the National Center of Afro-American Artists
* Florence Luscomb, architect and women's suffragist
* Belle P. Rand, founder of the French Library and Cultural Center
* Sarah Choate Sears, art patron and artist
* Anne Sexton, Pulitzer-winning poet
* Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, sculptor
* Anna Coleman Ladd, sculptor
* Mary Moore, sculptor
* Bashka Paeff, sculptor
* Lilian Swann Saarinen, sculptor
* Nancy Schön, sculptor
* Katharine Lane Weems, sculptor
* Anne Whitney, sculptor
* Sister Ann Alexis, administrator of Carney Hospital and the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul
* Mary Antin, author and immigration rights activist
* Alice Stone Blackwell, women's suffragist, journalist, and human rights advocate
* Melnea Cass, civil rights activist
* Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist
* Louise Imogen Guiney, poet, essayist, and editor
* Anne Hutchinson, religious dissenter
* Alice M. Jordan, founder of the New England Round Table of Children's Librarians
* Mary Morton Kehew, social reform leader
* Ellen Lanyon, artist
* Frances Rich, sculptor
* Ellen Swallow Richards, pioneering environmental chemist
* Beryl Robinson, educator and storyteller
* Lucy Stone, suffragist and founder of the Woman's Journal
* Anne Sullivan, teacher of Helen Keller
* Phillis Wheatley, poet
* Ruth Batson, civil rights activist
* Blanche Woodson Braxton, the first African-American woman to be admitted to the Massachusetts Bar Association
* Maria Weston Chapman, founder of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society
* Ellen Craft, escaped slave, author, and educator
* Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African-American woman physician
* Margaret Deland, author
* Mary Dyer, one of the four executed Quakers known as the Boston martyrs
* Annie Adams Fields, author
* Louise Imogen Guiney, author
* Harriet Hayden, African-American abolitionist
* Anna E. Hirsch, the first woman president of the Board of Trustees of New England School of Law
* Sarah Orne Jewett, author
* Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first professionally trained African-American nurse
* Sophia Palmer. founder of the American Nurses Association
* Mary E. P. Davis, founder of the American Nurses Association
* Susan Paul, African-American abolitionist
* Elizabeth Peabody, founder of the first English-language kindergarten in the U.S.
* Rose Standish Nichols, landscape architect
* Linda Richards, the first professionally trained American nurse
* Florida Ruffin Ridley, civil rights activist
* Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, African-American publisher, civil rights leader, and women's suffragist
* Maria W. Stewart, African-American abolitionist
* Hepzibah Swan, socialite and art patron
* Harriet Tubman, African-American abolitionist, women's suffragist, and Union spy who spent time in Boston
* Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska, physician and founder of the New England Hospital for Women and Children
* Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African-American woman physician
* Charlotte Cushman, actress
* Julia Harrington Duff, the first Irish-American woman to serve on the Boston School Committee
* Sarah Josepha Hale, author, instrumental in the creation of Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. and the Bunker Hill Monument
* Harriot Kezia Hunt, an early female physician
* Squaw Sachem, Pawtucket leader
* Elizabeth McLean Smith, sculptor and president of the New England Sculptors Association
* Elizabeth Foster Vergoose, also known as Mother Goose
* Sarah Caldwell, opera conductor and impresario
* Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney, writer, reformer, and philanthropist
* Chew Shee Chin, founder of the New England Chinese Women's Association
* Harriet Clisby, physician and founder of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union
* Amelia Earhart, aviator and social worker at Denison House
* Ruby Foo, restaurateur
* Margaret Fuller, journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with American transcendentalism
* Pauline Hopkins, author, editor of The Colored American
* Mary Morton Kehew, social reform leader
* Rose Lok, aviator, the first Chinese-American woman pilot to solo at Logan Airport
* Mary A. Mahan, first woman to be admitted to the Massachusetts Bar Association
* Annie McKay, Boston's first school nurse
* Rose Finkelstein Norwood, labor organizer
* Julia O'Connor, labor organizer
* Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, labor organizer
* Elizabeth Peabody, founder of the first English-language kindergarten in the U.S.
* Vida Dutton Scudder, founder of Denison House
* Hannah Sabbagh Shakir, founder of the Lebanese-Syrian Ladies' Aid Society
* Alice Stone Blackwell, women's suffragist, journalist, and human rights advocate
* Elida Rumsey Fowle, Civil War volunteer and adoptive mother of two emancipated slave children
* Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton, poet
* Anna Clapp Harris Smith, founder of the Animal Rescue League
* Hepzibah Swan, socialite and art patron
* Geraldine Trotter, editor and activist
* Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams
* Hannah Adams, the first woman in the U.S. who worked professionally as a writer
* Jennie Loitman Barron, the first woman appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court
* Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross
* Alice Stone Blackwell, women's suffragist, journalist, and human rights advocate
* Maria Weston Chapman, founder of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society
* Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist and women's rights activist
* Lucretia Crocker, science educator
* Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, artist
* Dorothea Dix, activist on behalf of the indigent insane who created the first generation of American mental asylums
* Julia Harrington Duff, the first Irish-American woman to serve on the Boston School Committee
* Mary Dyer, one of the four executed Quakers known as the Boston martyrs
* Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist
* Annie Adams Fields, author
* Eliza Lee Cabot Follen, author and abolitionist
* Abiah Franklin, mother of Benjamin Franklin
* Sarah and Angelina Grimké, abolitionists and women's suffragists
* Mary Tileston Hemenway, philanthropist
* Harriet Hosmer, sculptor
* Anne Hutchinson, religious dissenter
* Helen Hunt Jackson, author
* Edmonia Lewis, sculptor
* Mary Livermore, journalist and women's rights advocate
* Grace Lorch, teacher and civil rights activist
* Amy Lowell, poet
* Florence Luscomb, architect and women's suffragist
* Abby May, school founder, activist, and one of the first social workers in Massachusetts
* Jane Mecom, sister and confidant of Benjamin Franklin
* Elizabeth Murray, businesswoman and proto-feminist during the American Revolution
* Judith Sargent Murray, women's rights advocate, essayist, playwright, and poet
* Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, labor organizer
* Sarah Parker Remond, African-American abolitionist
* Susanna Rowson, playwright and actress
* Frances Slanger, the first American nurse in Europe to be killed in combat during World War II
* Mercy Otis Warren, political writer of the American Revolution
* Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney, writer, reformer, and philanthropist
* Mary Emilda Curley, wife of James Michael Curley
* Susan Walker Fitzgerald, the first female Democrat elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature
* Margaret Fuller, journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with American transcendentalism
* Maud Cuney Hare, musician, musicologist, and civil rights activist
* Sylvia Plath, poet
* Ellen Swallow Richards, pioneering environmental chemist
* Mary Joseph Rogers, founder of the Maryknoll Sisters
* Pauline Agassiz Shaw, philanthropist and social reformer
*Judith Winsor Smith, abolitionist and women's suffragist
* Lucy Stone, suffragist and founder of the Woman's Journal
* Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska, physician and founder of the New England Hospital for Women and Children
* Melnea Cass, civil rights activist
* Mildred Daniels, community activist
* Charlotte Cushman, actress
* Goody Glover, the last person to be hanged in Boston as a witch
* Edith Guerrier, founder of the Saturday Evening Girls
* Sarah Josepha Hale, founder of the Boston Seaman's Aid Society
* Lina Frank Hecht, founder of the Hebrew Industrial School
* Harriot Kezia Hunt, an early female physician
* Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother of John F. Kennedy
* Clementina Poto Langone, Italian-American civic leader
* Judith Sargent Murray, women's rights advocate, essayist, playwright, and poet
* Rachel Walker Revere, wife of Paul Revere
* Pauline Agassiz Shaw, founder of the North Bennet Street Industrial School
* Helen Osborne Storrow, philanthropist
* Sophie Tucker, entertainer
* Melnea Cass, civil rights activist
* Jessie Gideon Garnett, the first African-American woman dentist in Boston
* Ellen Swepson Jackson, educator and activist
* Elma Lewis, arts educator and founder of the National Center of Afro-American Artists
* Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first professionally trained African-American nurse
* Lucy Miller Mitchell, daycare pioneer, co-founder of Head Start and Freedom House
* Sarah-Ann Shaw, television reporter
* Muriel S. Snowden, co-founder of Freedom House, recipient of MacArthur Genius Grant
* Maude Trotter Steward, newspaper editor
* Geraldine Trotter, editor and activist
* Louisa May Alcott, author
* Tina Allen, sculptor
* Maria Louise Baldwin, African-American educator and civic leader
* Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and school founder
* Melnea Cass, civil rights activist
* Hattie B. Cooper, leader of the Women's Home Missionary Society
* Lucretia Crocker, science educator
* Estella Crosby, co-founder of the Boston unit of the Housewives League
* Wilhelmina Marguerita Crosson, educator and early advocate of black history education
* Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African-American woman physician
* Fern Cunningham, sculptor
* Mildred Davenport, renowned African-American dancer and dance instructor
* Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, artist, sculptor
* Frieda Garcia, community activist
* Anna Bobbit Gardner, the first African-American woman to be awarded a bachelor's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music
* Louise Imogen Guiney, poet, essayist, and editor
* Harriet Boyd Hawes, pioneering archaeologist
* Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.
* Cora Reid McKerrow, local businesswoman
* Louise Chandler Moulton, author and critic
* Mary Safford-Blake, the first woman gynecologist
* Susie King Taylor, escaped slave, author, and the first African-American Army nurse
* Myrna Vazquez, renowned actress in Puerto Rico; South End community activist
* Anna Quincy Waterston, author
* E. Virginia Williams, founder of the Boston Ballet
* Mary Evans Wilson, founder of the Women's Service Club
* Jeanette Hajjar, community activist
* Helen Morton, community activist
* Paula Oyola, community activist
* Kathleen Coffey, first woman Chief Justice of West Roxbury District Court
* Mary Draper, Revolutionary war activist
* Margaret Fuller, journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with American transcendentalism
* Sophia Ripley, feminist associated with American transcendentalism
* Evelyn Shakir, Lebanese-American scholar and author
* Marian Walsh, Massachusetts state senator
* Alice Hennessey, local activist
* Ellen McGill, local activist
* Pamela Seigle, local activist
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