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Included below are citations to information about women who spent a significant portion of their lives in Wisconsin.
In addition to these citations, the Wisconsin Magazine of History in its early volumes (in the 1920s) frequently carried reminiscences by women of growing up in Wisconsin.
Also, the Wisconsin Alumni Magazine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison frequently spotlighted women graduates. The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine is available online through 1990 through the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection.
Several books on the history of women at the University of Wisconsin have been digitized by the UW Libraries. They include essays on individual professors, as well as programs, departments, and organizations.
There are also numerous privately published family histories and genealogies available in the Wisconsin Historical Society Library and elsewhere (the subject heading “Wisconsin–Biography” retrieves them).
Women born in Wisconsin who left the state in early childhood and went on to prominence in other places are generally not listed on this bibliography. Suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt (born in Ripon) and Little House on the Prairie’s Laura Ingalls Wilder (born in Pepin) are examples of well-known figures who left Wisconsin as children.
For more biographical information on prominent Wisconsin women, consult Wisconsin Women Making History, Who’s Who of American Women, issues of Wisconsin Woman (ceased publication in 1990), newspapers, and news magazines. Genealogists should try the US GenWeb Archives Project, Wisconsin section.
Aber, Margery
Introduced the Suzuki method at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and began the American Suzuki Institute in 1971.
D’Ercole, Patricia. “Margery Aber and the American Suzuki Institute.”Wisconsin Academy Review (Spring 1995): 36-37.
Ahnen, Leona
Simons, Kelly. Leona’s Legacy: Memories of a Farmer’s Daughter. Woodruff, WI: Guest Cottage, 2002.
Aldrich, Hannah
Hannah Aldrich was an immigrant resident of Sylvan Township, Richland County.
Krynski, Elizabeth and Kimberly Little. “Hannah’s Letters: the Story of a Wisconsin Pioneer Family, 1856-1864.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Part I: V. 74, no. 3 (Spring 1991), pp. 163-195; Part II: V. 74, no. 4 (Summer 1991), pp. 272-296; Part III: V. 75, no. 1 (August 1991), pp. 39-62.
Alvstad, Ingeborg Holdahl
Reminiscences by Alvstad of her family’s emigration from Norway, the sinking of their ship, their settlement in Gilman Township, Pierce County, Wisconsin, in 1889, and her early years there as her family established a farm home. Digitized by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections as part of the “Wisconsin Pioneer Experience Collection.”
Anderson, Louise
Anderson, Louise. After the Sun has Set: Memories of 1898. NY: Vantage Press, 1987.
A year in the life of a 7 year old Wisconsin farm girl.
Anneke, Mathilde Franziska
German born feminist, social reformer, writer, and educator who established the Milwaukee Tochterschule, a school for girls.
Bank, Michaela. Women of Two Countries: German-American Women, Women’s Rights and Nativism, 1848-1890. New York: Berghahn, 2012.
On Anneke and two other women, Clara Neymann and Mathilde Wendt.
Conk, Margo and Renny Harrigan. “Recovering Our Past: Mathilde Franziska Anneke (1817-1884).” Feminist Collections 7, 3 (Spring 1986): 3-6.
Krueger, Lillian. “Madame Mathilde Franziska Anneke: An Early Wisconsin Journalist.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 21 (1937/38): 160-167.
McDonnell, Judith. “Anneke, Mathilde Franziska Giesler (1817-1884).” In European Immigrant Women in the United States: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. by Judy Barrett Litoff and Judith McDonnell (New York: Garland, 1994): 5-6.
Piepke, Susan L. Mathilde Franziska Anneke (1817-1884): The Works and Life of a German-American Activist. New York: Peter Lang, 2005.
Appel, Livia
Prucha, Francis Paul. “Livia Appel and the Art of Copyediting: a Personal Memoir.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 79, 4 (1996): 364-380.
Appel was copy editor at the State Historical Society from 1948-1956.
Ashmun, Margaret
Wales, Julia G. “Margaret Ashmun: Wisconsin Author and Educator.” Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 34 (1942): 221-29.
Ashmun was an author from Rural, Wisconsin.
Baird, Elizabeth Therese
Baird, Elizabeth T. Reminiscences of Life in Territorial Wisconsin. Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol 15. Madison: Democrat Printing Company, 1900: 205-263. Digitized by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Baird, Elizabeth T. O-De-Jit-Wa-Win-Ning. Green Bay, WI: Heritage Hill Foundation, 1998.
The memoirs of a woman who “lived through the evolution of the Wisconsin territory from an untamed wilderness to a thriving state and center of commerce and agriculture.” [quotation from distributor, the Brown County Historical Society.]
Thomas, Kathleen M.W. “Elizabeth Therese Baird: a French-Indian Upbringing in the Nineteenth Century.” Voyageur: Northeast Wisconsin’s Historical Review 27, 1 (Summer/Fall2010): 24-33.
Barney, Maginel Wright Enright
Barney, Maginel W. Valley of the God-Almighty Jones: Reminiscences of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sister, Maginel Wright Barney. With Tom Burke. New York: Appleton-Century, 1965.
Hamilton, Mary Jane. “Maginel Wright Barney: An Artist in Her Own Right.” Wisconsin Academy Review 38, 4 (Fall 1992): 4-11.
Berger, Meta
Berger (1873-1944) was an advocate for socialism, public education, women’s rights and peace.
Berger, Meta. A Milwaukee Woman’s Life on the Left: the Autobiography of Meta Berger, edited by Kimberly Swanson. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 2000. Chapter 5: “A Socialist in Congress!” digitized by the Wisconsin Historical Society. An interview with Swanson about Berger appeared as “A Milwaukee Woman’s Life on the Left,” in Wisconsin Magazine of History 85, 3 (2002): 56-57.
Berger, Victor and Berger, Meta. The Family Letters of Victor and Meta Berger 1894-1929. Edited by Michael E. Stevens. Madison : State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1995.
Stevens, Michael. “A Political Partnership: The Marrige of Victor and Meta Berger. Milwaukee History 19, 3 (1996): 95-104.
Billings, Sara
Sara Billings, letters 1864. Three letters, written August 20, September 2 and 21, 1864, by Sara Billings of Woodlawn, Wisconsin, to her brother, Captain Levi Billings of Company K, 28th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, containing details of everyday life and family members’ activities. Digitized by University of Wisconsin Digital Collections as part of the Wisconsin Goes to War: Our Civil War Experience Collection.
Bock, Sadie Padley
Bock, Sadie Padley. Stagecoach to Jet in Three Generations. New York: Vantage Press, 1978 (49 p.).
Boyer, Gene
Feminist leader and businesswoman from Beaver Dam.
“Women’s Movement Loses Champion and Visionary Organizer; In Memoriam: NOW Founder Gene Boyer.” National Organization for Women, 2003.
Bradford, Mary Davison
Bradford, Mary Davison. Pioneers! O Pioneers!: Her Autobiography. Evansville, WI: Antes Press, 1937? Online as Memoirs as Mary D. Bradford: Autobiographical and Historical Reminiscences of Education In Wisconsin, Through Progressive Service From Rural School Teaching to City Superintendent as part of the Kenosha County Wisconsin GenWeb Project.
Reminiscenses of Kenosha teacher and superintendent of schools, who lived from 1856 to 1943.
Her memoirs were first published in eight installments in Jensen, Don. “Mary D. Bradford: Education Pioneer,” Kenosha County.com (Kenosha News).
She was profiled in “Education: Knitting Warrior,” Time Magazine, April 18, 1938.
Brainerd, Mary Pease
Four Letters written by Mary (“Molly”) Brainerd from rural Danville, Dodge County, Wis. to relatives in Michigan in the 1880s. Digitized by University of Wisconsin Digital Collections as part of the “Wisconsin Pioneer Experience Collection.”
Brinton, Beulah
Social activist and midwife who arrived in Bay View in 1870.
Kursch, Daisy Estes. “Beulah Brinton of Bay View.” Milwaukee History 10, 2 (1987): 38-46.
Brise, Adele
Nun.
Park, Karen E. “The Negotiation of Authority at a Frontier Marian Apparition Site: Adele Brise and Our Lady of Good Help,” American Catholic Studies 123, 3 (Fall 2012): 1-26.
Josie Broadhead
Bilen, Wendy. Finding Josie. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2008. Excerpted in “Finding Josie.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 91, 4 (2008): 16-19. (The author uncovers the story of her grandmother who lived on a La Crosse dairy farm in the early 1900’s.)
Brown, Olympia
Universalist Church minister, orator, and president of the Woman Suffrage Association of Wisconsin for 28 years. Brown lived from 1835-1926.
Brown, Olympia. Acquaintances, Old and New, Among Reformers. 1911. Digitized as part of the American Memory Project, Library of Congress.
Brown, Olympia. “Olympia Brown: an Autobiography.” Journal of the Universalist Historical Society 4 (1963): 1-77. Olympia Brown’s daughter, Gwendolen B. Willis, edited this autobiography, drawn from her mother’s memoirs Acquaintances, Old and New, Among Reformers, privately published, 1911 (see above).
Cote, Charlotte. Olympia Brown: the Battle for Equality. Racine: Mother Courage Press, 1988.
Greene, Dana ed. Suffrage and Religious Principle: Speeches and Writings of Olympia Brown. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1983.
Isenberg, Nancy Gale. A Victory for Truth: The Feminist Ministry of Olympia Brown. M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1983.
Jackson, Susan. and Isabel O’Hanlon. “Olympia Brown,” in Women of Courage: Ten North Country Pioneers in Profile. Potsdam, N.Y. : American Association of University Women, St. Lawrence County Branch, 1989.
Neu, Charles E. “Olympia Brown and the Woman Suffrage Movement.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 43 (Summer 1960): 277-287.
Noble, Laurie Carter. “Olympia Brown,” Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography.
Rury, John and Glenn Harper. “The Trouble with Coeducation: Mann and Women at Antioch, 1853-1860.” History of Education Quarterly 26, 4 (1986): 481-502.
Differing views of the meaning of coeducation between Antioch president Horace Mann and student Brown.
“Wisconsin’s Legal History: Olympia Brown,” Wisconsin Lawyer.
Buck, Florence
Conner, Alice Anne. “The Rev. Florence Buck: Crusader for women,” Kenosha County.com (Kenosha News). Requires registration to access.
Byington, Mary
Byington, Mary. Woman Operator on the Milwaukee Railroad During World War II: A Memoir. Timber Lake, SD: M. Byington, 1998.
Catt, Carrie Chapman, 1859-1947
A suffrage leader born in Wisconsin. Her diaries from 1911-1912, written during a trip around the world, are in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives (Wis Mss QP MAD 4/24/J3).
Chapelle, Dickey, 1919-1995
War correspondent and photojournalist.
Her papers are in the Wisconsin Historical Society. See the online Finding Aid.
Chapelle, Dickey. What’s a Woman Doing Here? A Reporter’s Report on Herself. New York: Morrow, 1962.
Ostroff, Roberta. Fire in the Wind: The Life of Dickey Chappelle. New York: Ballentine, 1992.
Cheatham, Jeannie
Jazz musician whose autobiography includes coverage of her time teaching at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Cheatham, Jeannie. Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On: My Life in Music. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. See parts: Welcome to Wisconsin — On the move in Madison — Movin’ an’ moanin’, groovin’ an’ groanin’ in Madison.
Clarenbach, Kathryn Frederick.
Organizer of the National Women’s Political Caucus, first chair of N.O.W., planner of the National Women’s Conference (1977), chair of the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women for fifteen years, University of Wisconsin-Extension professor, and director of continuing education programs for women.
Her papers are in the University of Wisconsin Archives; see https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/7W7I4JIYGB5XE8V.
There is also a lengthy set of oral history interviews that have been digitized as part of the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection. The interviews were conducted by Margaret Andreason in 1987-89.
Chesler, Ellen. “Lives Well Lived: Kathryn F. Clarenbach.” The New York Times Magazine (January 1, 1995): 25.
Many articles by and about Kathryn Clarenbach are available in the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection. Search for “Clarenbach” from the search page. These are some of the results:
Connor, Cecilia
Connor, Lafayette. Cecilia: the Trials of an Amazing Ojibwe woman, 1834-1892. Danbury, WI: Burnett County Historical Society, 2006.
Conroy, Catherine
Telephone worker and Communications Workers of America member; active in Coalition of Labor Union Women.
Oral History Interview, conducted by Elizabeth Balanoff, Milwaukee, 1976. The interview was conducted in conjunction an oral history project at the University of Michigan and was digitized by Roosevelt University Oral History Project in Labor History. Note: Link no longer working.
Curtin, Alma Cardell
Mikos, Michael J. “Alma Cardell Curtin, the Woman Behind Jeremiah Curtin.”Milwaukee History 13 (1990): 53-68.
Jeremiah was a linguist and ethnologist. This article suggests that Alma should be credited with authorship of her husband’s memoirs. See also “New Light on the Relationship between Henryk Sienkiewicz and Jeremiah Curtin,” by Michael J. Mikos, Slavic Review 50, 2 (1991): 422-432, which makes a similar point.
Davis, Ethel (Maahs)
Kept a scrapbook of clippings from the Dodgeville area from the 1930s-1970s.
Maahs scrapbook: book number 1, book number 2
Deer, Ada
Ada’s retirement: UW Says Goodbye to Ada Deer. Madison: American Indian Studies Program, 2007. (33 min. DVD).
Fanlund, Lari. “Indians in Wisconsin: A Conversation With Ada Deer.” Wisconsin Trails: the Magazine of Life in Wisconsin 24 (March/April 1983): 8-21.
Elkins, Frances
Innovative interior designer, born in Milwaukee.
Salny, Stephen M. Frances Elkins. Interior Design. New York: Norton, 2005.
Elm, Nancy Danforth
Oneida elder and grandmother of the filmmaker. Hinton is also an Oneida elder and fluent speaker of the Oneida language.
Danforth, Michelle and Wisconsin Public Television. She Who Walks: the Story of Nancy Danforth Elm and Maria Christjohn Hinton (video). Green Bay: WPT, 2002.
Faust, Amelia Pedersen
Phillips, Peggy A. Millie’s Story: Black River Country after the Frontier. Black River Falls: Published by Odana Press for the Jackson County Historical Society, 1994.
Fennema, Elizabeth
University of Wisconsin-Madison scholar of gender and mathematics.
Morrow, Charlene. “Elizabeth Fennema (1928 -).” In Notable Women in Mathematics: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. by Charlene Morrow and Teri Perl (Westport, CT; Greenwood, 1998): 51-56.
Ferber, Edna
Novelist Ferber (1887-1968) grew up in Appleton and worked on newspapers in Wisconsin.
Edna Ferber: Selected Resources from the Appleton Public Library site includes photographs, articles she wrote in the Appleton Post-Crescent newspaper and more. Note: Link no longer working.
“Edna Ferber.” Excerpt from Wisconsin Authors and Their Works, by Charles Rounds (1918). https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WIReader/WER0050.html
Ferber, Edna. A Peculiar Treasure (autobiography). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1960.
Ferber discusses her early years, including her experiences as a newspaper writer in Milwaukee.
Gilbert, Julie Goldsmith. Ferber, a Biography. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978.
Roberts, James P. Famous Wisconsin authors. Oregon, WI: Badger Books Inc., c2002.
Shapiro, Ann R. “Edna Ferber, Jewish American Feminist,” Shofar 20, 2 (2002): 52-60.
Ferber had early experiences with antisemitism, yet in her novels created an idealized America, where people of any group could succeed, without prejudice.
Stevens, John. “Edna Ferber’s Journalistic Roots.” American Journalism 12, 4 (1995): 497-501.
Zimmerman, Mark. “Edna Ferber,” Encyclopedia of the Self, n.d.
Includes links to digitized excerpts from her publications, photographs, etc.
Frackelton, Susan S.
Milwaukee artist.
Korenic, Lynette Marie. The Decorative Fire of Susan S. Frackelton: China Painting, Art Pottery, and Book Illumination. Ph.D. diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2006.
Frey, Gertrude M. Neugebauer
Jorgenson, Shirley D. Gertrude’s People. Madison: Stonefield Publishers, 1994.
Biography of woman from Beaver Dam.
Gale, Zona
Burt, Elizabeth. “Rediscovering Zona Gale, Journalist.” American Journalism 12, 4 (1995): 444-61.
Derleth, August. Still Small Voice: The Biography of Zona Gale. New York: Appleton-Century Co., 1940.
Forman, Henry James. “Zona Gale: A Touch of Greatness.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 46 (1962-63): 32-37.
Gibbs, Janet Frances. Zona Gale: Pulitzer Playwright, Social Activist, 20th Century Literary Comet. Ph.D. diss., Drew University, 2010.
Rux, Paul Philip. Zona Gale: Library Pioneer. Janesville: 1984? 79 slides, 1 audio tape and bibliography on author Gale (1874-1938).
Simonson, Harold Peter. Zona Gale. New York: Twayne, 1962.
“Zona Gale.” Excerpt from Wisconsin Authors and Their Works, by Charles Rounds (1918). https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WIReader/WER0054.html
Zona Gale: Her Live and Writings (video). Writer and producer Jocelyn Riley. Madison: Jocelyn Riley Productions, 1988.
Garcia, Jessie
Madison-born sportscaster.
Garcia, Jessie. My Life with the Green and Gold: Tales from 20 Years of Sportscasting. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2013.
Gerry, Eloise
Dr. Eloise Gerry: Scientist-Author-Teacher. Forest History Society website accessed December 12, 2005. [Noted no longer online, 8/2008.]
McBeath, Lida W. “Eloise Gerry: a Woman of Forest Science.” Journal of Forest History 22, 3 (1978): 128-135.
Gibbons, Anna
Portage County native who had a career as a circus side-show performer.
Klem, Amelia. “A Life of Her Own Choosing: Anna Gibbons’ Fifty Years as a Tattooed Lady.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 89, 3 (Spring 2006): 28-39.
Gockel, Mary
From Glen Haven.
Thuente, Clement Marie. A Sketch of the Life and Work of Mary Gockel. Milwaukee: Missionary Association of Catholic Women Publishers: 1926.
Goodell, Lavinia
Rhoda Lavinia Goodell (1839-1880), originally from Utica, New York, moved to Janesville in 1871 and was admitted to the bar in Rock County in 1874.
Cleary, Catherine B. “Lavinia Goodell, First Woman Lawyer in Wisconsin.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 74, 4 (1991): 243-271.
Davis, Paulette and Janet LaBrie. History’s Ms. Stories: Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin’s First Female Attorney. 1 DVD (72 minutes). Janet LaBrie interviews Paulette Davis, who reenacts the life of Goodell.
Derichsweiler, Teresa M. “The Life of Lavinia Goodell Wisconsin’s First Woman Lawyer.” Student paper at Stanford Law School, 1997. Note: Link no longer working.
Norgren, Jill. “Lavinia Goddell: ‘A Sweeping Revolution of Social Order,'” in Rebels At the Bar, New York: New York University Press, 2013: 44-73.
“Pioneers in the Law: Rhoda Lavinia Goodell.” Wisconsin Bar Association.
Schier, Mary Lahr. Strong-minded Woman: the Story of Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin’s First Female Lawyer. Northfield, MN : Midwest History Press, c2001 (suitable for young readers).
Gramlich, Teresa
Nugent, Rosamond. Buried Wheat. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1967.
On Mother Gabriel, of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, Manitowoc.
Gratiot, Susan Hempstead
Born 1797; 19th century pioneer in Lafayette County.
Bale, Florence Gratiot. “A Packet of Old Letters.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 11, 2 (December 1927): 153-168. Introduction and excerpts from her letters.
Grignon, Mary Elizabeth Meade
Crane, Virginia G. “History and Family Values, a Good Wife’s Tale: Mary Elizabeth Meade Grignon of Kaukauna, 1837-1898.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 80 (1997): 179-200.
Grotenrath, Ruth
Artist from Milwaukee.
Montgomery, Susan. In Celebration: The Life and Art of Ruth Grotenrath. West Bend: Museum of Wisconsin Art, distributed by University of Wisconsin Press, 2011.
Hamilton, Velma
African American Madison educator.
Basurto, Pauline Elisabeth. Velma Fern Bell Hamilton, 1929-2009: Education and Integration: Thought, Word and Deed in Madison, Wisconsin. M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2009.
Hamerstrom, Frances
Wildlife biologist, expert on raptors, and author of twelve books and over 150 scientific papers. She came to Wisconsin in the 1930s and lived with her husband in a farmhouse near Plainfield.
Corneli, Helen M. “The Hamerstroms: Conservation Pioneers in Hard Times.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 82, 4 (Summer 1999): 255-286.
Corneli, Helen M. Mice in the Freezer, Owls on the Porch: The Lives of Naturalists Frederick and Frances Hamerstrom. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.
Frederick and Frances Hamerstrom. Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame, inducted 1996. https://wchf.org/frederick-and-frances-hamerstrom/
Hamerstrom, Frances. My Double Life: Memoirs of a Naturalist. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994. Excerpted in “Fran Hamerstrom: A Passion for the Wild and Free,” Wisconsin Academy Review 41, 2 (Spring 1995): 4-10.
Harnack, Mildred Fish
American English instructor and anti-Nazi activist in Germany, she was the only American civilian publically tried and executed inside the Third Reich.
Brysac, Shereen Blair. Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Garson, Sandra. “Better Not Write, But Don’t Forget Me.” The Wisconsin Alumnus 87, 4 (May/June 1986): 9-12.
Honoring Mildred Fish Harnack: From Wisconsin Born and Educated to Resistance Fighter During World War II With the Red Orchestra Movement (a UW-Madison Archives virtual exhibit with primary sources). Note: Link no longer working.
Nelson, Anne. Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler. New York: Random House, 2009.
Wisconsin’s Nazi Resistance: The Mildred Fish-Harnack Story (video), produced by Joel Waldinger, Wisconsin Public Television. Madison, 2011. https://youtu.be/roamt0q7vQA
Harvey, Cordelia A. Perrine
Widow of Wisconsin governor Louis Harvey, Cordelia successfully lobbied with President Lincoln to bring wounded Union soldiers to Wisconsin for treatment.
Various reports and correspondence to and from Harvey are in the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Wisconsin Goes to War: Our Civil War Experience digital collection. Harvey items include:
Ernst, Kathleen. “An Angel From Wisconsin.” Civil War Times Illustrated 28, 1 (1989): 20-25.
Harrsch, Patricia G. “The Noble Monument: The Story of the Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 76, 2 (Winter 1992/3): 82-120.
Established in 1866 at the urging of Cordelia Harvey.
Kann, Bob. Cordelia Harvey: Civil War Angel. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2011.
McKinney, Mrs. William. “Mrs. Cordelia A. P. Harvey.” Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women. Fort Atkinson, Wis. : Hoard & Sons, [1924?]: 47-49. In the Wisconsin Electronic Reader
Mrs. Cordelia A. P. Harvey. Biography on the Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Association (reenactors organization) website accessed July 13, 2018. Includes text from McKinney above.
Solem, Jane Walrath. Wisconsin Angel: Cordelia Harvey, Civil War Heroine. Lake Mills: Hartington Press, 2009.
Hastings, Lucy
Correspondence in the 1850s and 1860s, including an 1855 description of moving from Massachusetts to Oxford, Wisconsin, and information on Indians around Oxford, moving to Eau Claire in 1857, and an Indian panic there in 1862. Digitized by University of Wisconsin Digital Collections as part of the Wisconsin Pioneer Experience Collection.
H’Doubler, Margaret
H’Doubler established the first university degree program in dance education at the University of Wisconsin in 1927. Her student Hill went on to teach at Bennington.
Vertinsky, Patricia. “From Physical Educators to Mothers of the Dance: Margaret H’Doubler and Martha Hill,” International Journal of the History of Sport 27, 7 (May 2010): 1113-1132.
Heard, Regie
Born in Arkansas, African American Regie Heard moved to Milwaukee when she married. She and her husband operated the Angel Food Teashop restaurant in a Milwaukee mansion from 1926-1936.
Heard, Regie and Bonnie Langenhahn. Regie’s Love: a Daughter of Former Slaves Recalls and Reflects. Menomonee Falls: McCormick and Schilling, 1987.
Hinton, Maria Christjohn
Oneida elder and fluent speaker of the Oneida language.
Danforth, Michelle and Wisconsin Public Television. She Who Walks: the Story of Nancy Danforth Elm and Maria Christjohn Hinton (video). Green Bay: WPT, 2002.
Hoard, Mary
Starke, William. Remembering Mary Hoard, A Very Special Lady. Fort Atkinson: Fort Atkinson Historical Society, 2007.
Hoban, Margaret
Tolan, Sally. “Margaret Hoben: Educator.” Milwaukee History 8 (Spring 1985): 11-23.
Holz, Alice
Hold, Alice. “Memories of the Milwaukee Leader.” Milwaukee History 13, 1 (1990): 18-25.
A labor movement leader reminisces about the newspaper.
Hooper, Jessie Annette
Suffrage speaker, Democratic Party leader, and peace activist from Oshkosh. Her papers, mainly from 1920-35, are in the Wisconsin Historical Society (various locations).
Smith, James Howell. “Mrs. Ben Hooper of Oshkosh: Peace Worker and Politician.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 46 (1962/63): 124-135.
Hoxie, Vinnie Ream
Sculptor.
Cooper, Edward S. Vinnie Ream: An American Sculptor. Chicago: Academy Chicago, 2004.
DeBirny, Cecile Ream. “Vinnie Ream.” Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine 107, 2 (1973): 88-103.
Stathis, Stephen W. and Lee Roderick. “Mallet, Chisel, and Curls.” American Heritage 27, 2 (1976): 44-47, 94-96.
Vinnie Ream Hoxie on the Arlington National Cemetery website. Last accessed July 13, 2018.
Vinnie Ream Hoxie website. Last accessed July 13, 2018.
Huey, Mrs. Thomas
Address (transcript), 1924, in which she reminisces about her life in Dunn County, Wisconsin, between 1863 and 1883. Digitized by University of Wisconsin Digital Collections as part of the Wisconsin Pioneer Experience Collection.
Hunter, Amy Louise
A graduate of the Yale School of Medicine and its public health program, Hunter was Director of the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health of the Wisconsin Board of Health.
Adams, Sean Patrick. “Who Guards Our Mothers, Who Champions Our Kids? Amy Louise Hunter and Maternal and Child Health in Wisconsin, 1935-1960.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 83, 3 (2000): 181-201.
Hurd, Ann Augusta Jaquins and Hurd, Mary Olivia
Hurd, Ann A. Letters of Ann Augusta Jaquins Hurd and Mary Olivia Hurd Arno, 1858-1897. Edited by Helen H. Cooperman. Chicago: H.H. Cooperman, 1988.
Late nineteenth-century mother-daughter correspondence in central Wisconsin.
James, Ada
Finding aid to her papers in the Wisconsin Historical Society (link no longer working), and selected folders from that collection digitized by the University of Wisconsin Libraries.
James, Ada and Hooper, Jessie Annette
Graves, Lawrence. “Two Noteworthy Wisconsin Women: Mrs. Ben Hooper and Ada James.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 41 (1957/58): 174-180.
Jastrow, Rachel
Rachel Jastrow started the Madison chapter of Hadassah, a national Jewish women’s organization founded by her sister, Henrietta Szold.
Levin, Alexandra Lee. “The Jastrows in Madison: A Chronicle of University Life, 1888-1900.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 46 (1962/63): 243-256.
Jennings, Janet
Walsh, John Evangelist. “Forgotten Angel: The Story of Janet Jennings and the Seneca.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 81, 4 (1998): 267-293.
Jones, Nellie Kedzie Sawyer
Jones (1858-1956) was a leader in establishing the study of home economics on the college level.
Jones, Nellie Kedzie Sawyer. “Nellie Kedzie Jones’s Advice to Farm Women: Letters From Wisconsin, 1912-1916,” edited by Jeanne Hunnicott Delgado. Wisconsin Magazine of History 57 (1973): 3-27. Also published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in its “Wisconsin Stories” Series.
Jordan, Elizabeth Garver
See chapter in Wisconsin Authors and Their Works, edited by Charles Ralph Rounds. Madison, Wis.: Parker Educational Co., 1918.
Kander, Lizzie Black
Kander assembled The Settlement Cookbook (the 1910 edition, excerpts digitized by the Wisconsin Historical Society).
Fritz, Angela. “Lizzie Black Kander and Culinary Reform in Milwaukee, 1880-1920.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 87, 3 (2004): 36-49.
Johnson, Beth DiNatale. “Kander, Lizzie Black, 1858-1940.” In Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, ed. by Paula E. Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore (New York: Carlson Press, 1997): V. I: 717-718.
Kann, Bob. A Recipe for Success: Lizzie Kander and her Cookbook. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2007 (for children).
Uebelherr, Jan. “100 years of ‘The Settlement‘.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 18, 2001.
Waligorski, Ann Shirley. Social Action and Women: the Experience of Lizzie Black Kander. M.A. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1970.
Keenan, Irene N.
Winnebago member.
Riley, Jocelyn, producer. Big Sister, Little Sister (video). Madison: Her Own Words, 1995.
Kellogg, Louise Phelps
Librarian.
Kinnett, David. “Miss Kellogg’s Quiet Compassion.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 62, 4( 1971): 267-299.
Kluge, Cora Lee
Professor of German, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Oral history interview, 2007, digitized in the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection.
Kohler, Ruth de Young
Journalist
Mitchell, Bonnie. “Wade House Serves as a Lasting Memorial to History-Minded Wisconsin Woman,” Wisconsin Then and Now 15, 6 (1968): 1-4. Ruth De Young worked for the Chicago Tribune as a writer and editor. After she married Herbert Kohler of Wisconsin, she moved to Wisconsin and was active on many local and state historical projects, including the restoration of Wade House.
Kinzie, Mrs. John H.
Bogue, Margaret Beattie. “As She Knew Them: Juliette Kinzie and the Ho-Chunk, 1830-1833.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 85, 2 (Winter 2001-2002): 44-57.
Kinzie, Mrs. John H. Wau-Bun: the “Early Day” in the Northwest. Introduction by Nina Baym. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1992.
Mrs. Kinzie (1806-1870) originally published her description of pioneer life and Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin, in 1856. It has been published in numerous editions, including one edited with notes and introduction by Eleanor Kinzie Gordon (1901), and one with notes and introduction by Louise Phelps Kellogg (1948 and 1975). The 1873 edition was digitized by the Library of Congress’s American Memory Project (link no longer working).
Purdy, Helen M. “Mrs. John H. Kenzie.” In Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women. (Fort Atkinson, Wis.: Hoard & Sons, [1924?]): 95-97. In the Wisconsin Electronic Reader. https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WIReader/WER0110.html
La Budde, Wilhemine Diefenthaeler
Conservationist.
Elsner, Jennifer M. Wilhe[l]mina Diefenthaeler La Budde and Wisconsin Women’s Involvement in Forest Conservation, 1925-1955. M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2000.
La Follette, Belle Case
Belle: the Life and Writings of Belle Case La Follette (video). Writer and producer Jocelyn Riley. Madison: 1987.
Uses photographs and words of Belle Case La Follette (1859-1931), who describes her views of her home, family, and life with her husband Robert M. La Follette (U.S. congressman and senator, Wisconsin governor) and her leadership role in suffrage, peace and progressive movements.
Freeman, Lucy; La Follette, Sherry; Zabriskie, George A. Belle: the Biography of Belle Case La Follette. New York: Beaufort Publishers, 1985.
Montgomery, Dee A. Intellectual Profile of Belle Case La Follette: Progressive Editor, Political Strategist, and Feminist. Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1975.
“Pioneers in the Law: Belle Case La Follette.” Wisconsin Bar Association.
Riley, Jocelyn. “Belle Case La Follette.” Wisconsin Academy Review 34, 2 (March 1988): 20-23.
Unger, Nancy C. “The Two Worlds of Belle Case La Follette.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 83, 2 (Winter 1999/2000): 83-110.
Adapted from the chapter “Belle Case La Follette: Women’s Victory, Women’s Tragedy,” in Unger’s Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).
Laird, Helen Connor
A leader in politics and education on the community and state level, Helen C. Laird was the mother of Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird, Jr., and grandmother of Wisconsin First Lady Jessica Doyle.
Laird, Helen L. A Mind of Her Own: Helen Connor Laird and Her Family, 1888-1982. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005.
Lenroot, Clara (Clough)
Lenroot, Clara (Clough). Long, Long Ago. Appleton, WI: Badger Printing Co., 1929.
Reminiscences of mid-nineteenth century Wisconsin childhood.
Lerner, Gerda
The doyenne of the field of women’s history and professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fischer, Joan. “Resistance and Triumph: an Interview With Gerda Lerner,” Wisconsin Academy Review Spring 2002 (being digitized in the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections)
Lerner, Gerda, Fireweed: a Political Autobiography. Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2002.
“Lerner, Gerda (1920- ).” In American Women Historians 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary, by Jennifer Scanlon and Shaaron Cosner (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996): 144-146.
Strasser, Judith. “Pioneering Professor: Gerda Lerner.” Re://Collections, Jewish Women’s Archive Newsletter 1, 2 (Fall 1999).
Levy, Augusta
Levy, Augusta. “Recollections of a Pioneer Woman of La Crosse.” Edited by A.H. Sanford. Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin 59 (1911): 201-15.
Mid-nineteenth century La Crosse.
Lund, Alice Dahlin
Lund, Alice Dahlin. “I Want to Write About My Days of a Slower Progress,” in Writings of Farm Women 1840-1940: an Anthology, by Carol Fairbanks and Bergine Haakenson (New York: Garland, 1990): 95-123.
Selection from memoir of life in West Sweden, Wisconsin, in 1860s and 1870s.
Lurie, Nancy Oestreich
“Nancy Oestreich Lurie.” In Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies, edited by Uta Gacs, et al. New York: Greenwood, 1988; reprinted in Wisconsin Archeologist 74 (1993): 3-9, with updated information by Dawn Scher and Carter Lupton.
Lynde, Mary Blanchard
Langill, Ellen D. “Speaking with an Equal Voice: The Reform Efforts of Milwaukee’s Mary Blanchard Lynde.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 87, 1 (2003): 18-29.
Maidhood, Edna
Dodgeville teacher, editor, and poet.
Maidhood, Edna. Rose Jar: The Autobiography of Edna Maidhood. Madison: North Country Press, 1990.
Marinette, — Queen of the Menominees, 1793-1865
Johnson, Beverly Hayward . Queen Marinette: Spirit of Survival on The Great Lakes Frontier. Amasa, MI: White Water Associates, 1995.
Biography of a “French and Native American woman who lived near the mouth of the Menominee River during the early 1800s. An intelligent, competent and respected businesswoman, for whom the city Marinette, Wisconsin is named.” [Quotation from the distributor, the Brown County Historical Society.]
Martin, Mary Laurentine
Views From My Schoolroom Window: The Diary of School Teacher Mary Laurentine Martin, edited by Jennifer Cain Bohrnstedt. Authorhouse, 2006.
Account of a 19th century Janesville woman who started teaching school at age 15.
McCormick, Mary
Missionary from Milwaukee.
Mueller, Donald J. and Jacqueline Hansen Maggiore. Fluent in Faith: the Gift of Mary McCormick. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2012.
McGinty, Maud
Born in Waupaca County in 1878; teacher of people who were deaf, in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Plant, Nancy K. “She Taught Him to ‘Hear with His Eyes'” (and second digitized part) Wisconsin Magazine of History 93, 1 (2009): 36-47.
McKay, Nellie Y.
UW-Madison Professor of African American Studies, Women’s Studies, and English.
Moody, Jocelyn. “Nellie McKay: A Memorial,” African American Review 40, 1 (2006): 5-38.
Blockett, Kimberly and Rutledge, Gregory, ed. “‘The Nellie Tree’: Or, Disbanding the Wheatley Court,” African American Review 40, 1 (2006):39-66.
Mead, Theta
Jensen, Joan M. “The World of Theta Mead, County Nurse: Private and Public Health Care in Rural Wisconsin, 1900-1922.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 92, 3 (2009): 2-15.
Mears, Helen Farnsworth (1871-1916)
Ella, Janet. “Sculptor Helen Farnsworth Mears.” Wisconsin Academy Review 32, 2 (March 1986): 19-22.
Green, Susan Porter. Helen Farnsworth Mears. Oshkosh: Castle-Pierce Press, 1972.
Hiles, Mary. “Helen Farnsworth Mears.” Voyageur: Northeast Wisconsin’s Historical Review 20, 2 (2004): 46-51.
“The Story of a Statue.” (anon.) Wisconsin Then and Now 9, 8 (1969): 1-3.
Meir, Golda
Brown, Michael. “The American Element in the Rise of Golda Meir, 1906-1929.” Jewish History [Israel] 6, 1-2 (1992): 35-50.
Meir, Golda. My Life. New York: Putnam, 1975.
From Russia to Milwaukee to Israel. The section describing her childhood in Milwaukee is excerpted in “A Political Adolescence,” Wisconsin Academy Review 43, 1 (Winter 1996/97): 13-19.
Mendez-Mendez, Serafin. “Golda Meir: The Formation of a Modern Political Leader.” Connecticut Review 15, 2 (1993): 37-48.
Mendenhall, Dorothy Reed
Physician, lecturer in Maternal and Child Health, University of Wisconsin.
Her papers are in the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College. Finding Aid.
Zwitter M.; Cohen J.R.; Barrett A.; Robinton E.D. “Dorothy Reed and Hodgkin’s Disease: a Reflection After a Century,” International Journal of Radiation Oncology. 53, 2 (June 2002): 366-375.
“Dr. Dorothy Reed Mendenhall.” Changing the Face of Medicine Exhibit, National Library of Medicine, no date.
Merrill, Harriet Bell
University of Wisconsin Zoologist Merrill (d. 1915) did field work in the Amazon.
Hartridge, Merrillyn L. The Anandrous Journey: Revealing Letters to a Mentor. Amherst Press, 1997.
Work by Merrill’s grand-niece, based on her letters to Edwin A. Birge, Dean of the University of Wisconsin Department of Zoology, and other material.
Hartridge, Merrillyn L. “H.B. Merrill: Early Wisconsin Scientist and Adventurer.” Wisconsin Academy Review 41, 2 (Spring 1995): 16-22.
Meudt, Edna
Teacher and poet.
Meudt, Edna. The Rose Jar: The Autobiography of Edna Meudt. Madison, WI: North Country Press, 1990.
Roberts, James P. Famous Wisconsin authors. Oregon, WI: Badger Books Inc., 2002.
Miller, Ellen Spaulding
Selections from the Papers of an Eau Claire resident, from 1863 and 1870-1887. The collection consists largely of letters written principally by her to family members who probably lived in New York. The letters reflect domestic life, family relationships, economic conditions, lumbering, religious revivals, and health conditions in the lumbering capital of northwestern Wisconsin. Digitized by University of Wisconsin Digital Collections as part of the Wisconsin Pioneer Experience Collection.
Miller, Frieda Segelke
Miller grew up in La Crosse and graduated from Milwaukee-Downer College. She was director of the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau (1944-53) and later worked for the International Labor Organization and the International Union for Child Welfare.
Wallace, Teresa Ann. Frieda Segelke Miller: Reformer and Labor Law Administrator. Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1983.
Miner, Harriet Pond Rice
A Life Well Lived: Memorial of Mrs. H.A. Miner. Madison: Wisconsin Woman’s Home Missionary Union, 1918.
Minoka-Hill, Lillie Rosa
Reared in a Hicksite Quaker preparatory school and educated at the Woman’s Medical College of Philadelphia, Minoka-Hill (1876-1952) married an Oneida Indian man from Wisconsin and settled on the Oneida Reservation.
Apple, Rima D. “Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill.” Women and Health 4, 4 (Winter 1979): 329-31.
Hill, Roberta Jean. Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill: Mohawk Woman Physician. Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1999.
Moesser, Anona (1907-2002)
Nurse from Green Bay who directed American Red Cross service clubs during World War II.
Somerville, Lee. “Her Boys.” Voyageur: Northeast Wisconsin’s Historical Review 21, 1 (2004): 10-15, 17-22.
Monroe, Margaret Ellen.
Monroe, Margaret Ellen. Margaret Monroe: Memoirs of a Public Librarian. Madison, WI: Parallel Press, University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries, 2006.
Memoirs of a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies.
Morris, Mary Ellen Joiner (1848-1940)
Morris, Mary Ellen Joiner. Sketches From Memory. Resada, CA: Hungerford Press, 1942. (55 p.).
Morrison, Eliza
A part Ojibwa woman who lived from 1837-1921.
A Little History of My Forest Life: an Indian-White Autobiography; edited by Victoria Brehm. Tustin, Mich.: Ladyslipper Press, 2002.
Mortimer, Mary
Mortimer (1816-1877) founded Milwaukee Female College.
Norton, Minerva (Brace). A True Teacher: Mary Mortimer, a Memoir. New York: F.H. Revell, 1894.
Peterson, Walter F. “Mary Mortimer: A Study in Nineteenth Century Conversion.” Journal of Presbyterian History 41, 2 (1963): 80-88.
Peterson, Walter F. “Mary Mortimer: Continuity and Change at Milwaukee Female College,” Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters 56 (1967/68): 73-79.
Mountain Wolf Woman
A Winnebago woman from Black River Falls, who experienced fully both the traditional lifestyle of her tribe and white society.
Bataille, Gretchen and Kathleen Mullen Sands. “Culture Change and Continuity: A Winnebago Life.” In American Indian Women Telling Their Lives, 69-82. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Holliday, Diane Young. Mountain Wolf Woman: a Ho-Chunk Girlhood. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2007 (for children).
Mountain Wolf Woman. Mountain Wolf Woman, Sister of Crashing Thunder: the Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian, edited by Nancy Ostreich Lurie. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966.
Mountain Wolf Woman: 1884-1960 (video). Writer and producer Jocelyn Riley. Madison: Her Own Words, 1990.
Based on Mountain Wolf Woman’s autobiography and narrated by her granddaughter.
Radin, Paul. The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian. New York: Dover, 1963.
Munts, Mary Lou
“Wisconsin Legal History: Mary Lou Munts.” Wisconsin Lawyer.
Nelson-Beale, Arlene
Nelson-Beale, Arlene. Wait Until I’m Able. Edited by Ashley Hays. Shawnee Mission, Kan.: PDP Publications, 1999.
Newcomb, Kate Pelham
Woodruff physician who lived from 1886-1956.
Comandini, Adele. Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes: The Story of Kate Pelham Newcomb. New York: Rinehart, 1956.
Niedecker, Lorine
Niedecker was a poet. She had a long correspondence and collaborations with Louis Zukofsky. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at University of Texas has Zukofsky’s papers and created a subset called the Niedecker Collection.
Knox, Jane Shaw. Lorine Niedecker: an Original Biography. Fort Atkinson, WI: Dwight Foster Public Library, 1987.
Meyer, Wayne. “Lorine Niedecker: A Life by Water.” Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 71, 2 (1983): 1-12.
Penberthy, Jenny “The ‘Very Variant’: Lorine Neidecker’s Manuscript Collection.” Library Chronicle of the University of Texas at Austin 22, 1/2 (1992): 113-147.
Peters, Margot. Lorine Niedecker: A Poet’s Life. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011.
Pridmore, Jan. A Web Guide to Lorine Niedecker. Updated February 23, 2003. Last accessed July 13, 2018.
Roub, Gail. “Getting to Know Lorine Niedecker.” Wisconsin Academy Review 32, 2 (1986): 37-41.
Nohl, Mary
Outsider artist/sculptor from Fox Point.
Manger, Barbara and Janine Smith. May Nohl: Inside and Outside. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009.
O’Keeffe, Georgia
Artist born in Sun Prairie. She has been the subject of numerous books, articles, videos, and websites. Here are selected website and book citations:
“Georgia O’Keeffe.” ArtCyclopedia entry: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/okeeffe_georgia.html
Hogrefe, Jeffrey. O’Keeffe: the Life of an American Legend. New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, 1999.
Lisle, Laurie. Portrait of an Artist: a Biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1986.
Messinger, Lisa Mintz. Georgia O’Keeffe. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
Patten, Christine Taylor and Alvaro Cardona-Hine. Miss O’Keeffe. Alburquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.
Peters, Sarah Whitaker. Becoming O’Keeffe: the Early Years. New York: Abbeville Press, 1991.
Robinson, Roxana. Georgia O’Keeffe: a Life. New York: HarperPerennial, 1990, 1989.
Oleson, Thurine
Oleson, Thurine. Wisconsin, My Home: the Story of Thurine Oleson, as told to her daughter Erna Oleson Xan. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1950, 1975.
Olson, Bertha
Olson was tried and convicted of instigating the lynching of her abusive husband.
Pederson, Jane M. “Gender, Justice, and a Wisconsin Lynching, 1889-1890.” Agricultural History 67, 2 (1993): 65-82.
Pallone, Jodie
Pallone, Jodie. Cut over Country: Jodie’s Story. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1976.
Rural life in the 1920s.
Paterson, Anna
Paterson, Lucille, ed. and trans. “Ephraim Is My Home Now: Letters of Anna and Anders Paterson 1884-1889.” Wisconsin Magazine of History. Part I: V. 69, no.3 (Spring 1986), pp. 187-210; Part II: V. 69, no.4 (Summer 1986), pp. 284-304; Part III: V. 70, no. 1 (Autumn 1986), pp. 32-56; and Part IV: V. 70, no.2 (Winter 1986-87), pp. 107-131.
Peters, Nell
Peters, Nell. Nell’s Story: a Woman from Eagle River. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Phillips, Velvalea Rogers
Politician, state office holder, judge, and civil rights leader.
“Vel Phillips” section of “Selma of the North: Milwaukee and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s” online exhibit, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library, Division of Archives & Special Collections [no longer online.]
“Vel Phillips” Topics in Wisconsin History. Wisconsin Historical Society.
Pietsch, Edna Frida
Edna Frida Pietsch Collection (1920-1981). UW-Madison Music Library Archival collection of a woman composer from Milwaukee.
Polacheck, Hilda Satt
Bergland, Betty Ann. Reconstructing the ‘Self’ in America: Patterns of Immigrant Women’s Autobiographies. Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1990.
Polacheck’s autobiography is one of the three analyzed by Bergland.
Polacheck, Hilda Satt. I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl, edited by Dena J. Polacheck Epstein. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Wisconsin focus in Part IV: “Family Life and Politics in Milwaukee, 1912-29.”
Porter, Ann Eliza Bacon
Porter, Lillian R. Choice Seed in the Wilderness. Rockland, Maine: Seth Low Press, 1964.
Edited diary of Ann Eliza Bacon Porter from Cooksville.
Prisland, Marie
Prisland, Marie. From Slovenia to America: Recollections and Collections. Chicago: Slovenian Women’s Union of America, 1968.
Memoirs of an immigrant to Sheboygan who founded the Slovenian Women’s Union of America and created a magazine, the Dawn.
Quarlls, Caroline
First fugitive slave helped by the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin.
Pferdehirt, Julie. Caroline Quarlls and the Underground Railroad. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2008. (for children). See also “Caroline Quarlls 1842 Journey on the Underground Railroad” on Burlington History site (no longer available).
Quinney, Electa
First teacher in Wisconsin.
“The First Wisconsin Teacher.” Wisconsin Journal of Education, new series, vol. 18 (Madison, 1888): 493-494. Digitized by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Raimey, Mabel Watson
First African American woman lawyer in the state.
Williams, Phoebe Weaver. “A Black Woman’s Voice: The Story of Mabel Raimey, ‘Shero.'” Marquette Law Review 74 (Winter 1991-92): 345-76.
Ranney, Orpha
Letters from Ranney, Dunn County, Wis., to her sister Adah Holcomb in New Hartford, Conn., including details of her trip from New York to Wisconsin and describing illnesses, children, deaths, domestic chores, farming, weather, Christmas, and other details of daily life. Digitized by University of Wisconsin Digital Collections as part of the Wisconsin Pioneer Experience Collection.
Raskin, Ellen
Author from Milwaukee who wrote The Westing Game and other children’s fiction.
Kruse, Ginny Moore. “Ellen Raskin: Notable Wisconsin Author.” 2000.
Olson, Marilynn S. Ellen Raskin. Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers, 1991.
Reed, Ellen Spaulding
Lipsett, Linda O. Pieced from Ellen’s Quilt: Ellen Spaulding Reed’s Letters and Story. Dayton, Ohio: Halstead & Meadows Publishing, 1991.
Biographical work based on Reed’s correspondence and friendship quilt.
Richardson, Elizabeth
Downer College student from Indiana who went on to serve in the American Red Cross in World War II.
Madison, James H. “‘Hey Milwaukee’: a Wisconsin ‘Girl’ Goes to War, 1944-1945.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 91, 1 (2007); 28-41.
Ris, Hania W.
Ris, Hania W. “Ordeal of Being a Test Case: In Quest of the Right to Practice Medicine in Wisconsin.” Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 80 (1992): 1-19.
Efforts of a foreign-born physician to become licensed in Wisconsin.
Roberts, Annette
A Milwaukee pacifist.
Klotsche, J. Martin and Roberta Roberts Klotsche. A Woman of Courage: the Life and Times of Annette Roberts. Tucson: 1988.
Rosenthal, Hannah
Butrick, Leifa. “Wisconsin Woman of the Year,” Wisconsin Woman (April 1988): 20-24.
Rosser, Annetta
Annetta Rosser Collection (1938 – 1998). UW-Madison Music Library Archival collection of a composer who lived in Madison.
Ryan, A. Elizabeth
She retired in 1974 after more than forty years in Milwaukee County social welfare service.
Ryan, A. Elizabeth. “A Reminiscence of County Social Service Work 1932-1974.” Milwaukee History 18, 1 (Spring 1995): 15-24.
Sabin, Ellen Clara
Sabin (1850-1949) was president of Milwaukee-Downer College.
Friend, Neita Oviatt. “Ellen Clara Sabin and My Years at Downer.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 59 (1976): 178-191.
Palmer, Virginia A. “Faithfully Yours, Ellen C. Sabin: Correspondence Between Ellen C. Sabin and Lucia R. Briggs From January 1921 to August 1921.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 67 (1983): 17-41.
Correspondence between successive presidents of Milwaukee-Downer College.
Pau on Lau, Estelle. Ellen C. Sabin, Proponent of Higher Education for Women: a Social History. Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1978.
Pau On Lau’s article “Ellen Sabin and the Founding of Milwaukee-Downer College,” in Old Northwest 3, 2 (1977): 39-50.
Sackett, Mary
Sackett (1825-1869) lived in Laona, Wisconsin.
Sackett, Mary. Mary’s Sackett’s Journal, 1841/42. Kirkwood, MO: W.M. Underwood, 1986. (69 p.).
Salisbury, Winifred
University of Wisconsin graduate (1902) spent 1906 studying conditions among the poor people of Milwaukee’s South Side. She wrote home (Oregon, WI) describing what she observed and about her life.
Salisbury, Winifred. “Letters From the Settlement House.” Milwaukee History 19, 2 (Summer 1996): 54-68.
Schley, Mathilde Georgine
Painter, dressmaker, and author Schley (1864-1941) was the daughter of German immigrants.
Merrill, Peter C. “A Cosmopolitan Life in Wisconsin: Mathilde Schley’s Hunger for the Beautiful and Useful.” Voyageur: Northeast Wisconsin’s Historical Review 10, 1 (1993): 40-45.
Schurz, Margarethe Meyer
Margarethe Meyer Schurz founded the first kindergarten in the United States in Watertown in 1856.
Curran, Judth Moran. “Schurz, Margarethe Meyer (1833-1876).” In European Immigrant Women in the United States: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. by Judy Barrett Litoff and Judith McDonnell. New York: Garland, 1994: 270-272.
Jenkins, Elizabeth. “How the Kindergarten Found Its Way to America.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 14 (1930): 48-62.
“Margarethe Meyer Schurz 1833 – 1876.” Froebel website online. Last accessed July 13, 2018.
Slaughter, Gertrude
Slaughter,Gertrude. Only the Past Is Ours. New York: Exposition Press, 1963.
Smith, Betty Walker
Smith, Betty Walker, with Jan Whitaker. My Life in Politics. Madison: Historic Madison, 2008.
Smith, Mary Ellen Beardsley (b. 1842)
Newspaper contributor to newspapers in the Sun Prairie area.
Banks, Barbara A.E. 19th Century Wisconsin Writer, Mary Ellen Beardsley Smith, “Aunt Prue.” Tucson, AZ: Sunflower Press, 2010. A collection of Smith’s writings, compiled by her great-granddaughter.
Sorenson, Juanita S.
Sorenson, Juanita S. Juanita, Daughter of the Middle West: the Life Journey of Juanita Sumpter Sorenson. Madison: J.S. Sorenson, 2004.
Stelter, Martha
Martha Stelter. My First 80 Years. Washington Island, WI: Jackson Harbor Press, 1997.
Stearns, Lutie Eugenia
Librarian.
Stearns, Lutie Eugenia. “My Seventy-Five Years, Part I: 1866-1914.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 42 (1958/59): 211-218; Part II: 1914-1942, 282-287; Part III: “Increasingly Personal,” V. 43 (1959/60): 97-105.
Stearns, Lutie Eugenia. “The Question of Discipline.” Library Journal (1901). Available in Library Work With Children: Reprints of Papers and Addresses, selected and annotated by Alice I. Hazeltine (New York: Wilson, 1917). Note: Link no longer working.
Pawley, Christine “Advocate for Access: Lutie Stearns and the Traveling Libraries of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission, 1895-1914.” Libraries and Culture 35, no. 3 (Summer 2000): 434-458.
Stotts, Stuart. Books in a Box: Lutie Stearns and the Traveling Libraries of Wisconsin. LaFarge, WI: Big Valley Press, 2005. Fictionalized biography for ages 9 and up.
Stotts, Stuart. “A Thousand Little Libraries: Lutie Stearns, the Johnny Appleseed of Books.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 90, 2 (Winter 2006-2007): 38-49.
Tannenbaum, Earl. “The Library Career Of Lutie Eugenia Stearns,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 39 (1955/56): 159-165.
Stone, Mildred
Hen Medic: Fifty Years in Medicine (autobiography of physician born in 1911). New York: Carlton Press, 1989.
Stratman-Thomas, Helene
“Helene Stratman-Thomas (1892-1970)”. Biographical information on UW-Madison Music Library site for the Helene Stratman-Thomas Collection.
Tallman, Nellie
Hornbostel, Julia. A Good and Caring Woman: the Life and Times of Nellie Tallman. Lakeville, Minn.: Galde Press, 1996.
Based on diaries written by Janesville inhabitants Gussie and Nellie Tallman from 1860-1916.
Thayer, Arvina Lowe
Member of the Winnebago tribe.
Riley, Jocelyn, producer. Big Sister, Little Sister (video). Madison: Her Own Words, 1995.
Tinker, Mary F. (Mary Foster), 1894-1978
Tinker, Mary F. Mary’s Memories. Valeejo, CA: Protean Publishing, 2002.
Tabor, Baby Doe (Elizabeth Bonduel McCourt Doe Tabor)
Colorado silver mine owner, born in Oshkosh.
Temple, Judy Nolte. Baby Doe Tabor: The Madwoman in the Cabin. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
Tonnesen, Beatrice, 1871-1958
Photographer from Oshkosh.
Cross, Scott. “Beatrice Tonneson: Photography Pioneer.” Voyageur: Northeast Wisconsin’s Historical Review 21, 1 (2004): 38-42.
Trilling, Blanche Mathilde
Department of Physical Education, University of Wisconsin.
Blanchard, Jean W. The Role of Blanche M. Trilling in the Development of the Women’s Sports Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1912-1946. MA Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986.
Ulbricht, Elsa
Milwaukee artist, educator, and performer (1886-1980).
Merrill, Peter C. “Elsa Ulbricht: A Career in Art.” Milwaukee History 16, 1 (Spring 1993): 22-28. Available on the website of the Traditional Fine Arts organization at http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa88.htm.
Treacy, Janet. “Elsa Ulbricht: An Unquenchable Spirit.” Wisconsin Academy Review 38, 3 (Summer 1992): 19-25.
Unger, Nancy C. “The ‘We Say What We Think’ Club.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 90, 1 (Autumn 2006): 16-27.
From 1937-1957 five Dane County women discussed topics-of-the-day and of interest to farm women monthly over station WIBA, Madison. The women who hosted the show — Sibylle Mitchell (1890-1980) of Cottage Grove, Ruth King of Madison, Isabel Baumann (1918-1977) of Sun Prairie, Grace Langer of Marshall, and Selma Sorenson of Klevenville — are profiled.
Volk, Almira (1810-1906)
Volk, Almira Ketchum. The Autobiography of Almira Volk. Milwaukee, WI: Evening Wisconsin Co., 1897 (65 p.)
Wales, Julia Grace
University of Wisconsin English professor and WWI peace advocate.
Wales, Julia Grace. “Mediation Without Armistice: The Wisconsin Plan.” Madison, Wis.: The Wisconsin Peace Society, 1915. Digitized by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Trattner, Walter I. “Julia Grace Wales and the Wisconsin Plan for Peace.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 44 (1960/61): 203-213.
“Women Pacifists” We Were There: Canada and the First World War exhibit, National Archives of Canada.
Site includes some digitized documents by Wales.
Warner, Teresa
Zighelboim, Stephanie. Quite the Woman: Teresa Warner in Independence, Wisconsin, 1951-1990. M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2003. On a Mexican-American woman.
Weaver, Melinda Ann
Memories of Early Days, 1876 (town of Lisbon, Waukesha County). First published in the Waukesha Plaindealer, in 1876.
Welles, Beatrice Ives
Mother of Orson Welles.
Conner, Alice Anne. “Beatrice Ives Welles: Civic Leader, Champion for Women,” Kenosha County.com (Kenosha News). [Requires registration to access.]
Westerman, Joyce
Kann, Bob. Joyce Westerman: Baseball Hero. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press 2012 (for children).
Wheeler, Harriet Wood
Bunge, Nancy. Woman in the Wilderness: Letters of Harriet Wood Wheeler, Missionary Wife, 1832-1892. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, c2010.
White, Helen C.
English professor and department chair, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dougan, Kirsten M. Helen Constance White website – link no longer working.
McNaron, Toni. “The Purple Goddess: A memoir [of Helen C. White],” Women’s Studies Quarterly, 22, 1-2 (Spring-Summer 1994): 42-50; reprinted from Vol. 14 (Fall-Winter 1986): 44-7.
White, Sylvia Bell
African American from Milwaukee.
White, Sylvia Bell and Jody LePage. Sister: An African American Life in Search of Justice. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013.
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
Ballou, Jenny. Period Piece: Ella Wheeler Wilcox and Her Times. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1940.
Ifkovic, Edward. Blue Moon: A Novel Based on the Life of Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Oregon, WI: Waubesa Press, 2001.
Wheeler, M. P. “Ella Wheeler Wilcox.” Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women. Fort Atkinson, Wis.: Hoard & Sons, [1924?]. 57-60. In the Wisconsin Electronic Reader.
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler. The World and I. New York: Arno, 1980, c1918.
Autobiography of Wilcox (1850-1919), Rock County poet and journalist, whose writings appeared in Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and other magazines.
Willard, Frances Elizabeth
Bordin, Ruth Birgitta Anderson. Frances Willard: A Biography. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
Bordin, Ruth Birgitta Anderson. Woman and Temperance: the Quest for Power and Liberty 1873-1900. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981.
Dillon, Mary Earhart. Frances Willard: From Prayers to Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944.
“Frances E. Willard: A Nineteenth Century Leader,” is a part of a “Temperance & Prohibition” site at Ohio State University. Note: Link no longer working.
Hardesty, Nancy A. Women Called to Witness: Evangelical Feminism in the Nineteenth Century. Nashville: Abingdon, 1984.
Ivy, James D. “‘The Lone Star State Surrenders to a Lone Woman’: Frances Willard’s Forgotten 1882 Texas Temperance Tour.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 102, 1 (1998): 44-61.
Argues that her tour ultimately failed because she was perceived as a Northerner who also broke Southern norms by being a woman speaking in public.
Kent, Antoinette Cowles. “Frances E. Willard.” In Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women. Fort Atkinson, Wis.: Hoard & Sons, [1924?]. 26-28. In the Wisconsin Electronic Reader.
Lee, Susan Earls Dye. Evangelical Domesticity: The Origins of the Woman’s National Christian Temperance Union Under Frances E. Willard. Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1980.
Marilley, Suzanne M. “Frances Willard and the Feminism of Fear.” Feminist Studies 19,1 (Spring 1993): 123-146.
Miller, Ida Tetreault. Frances Elizabeth Willard: Religious Leader and Social Reformer. Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1978.
O’Brien, Sharon. “Tomboyism and Adolescent Conflict: Three Nineteenth Century Case Studies.” In Woman’s Being, Woman’s Place: Female Identity and Vocation in American History, ed. by Mary Kelley. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1979: 351-372.
Willard is one of the three.
Shafer, Elizabeth. “St. Frances and the Crusaders.” American History Illustrated 11, 5 (1976): 24-33.
Skidmore, P.G. “Crusading and Conforming: the Techniques of Temperance.” Dalhousie Review [Canada] 56, 1 (1976): 93-102.
Slagell, Amy Rose. A Good Woman Speaking Well: The Oratory of Frances E. Willard. Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992.
Slagell, Amy Rose. “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s campaign for Woman Suffrage, 1876-1896.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 4, 1 (2001): 1-23.
Wheeler, Sarah Wetherbee. Frances E. Willard’s Rhetorical Contribution to Suffrage and Social Reform. Ph.D. diss., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1993.
Willard, Frances E. How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle: Reflections of an Influential 19th Century Woman. Edited by Carol O’Hare. Sunnyvale, CA: Fair Oaks, Pub. Co, 1991.
Revised edition of Willard’s A Wheel Within a Wheel (1895).
Willard, Frances E. Let Something Good Be Said: The Speeches and Writings of Frances E. Willard, edited by Carolyn De Swarte Gifford and Amy Slagell. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
Willard, Frances E. Occupations for Women: A Book of Practical Suggestions for the Material Advancement, the Mental and Physical Development, and the Moral and Spiritual Uplift of Women (1897). Digitized by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Willard, Frances E. Writing Out of My Heart: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. Willard, 1855-96, ed. by Carolyn DeSwarte Gifford. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
Xiong, Mai Ya
Cohen, Sheila. Mai Ya’s long journey to Wisconsin. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2005.
Odyssey of a Hmong woman from Laos to Thailand to Wisconsin. This is a book for older children as well as adults interested in Hmong-Americans.
Youmans, Theodora Winton
Youmans (1863-1932) was a Waukesha journalist and suffrage leader. During her presidency of the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association from 1913-1920, Wisconsin became the first state to ratify the 19th amendment to the Constitution giving the vote to women.
McBride, Genevieve. “Theodora Winton Youmans and the Wisconsin Woman Movement.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 71 (1988): 243-275.
“Wisconsin’s Legal History: Theodora Winton Youmans.” Wisconsin Lawyer.
Zimmermann, Elizabeth (1910-1999)
Zimmermann was a British-born master knitter who moved to Wisconsin in 1937. She taught knitting classes through UW-Extension and wrote books on the subject.
“New School Knitting: The Influence of Elizabeth Zimmermann and Schoolhouse Press” exhibit, Design Gallery, UW-Madison. (Note: Link http://www.newschoolknittingexhibition.org/ not working.)
Tigan, Anne. “Wisconsin Woman in History: Elizabeth Zimmermann Changed the World of Knitting,” Wisconsin Woman (March 2008): 40.