Women in History

Dr. Eliza Ann Grier. Born a slave she became the first African American to practice medicine in Georgia

Lucy Craft Laney (April 13, 1854 – October 24, 1933) was an early African American educator who was the first to establish a school for African American children in Augusta, Georgia. She was born in Macon, Georgia, to former slaves. Although it was illegal for blacks to read at the time of her birth, she was taught by a slave owner's sister, and by 1869 she was enrolled in Atlanta University. Enrollment in her first school in Macon was only 6; by 1928 it had grown to over 800 students.

Celebrate Mother's Day with these Mother's Day ideas from homemade cards to great gift ideas.

Gertrude Belle Elion (1918-1999) American biochemist and pharmacologist who played a key role in developing the AIDS drug AZT, receiving the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1988 together with two other researchers. She was the first woman to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Before Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, there was just one woman cloaked in the black robe of the United States' highest court. Fulfilling a campaign promise to break that gender...

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was a former slave who became a successful seamstress, civic activist and author. She was best known as the personal modiste and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln, the First Lady. Keckley had moved to Washington in 1860 after buying her freedom. She created an independent business in the capital based on clients who were the wives of the government elite. Among them were Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis; and Mary Anna Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee.

Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte (June 17, 1865 - September 18, 1915) was the first American Indian woman to become a physician in the United States. Of Ponca, Iowa, French and Anglo-American descent, she grew up with her parents on the Omaha Reservation. She went to college at the Hampton Institute and got her medical degree at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) in Philadelphia.

African American poetry

On this day in history, Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman elected to Congress. On November 5th 1968, she was elected to represent New ...

"Eileen in Green" Think I have finally sorted out the mystery of this painting, after another query. The painting, called "The First Irish Pilot" is of Lavery's daughter Eileen who was married to the Master of Sempill, he a pilot she often his enthusiastic passenger (see "Sir John Lavery" by Kenneth McConkey, page 162). Another painting "'The First Flight to Dublin" also dates from this period (1926); the Irish Free State had bought five planes from the British and one of these was flown to…

These change-makers prove it pays to dream big.

Julia Child August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, spy and television personality. She most recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public, and her subsequent television programs, The French Chef premiered in 1963. She was also a spy! In 1944 she was posted to Kandy, Ceylon, where her responsibilities included "registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications" for the OSS's clandestine stations in Asia.

A woman with high standards and a short temper, Margaret Thatcher was not known as Britain's Iron Lady for nothing. After becoming both a chemist and a barrister and having two children, in 1959...

When Hillary Clinton became the first viable female presidential candidate and the GOP countered with Sarah Palin, many women looked to Gloria Steinem to make sense of the dueling candidacies. Opining...