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© ADOBE STOCK Women in History © ADOBE STOCK © ADOBE STOCK WOMEN IN HISTORY | IN PRINT Setting Type, Saving Her Family nn Smith A Franklin was one of those Franklins. The wife of printer James Franklin — Benjamin’s brother — she was America’s first female newspaper editor. Ann Franklin was widowed at age 39 in 1735. Left to raise her children, she took what she learned of the printing trade from James and set out on her own. Her 1736 plea to the General Assembly reads, “Whereas your petitioner being left with several small children which is a great charge to her, and having not sufficient business at the printing trade, humbly prays your Honors will grant her the favor to print Acts of the Colony and what other things shall be lawful and necessary to be printed, in order for your petitioner’s support and maintenance of her family, she having no other way to support herself.” She got the job, and supple- mented that income by print- ing pamphlets, sermons and other works. Ann revived her © ADOBE STOCK husband’s Rhode Island Almanac, becoming the first Ann eventually went into Newport Mercury, Rhode said she “supported herself Award (2008), which recogniz- woman to publish an alma- business with her grown son, Island’s first newspaper. and her family, and brought es a lifetime contribution to nac in America, and also sold James Jr., until his death in Despite failing health, she up her children in a genteel journalism in New England, her brother-in-law’s more 1762. At age 65, she took up never missed an issue before manner.” and was inducted into the famous Poor Richard’s her type trays again and her death in 1763. Her obitu- She was the posthumous University of Rhode Island Almanac. became sole proprietor of The ary, which ran in the Mercury, recipient of the Yankee Quill Journalism Hall of Fame. WOMEN IN HISTORY | IN MEDICINE Medical Firsts hile women tended their families’ Willnesses for hundreds of years, the first women to become respected medical professionals waited until the 1850s. Born in England, Elizabeth Blackwell moved to the United States in 1832, eventually set- tling in Cincinnati in 1838. She started a school with her sister Anna, and continued to make her living teaching various sub- jects while she saved for medi- cal school. “My mind is fully made up,” Elizabeth Blackwell wrote. “I have overcome stronger distates than any that now remain, and feel fully equal to the contest. As to the opinion of people, I don’t care one straw personally.” Emeline Roberts Jones She was accepted into Geneva Medical College more violent the blinder it is, (Hobart College) in 1847 by a and I think that Englishwomen unanimous vote of the all-male seem wonderfully shut up in student body. Elizabeth studied their habitual views. But a work typhus and worked in poor- of the ages cannot be hindered houses, graduating in 1849, by individual feeling. A hun- and continuing her education dred years hence women will in Europe. While treating an not be what they are now.” infant for an eye infection, she Emeline Roberts Jones contracted it herself and even- learned dentistry from her hus- tually lost her left eye. She con- band, Daniel, who grudgingly tinued to practice, however, accepted her as an assistant removing to London to practice after she studied and practiced at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. on teeth he had extracted. “(An administrator at the Daniel died in 1864, and she hospital), who is very cordial, continued to practice on her tells me that I shall have to own, traveling around encounter much more preju- Connecticut and Rhode Island dice from ladies than from gen- with a portable dentistry chair tlemen in my course,” before settling into her own DDS from Harvard and a medi- Columbian Dental Conference ary member of the National Elizabeth wrote in 1850 before practice in New Haven, cal degree from Yale. and, in 1883, was elected to the Dental Association. Jones was returning to New York. “I am Connecticut. Her son followed She served on the Woman’s Connecticut State Dental the 18th dentist licensed in prepared for this. Prejudice is her into the practice, earning a Advisory Council of the World’s Society and became an honor- Connecticut. WOMEN IN HISTORY | IN UNIFORM First Female Medal of Honor Recipient Mary Edwards She held a rank equiva- manent muscular atrophy. the field and hospitals, to line clothes, which she lent to that of lieutenant or After the end of the war, the detriment of her own called more hygenic and Walker was a captain, and served at the Walker returned to private health.” which also got her arrested volunteer Civil War Battle of Bull Run; at a practice. Gen. William The award was granted by more than once for dressing Washington, D.C., hospital; Tecumseh Sherman and President Andrew Johnson like a man; fought for aboli- surgeon for the in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Gen. George Henry Thomas in 1865, making her the only tion of slavery, prohibition Union — the first after the Battle of recommended her for the woman to have received the of alcohol, and for women’s Chicakmauga; and was held Medal of Honor, writing award and only one of eight right to vote. woman surgeon as a prisoner of war. that she “has rendered valu- civilian recipients. That President Jimmy Carter in the army. In April 1864, Walker was able service to the govern- civilian status lead to the restored Walker’s medal in arrested after crossing ment, and her efforts have revocation of the award in 1977, partially thanks to Confederate lines to treat been earnest and untiring 1917, but Walker insisted on efforts by her family. Of the wounded civilians. She in a variety of ways,” and wearing hers until she died 910 recipients to have their spent four months as a pris- “devoted herself with much in 1919. Rebellion and medals taken away, she is oner of war, suffering an patriotic zeal to the sick and Walker weren’t strangers; one of only six to have injury that left her with per- wounded soldiers, both in she also dressed in mascu- regained the award. WOMEN IN HISTORY | IN THE AIR Stratospheric Ambition ll her life, people A told Jeannette Ridlon Piccard that she couldn’t. She couldn’t fly. She couldn’t be a priest. And all her life, Piccard proved them wrong. Piccard grew up in Chicago and harbored a lifelong inter- est in science and religion, say- ing as young as 11 that she wanted to be an Anglican priest and later, in college at Bryn Mawr, writing an essay challenging the church on priesthood for women. She went on to earn a masters in organic chemistry in 1919 and a doctorate in education from the University of Minnesota. Her husband, Jean, came from a family of balloonists and was the twin brother of Auguste Piccard, noted subma- riner and balloonist. Jean taught Jeannette how to pilot a © ADOBE STOCK balloon and, in 1934, she became the first woman 1934, with Jean and their pet feet during an eight-hour flight deme and consultancies. Jean women ordained as part of an licensed balloon pilot in the turtle in the reconditioned over Lake Eerie. Jeannette died in 1963, and Jeannette irregular service. She served as U.S., with hopes to reach the Century of Progress, the landed near Cadiz, Ohio, in a moved to Houston to consult a deacon or irregular priest at stratosphere. Usual Piccard world’s largest balloon special- stand of trees, dooming the for NASA. I St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in family backers the National ly built for the World’s Fair in Century of Progress and injur- But she didn’t stay away St. Paul, Minnesota, a volun- Geographic Society, Goodyear, 1933. The balloon sported sev- ing Jean. Jeannette’s altitude from controversy. Jeannette teer chaplain at St. Luke’s and Dow Chemical balked at eral of Jean’s inventions, like record would stand for 29 fulfilled her 11-year-old dream Hospital, and an assistant pas- paying for a woman piloting fog-free windows. They lifted years until the Soviet Union’s and was ordained an tor at the Episcopal Church on the attempt. The Piccards off from Ford Airport in Valentina Tereshkova orbited Episcopalian priest in 1974 at Maccubin. She was also an found other backers, however, Dearborn, Michigan. Despite Earth in Vostok 6 in 1963. age 79 -- the first woman honorary member of the and sold commemorative some unplanned maneuvers, Jeannette and Jean didn’t ordained as a priest in the U.S. Seabury-Western Theological ephemera and press releases. the Piccards eventually return to the stratosphere, She was part of the Seminary board of trustees. Jeannette took flight Oct. 23, reached an altitude of 57,579 bouncing around jobs in aca- Philadelphia Eleven, a group of She died in 1981 at 86. WOMEN IN HISTORY | IN PUBLIC OFFICE All On Her Own here have been other women to T govern states in U.S. history, but Ella T. Grasso, the 83rd governor of Connecticut, is the first to be elected without having first been the spouse or the widow of a governor. She served from 1975 to 1980. Grasso was born in Windsor Republican Robert Steele. She Locks, Connecticut, to Italian was known for her economy, immigrant parents. She grad- even returning a $7,000 raise uated from Mount Holyoke she couldn’t legally refuse and College with a bachelors (eco- driving her own car.