Born to society parents in Boston, Elizabeth married Louis Agassiz in 1850 and assumed the role of mother to his three boys. She opened the Agassiz School in 1855 thus providing her family with a regular income and local teenage girls with a high-school education. Agassiz published A First Lesson in Natural History in 1859 and joined Louis on the 1865-1866 Thayer Expedition to Brazil. During these scientific trips Agassiz served as Louis's scribe and later published her own journal of the Thayer voyage in the Atlantic Monthly and as a book. Louis died in 1873 and Agassiz turned her focus to women's education, becoming the first president of Radcliffe College in 1893 and serving until 1899.

Very little information is available on Allen. She worked in the 19th century Women's Movement and was influential in the formation of the Girls' Clubs, groups of young factory women who met to discuss their roles in society and sought to better their working conditions. Allen's club started in a Boston knitting mill in 1884 and other clubs soon developed, leading to the foundation of the National League of Women Workers in 1897. In addition to the Fernside vacation home, Allen seems to have helped open other vacation resorts in New England as part of the Girls Vacation House Association.

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts to a Mississippi Reconstruction governor and active mother, Ames earned an art degree from Smith College in 1899. She married Harvard botany instructor Oakes Ames in 1900 and the two began a collaborative study of orchids that resulted in the seven volume work Orchidicae: Illustrations and Studies of the Family Orchidicae. In addition to botanical work, Ames labored in the women's suffrage and birth control movements, inventing spermicidal jellies and other birth control devices as a means to circumvent a ban on the distribution of birth control information.

Born in Carlinville, Illinois, Mary graduated from Blackborn College and moved with her homesteading family to California's Joaquin Valley in 1888. The western landscape was to provide Austin with the inspiration for most of her books, including The Land of Little Rain, published in 1903.

Daughter of an Aberdeen merchant, Elizabeth eloped to London with Alexander Blackwell and soon found herself with a husband incarcerated for debt. To secure Alexander's release, Blackwell took up writing and worked for several years on an herbal that was published in two volumes in 1737 and 1739 as A Curious Herbal containing Five Hundred Cuts of the most useful Plants which are now used in the Practice of Physick. The book proved immensely popular and an enlarged Latin edition was later published. Following his stint in jail, Alexander moved to Stockholm and was executed in July 1747 for plotting against the Swedish government. Little else is known of Elizabeth Blackwell's life.

The inspiration for much of Brightwen's nature writing came from her home, The Grove Estate, where she and her family moved in an attempt to alleviate her anxiety-ridden illnesses. Following the death of her husband in 1883, Brightwen's constitution improved and upon the recommendation of a family member she took to writing about the natural life at The Grove. Her numerous books were successful and while Brightwen appreciated the popular reception, she maintained a self-effacing attitude as evident in this response to a Who's Who question about her career: "I haven't careered much. Once went down in a diving bell, declined in a balloon, and prefer generally to keep on the surface of the earth."

No biographical information is available.

Buckely's employment as Geologist Sir Charles Lyell's secretary introduced her to the world of science and many of its practioners. She wrote scientific books for a wide audience on many topics, but evolution was her favorite. Her writings on evolution attracted the attention and praise of Charles Darwin.

Born in Manchester, England, Frances moved with her mother and siblings to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1865 following the death of her father. At the age of nineteen Frances sold her first story out of financial need and continued her writing profession after her marriage in 1873. Literary success and popularity followed, as did divorce and remarriage to an actor. While known today mainly for her children's books, Burnett's adult novels were bestsellers in their day. Her works have been transformed into numerous stage and film productions.

Born in Cockermouth, Cumberland to a rear admiral, Maria married Captain Thomas Graham in 1809. In 1822 she joined her husband on a voyage to Brazil and Chile, during which he died. Although newly widowed, Graham decided to remain in Valparaiso, Chile and kept a journal of her stay including descriptions of the massive 1822 earthquake. Her published account of the earthquake and its effect on the Chilean landscape captured the attention and scorn of George Greenouth, president of the Geological Society. Graham defended her "amateur" observations and successfully upheld her version of events. She married Sir Augustus Wall Callcott in 1827 and continued writing until her death.

Born in Lockport, New York, Campbell is best known for her reform writing on poverty and women workers. A close friend of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Campbell coedited a journal with her compatriot and joined her in working at Chicago's Unity Settlement. She managed to find time to lecture on home economics at the University of Wisconsin and at Kansas State Agricultural College while continuing writing and pushing for changes in the lives of working women.

An unhappy childhood and suicidal disposition were overcome by an epiphany at the age of thirty-five that the natural world should be the source for her then unsuccessful writing career. This realization proved a boon and following a period of self-education to supplement the zoology course she took at Wellesley College, Carrighar produced several critically acclaimed and popular books that explored animal behavior. One of these books, One Day at Teton Marsh, was developed into a television movie by Walt Disney.

Born into a prominent Springfield, Ohio family, Champney graduated from Vassar College in 1869 and following her marriage to artist J. Wells Champney in 1875 undertook a literary career that saw her works published in many of the leading periodicals of the day, including Harper's Magazine and Century. She is best remembered for her series of novels about Vassar.

No biographical information is available.

Daughter of novelist James Fenimore Cooper, Susan was born in Mamaroneck, New York, raised in Scarsdale and New York City and ultimately settled in the town that bore her family's name. Finding the local schools inadequate, the Coopers moved to Paris in 1826 where Susan and her sister received a "proper" education. Susan began assisting her father in his work when she was eighteen and he in turn encouraged her own literary pursuits. Cooper never married, focusing instead on writing, charity work and honing her psychic abilities (her nephew reported that she was able to move heavy objects, including dining tables, through the power of concentration).

No biographical information is available.

Born in Leicestershire, England, Croly and her family moved to New York state in 1841. A desire for a writing job led to a move to New York City in 1855 where she soon had a regular column in the Sunday Times and syndicated in many other newspapers. Married to reporter David G. Croly in 1856, Croly assumed editorship duties at various journals and newspapers while continuing to contribute articles to numerous periodicals during her long career. She wrote often on women's issues and was a strong proponent of political and economic equal rights for women. In 1889 she founded the Women's Press Club of New York and in 1892 became a journalism professor at Rutgers University.

Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Abby followed her family to the utopian Brook Farm in 1842 where she taught in the infant school. Her first published story appeared in 1861, starting a writing career that would see her works printed in many juvenile and domestic magazines. Deeply interested and active in women's rights causes, Diaz founded the Women's Education and Industrial Union of Boston in 1881 and later traveled the country organizing women's unions and lecturing on women's suffrage.

Dickinson lived and died in Amherst, Massachusetts and in that time produced some of the greatest poems of American literature. Educated at Amherst Academy and at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, Dickinson preferred to lead an isolated life and by her thirtieth birthday withdrew to the confines of her home. Only seven of the nearly nine hundred pomes found after her death were published during her lifetime.

Born into a scholarly family in Georgetown, South Carolina, Anna showed an early talent for writing. Married in 1830, Dinnies's published poetry focused on themes of domestic life and idealized marriage. Her one book, The Floral Year, appeared in 1847.

Daughter of an itinerant Methodist preacher, Dix's childhood was spent in the wilderness of northern Massachusetts. She ran away from home at the age of twelve to live with her grandmother in Boston and it was there that she received a formal eduction that led to a career in teaching. After teaching a Sunday school class to female prisoners in the East Cambridge jail in 1841, Dix discovered her vocation of prison reform and focused the remainder of her life on improving the conditions of inmates and the mentally ill.

Daughter of New York City, Emma married a Brooklyn bank president in 1828 and set up a salon on the way to becoming a poet, essayist and magazine contributor. Her 1831 address, Female Education, argued the need for women's education in creating good mothers. She served on the editorial staff of Godey's, Graham's and The Ladies' Companion and published several books of poetry before succombing to an illness in 1848 that left her an invalid and ended her writing career.

This self-proclaimed amateur was the daughter of Admiral Horatio Nelson's Chaplain and was raised by her widowed father in a Yorkshire vicarage surrounded by books. She demonstrated an early talent for art and writing and married Reverend Alfred Gatty in 1839. In addition to the popular and influential Parables from Nature, Gatty published a two volume History of British Seaweeds to great acclaim. An opponent of Darwin's theories of evolution, Gatty used the natural world to illustrate the divine in everyday life.

No biographical information is available.

Not much is known about Griffith's personal life other than she became an honorary member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1830. The editor of the New England Farmer noted in 1831 that she was a widowed mother who supported her family by agriculture and called her "the first female author on tillage."

Born in Rochester, New York to a philanthropic businessman, Guernsey wrote juvenile novels that were most often published by the American Sunday School Union. She was active in the Episcopal church and from the years 1888-1899 edited Parish Visitor, a religious journal distributed in prisons, homes and hospitals.

Born and raised in New Hampshire, Hale's home schooling was enhanced by lessons from her Dartmouth-attending brother. Married in 1813 and widowed in 1822, Hale began writing in order to support her five children. The appearance of her first novel, Northwood: A Tale of New England, to popular acclamation in 1827 brought an offer to edit the Boston publication Ladies' Magazine. She assumed the editorship of Godey's Lady's Book in 1837. As editor, she championed American authors and established the many domestic segments still found in today's women's magazines. A firm believer in the need for women to remain in the domestic sphere, Hale was against suffrage though she did advocate women's education as a means for women to improve their morality.

Born in Warner, New Hampshire Harris began writing at an early age and her pieces appeared in many periodicals during her lifetime. She remained in Warner and never married.

No biographical information is available.

Apparently of French ancestry, Reed married astronomer Thomas John Hussey and settled in Hayes, Kent where he served as Rector.

Born in Amherst, Massachusetts to devout parents, Jackson was orphaned in her teenage years. Educated at private schools and married in 1852, Jackson first wrote poetry to grieve for her son's death in 1865. She expanded to article writing and was featured in many periodicals. She married for a second time in 1875 having been widowed a decade earlier. Her new husband lived in Colorado and she incorporated her new home in many of her stories. After the move to Colorado, Jackson became a staunch supporter of Native American's rights and worked to improve their treatment at the hands of the United States government for the rest of her life.

Raised by her widowed mother, a former court milliner, Kent's interest in writing and nature developed at an early age.

The second youngest of ten children, Larcom spent her youth in Beverly, Massachusetts where her father was a retired shipmaster. After the death of her father, Larcom's mother moved the family to Lowell where she ran a boardinghouse for mill girls and Larcom became a bobbin girl in a factory. Larcom began writing poetry when she and her sister started a journal for mill women. Following her time in the Lowell mills, Larcom attended school and became a teacher. Writing and editing Our Young Folks became the focus of her career and she continued to publish until her death.

Lawrance taught botanical drawing in London, exhibited at the Royal Academy and was a friend of horticulturist and author Robert Sweet (1783 - 1835).

Little is known of William Lawson's life other than he wrote two important gardening books. The Countrie Houswifes Garden was the first gardening book written for women while A New Orchard and Garden is the first English book on fruit trees.

Born near Birmingham, England in 1807, Jane Webb was orphaned at seventeen and took up writing as a means of financial support. Her futuristic novel The Mummy, published in 1827, attracted the attentions of landscape gardener and writer John Loudon. They married soon after their initial meeting in 1830 and Jane Webb Loudon became a quick study of horticulture and gardening, often assisting John with his work. Finding the garden books available a bit too technical and dry for the general public, Jane wrote Instructions in Gardening for Ladies to popular acclaim. 1838 saw the publication of her four volume series The Ladies Flower Garden. John died in 1843 leaving behind a mountain of debt. Jane continued to write in order to support herself and her extravagant young daughter but her later books did not capture the earlier popularity she enjoyed.

Born in London to a wealthy Swiss merchant, Jane's early years were spent tending to her father's household and her eleven brothers. She married physician and chemistry enthusiast Alexander Marcet in 1799, had three children and formed her own interest in science following Alexander's admission to the Royal Society. Finding a need for popular science books, Marcet took up writing and published Conversations on Chemistry in 1809, a book which introduced Michael Faraday to the concepts of electrochemistry. She wrote several other science books as well as story books for children before her death in 1858.

No biographical information is available.

Born in Frankfurt to an etcher and book publishing father who died when she was three, Maria first studied flower painting with her step-father, Jacob Marrel. She married in 1665 and began her own botanical and entomological work after she and her family moved to Nuremberg in 1670. To facilitate her studies, Merian raised and kept live specimens and was therefore able to show the insects at each stage of their developments. Merian left her husband in 1685 and with her children joined a Labadist sect in Frankfurt. In 1699 she traveled with her daughter Dorothea to a Labadist mission in Surinam where she completed a series of paintings detailing the tropical flora and fauna. After a bout with yellow fever, she moved to Amsterdam in 1705 and published a series of engravings from her watercolors in Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. Merian died in poverty in 1717.

No biographical information is available.

Daughter of a Boston merchant, Osgood first published her work at the age of fourteen in Juvenile Miscellany. Married in 1835 to an artist, Osgood and her husband lived for two years in England before settling in New York City. She published Poetry of Flowers and the Flowers of Poetry in 1841, a book from which Herman Melville borrowed. Rumors of a literary romance with Edgar Allan Poe swirled in 1845, but Osgood remained with her husband and became one of the country's most popular poets before dying from tuberculosis in 1850.

Born and raised in New York City, Parsons began writing about nature following the death of her first husband. She published a guidebook to wildflowers, a series of essays on wildflowers and other books intended for the botanical education of children. Parsons joined the suffrage movement after the death of her second husband and was an active member in the Republican party.

Daughter of a Smithsonian Institution professor, Peary was encouraged early to pursue education and exploration. She met Robert Edwin Peary, at a Washington D.C. dancing school in 1885 and they married in 1888. Peary joined Robert on numerous expeditions and gave birth to her daughter less than thirteen degrees from the North Pole.

Raised in an intellectual Connecticut family and sister of educator Emma Hart Willard, Phelps was active in education reform and wrote several scientific text books that aimed to bring male and female students out from behind their desks and participate in hands-on learning. She became the principal of several Female Institutes and following her retirement in 1856 wrote novels and essays for numerous journals.

No biographical information is available.

No biographical information is available.

Born in Augusta, New York to a Methodist minister, Ella began writing at an early age. The focus of her published work was the education of children and she became editor of the juvenile periodical Wide Awake in 1875.

A widely published short-story author, Slosson was born in Stonington, Connecticut and became a practitioner of local color writing.

Raised in Edinburgh by a unrestrictive mother, Somerville first encountered algebra at the age of thirteen. A love of mathematics and astronomy saw her through two marriages and a career in scientific writing. Her books were used in schools for many years and led to a denouncement from York Minster for promoting views in opposition to the Biblical creation story. She was elected along with Caroline Hershel to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835, the first women to be so honored.

Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Thaxter was raised on a lighthouse island in the Isles of the Shoals where her father was a lighthouse keeper. Her early years were spent in familial isolation until her father moved the family to Appledore Island where he built and operated a resort hotel that eventually attracted many famous artists and writers. Thaxter married in 1851 and lived on the mainland for several years but the pull of the Isles of the Shoals led her to separate from her husband and lead a literary and artistic life on Appledore where she also formed a salon.

Born in Auburn, New York, Thorne married at the age of twenty-three, bore four children and did not begin writing until later in life, producing children's books and nature studies, mainly about birds, intended for children's education. Her documentation of damaged ecosystems bolstered a young conservation movement as did her assertion that birds were a benefit to humans.

A descendant of Mayflower travelers, Priscilla and John Alden, Todd grew up in the privileged world of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She moved to Amherst in 1881 where her astronomer husband became a faculty member of Amherst College. Friends of Austin and Susan Dickinson, Todd published the first book of Emily Dickinson's poetry in 1890. When not editing Dickinson's work, Todd wrote books, essays, sonnets and worked with her husband on scientific writing.

Poet and illustrator Louisa Anne Meredith was born in Birmingham, England in 1812. Influenced by the Romantics, she published her first book of poems appeared in 1835. Louisa emigrated to Australia a few years later where she married her cousin Charles in 1839. The pair moved to New South Wales and finally settled in Tasmania in 1840. Inspired by the Tasmanian landscape, Twamley published Some of My Bush Friends in Tasmania in 1860 and remained an active author and traveler until her death.

Born into the Twining tea dynasty, Elizabeth was raised in an affluent London neighborhood where she received the sort of education intended to create an accomplished young woman, including instruction in art and drawing. Inspired by the content in Curtis's Botanical Magazine and the Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick gardens, Twining began drawing plants and flowers and published in 1849 the two volume Illustrations of the Natural Order of Plants. In addition to botanical illustration, Twining spent much time performing charity work, including founding a hospital for the poor, and writing religious tracts.

Born in New York City, Bessie started her writing career after her first husband's death . She lived for a time in France with her sister-in-law Marie Van Vorst and they collaborated on several novels and non-fiction books. Their reform work The Woman Who Toils appeared in 1903 and exposed the working conditions of women in several cities. She believed that reforms would only come by removing women from factory jobs and placing them in the feminine industries of lace-making, hand weaving and embroidery.

Sister-in-law to Bessie Van Vorst, Marie was born into a wealthy New York City family. Her father's position on the New York City Superior Court and investigation of the Tweed machine instilled Marie with a desire for reform which she voiced in the 1903 book The Woman Who Toils. Marie took a different tack on reform than Bessie, believing that unions, not removal, would improve the lot of working women.

Born in Tottenham, Middlesex to a distinguished Quaker family, Wakefield started writing at the age of 40 in order to provide financially for her family following her husband's failure at business. Her books display a deep interest and concern for women's educational and occupational opportunities and she believed that the realm of science could provide women with employment. In addition to writing, Wakefield was an early proponent of savings banks and other reform movements.

No biographical information is available.

Born in Richmond, Virginia to genteel parentage, Elizabeth married William Wirt at the age of seventeen. The Wirts and their twelve children lived in Washington and Baltimore and Elizabeth wrote and illustrated Flora's Dictionary to share with family and friends. One of her hand copies attracted a publisher and in 1829 the first of many editions was released to the public.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Waterman rarely ventured far from the city. She married Captain Esling in 1840.

"High priestess of the Aesthetic Movement," Wheeler was born and raised in the Catskills by austere parents who believed firmly in the Bible and hard work. Wheeler married a businessman in 1844 and moved to New York City where she was introduced to denizens of the artistic and literary world. She raised four children and enjoyed the privileges of upper middle-class life, including European travels. Trained in needlework at an early age, she transformed this domestic art into a career, opening the Decorative Arts Society in 1877 and forming a partnership with Louis Comfort Tiffany to launch The Associated Artists firm in 1879. This firm undertook the renovation of the White House and other high-profile decoration projects. In addition to her design business, Wheeler sought to educate women on the importance of self-sufficiency and how skills like embroidery could attain this goal.

No biographical information is available.