Ellen Maria Langham (or Lingham, depending who you ask), marginally better known as Nelly Power, was a music hall and pantomime star in London in the late 1800s. Unfortunately, the only real reminder of Nelly these days is a blue plaque, used in the UK to mark places of historical significance, on her house in … Continue reading Ellen Maria Langham (aka Nelly Power) – Tales from Wo-Fan’s Land
Arabella “Belle” Babb Mansfield (May 23, 1849-August 1, 1911) – is best known for being the first woman in the United States to pass the bar examination and the nation’s first female attorney. At the time she sat for the bar, Iowa law required applicants for bar admission to be white, male, and over the … Continue reading Arabella Babb Mansfield – Tales from Wo-Fan’s Land
Driving down a two-lane paved road in rural Iowa from one small town to the next you might be forgiven for overlooking a sign saying “Carrie Lane Chapman Catt Girlhood Home” but turn on to the gravel road and you will find yourself at the childhood home of the woman who convinced Woodrow Wilson to … Continue reading Carrie Lane Chapman Catt – Tales from Wo-Fan’s Land
It is not possible within the confines of a blog post to list all the accomplishments of Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Her career was the embodiment of the term intersectionality – decades before the term was coined. She had her hands in women's suffrage, prison reform, desegregation efforts, fighting corruption in local politics, education reform, breaking … Continue reading Ida B. Wells – Tales from Wo-Fan’s Land
When I started to research Mary Kate Hunter, or Kate Hunter as she was known, I found myself discounting her efforts a bit, as she was part of the “leisure class” of society, her father was an attorney and she belonged to patriotic societies such as Daughters of the Republic of Texas and Daughters of … Continue reading Mary Kate Hunter: Texas suffragette and community organizer
An error that ascribes to a man what was actually the work of a woman has more lives than a cat.letter from Hertha Ayrton to the Westminster Gazette, 14 March 1909 It’s probably for the best that we don’t get to read our own obituaries. Because if Hertha Ayrton – scientist, engineer and suffragist – … Continue reading Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854-1923) – Tales from Wo-Fans Land
While visiting my wonderfully nerdy friends, Mel and Ben, in the UK in July 2016, we spent a lovely day at the British Library and the Museum of London! We saw many incredible documents at the Library - that, of course, I had a little cry over - and so many amazing artifacts at the … Continue reading Visiting the British Library and Museum of London
History Is Important 