“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”

Sarah Moore Grimké (1792–1873) and Angelina Emily Grimké (1805–1879), known as the Grimké sisters, were writers, orators, and educators—the first American female advocates of abolition and women's rights. Breaking from the southern slaveholding family they were born into, they chose to become Quakers, where, as women, they were allowed to speak out against slavery and for equal rights.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist. She was the first great recording star of gospel music and among the first gospel musicians to appeal to rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll audiences, later being referred to as "the original soul sister" and "the Godmother of rock and roll".
She was among the first popular recording artists to use heavy distortion on her electric guitar, heralding the rise of electric blues. 🎸

Through the 1940s, she was the hottest act on stage with a guitar. She became a model for Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Johnny Cash called her his favorite singer and biggest inspiration and Chuck Berry said his career was “one long Sister Rosetta Tharpe impersonation.” Her guitar technique also had a profound influence on the development of British blues in the 1960s (in particular, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Keith Richards.) 🎸 

She is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century—the founding mother who gave rock’s founding fathers the idea. 🎸

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) is a Japanese conceptual artist who has suffered with a hallucinatory mental illness since she was six years old. This never stopped her from creating...in fact, it helped her. Now, nearly she still makes her polka-dotted sculptures and installations in her studio near the psychiatric hospital in Japan, where she has been in residence for forty years. She is currently considered one of the world’s biggest art stars.

Sadie McCallum (born 2006) is an inventor and advocate. She has Cerebral Palsy and has been inventing methods to help overcome mobility challenges. I have been following Sadie's story for awhile now. She's got a great brain and a wonderful heart to make life easier for herself and others. She's a groundbreaking girl for sure, one to watch! (Also, Claire, her younger sister, is her best friend and faithful assistant...she's very special too.)

Edith Piaf (1915 – 1963) was a French singer, songwriter, cabaret performer and film actress noted as France's national chanteuse and one of the country's widely known international stars.

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was an American novelist , poet, critic, playwright, and art collector who became an important patron to many great modern artists in Paris in the 1920s (including Picasso and Matisse.) The literary salon she hosted in her home included other expat writers in Paris such as Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, coining the phrase “the Lost Generation,” which they would come to be known.

Janet Collins (1917-2003) was the first black prima ballerina to perform with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York City.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an American educator who overcame the double-adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century’s leading humanitarians. She was an author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. Among other organizations, she co-founded the ACLU and Helen Keller International, whose mission is to save the sight and lives of the world’s most vulnerable people. But she is most remembered for her incredible determination and imagination that allowed her to move beyond the darkness of being blind and deaf and make the world a better one, especially for the disabled.

Nanyehi or Nancy Ward (1738–1822) was a Beloved Woman of the Cherokee, which means that she was allowed to sit in councils and to make decisions, along with the chiefs and other Beloved Women. She believed in peaceful coexistence with the European Americans and helped her people as peace negotiator and ambassador. She also introduced them to farming and dairy production bringing substantial changes to the Cherokee society.

Joan Didion (born 1934) is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. She collaborated on several screenplays (including “A Star is Born”) with her husband, John Gregory Dunne. When he died of a heart attack after forty years of marriage,  she wrote a book about her grief, which also became a play.  Joan is a fashion icon as well as a literary icon: at the age of 80, she became of the “Face of Céline” for the French fashion label’s advertising campaign.

Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress. She is considered to be the first Chinese American movie star and also the first Asian American actress to gain international recognition. Her long and varied career spanned silent film, sound film, television, stage and radio.

Carol Burnett Carol Burnett (b. 1933) first female host of a TV variety show (which continued for 11 years)

Josephine Baker Singer, Dancer, Civil Rights Activist, French Resistance spy (1906-1975)

Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000) was a beautiful Austrian-American actress during Hollywood's "Golden Age" as well as an inventor.  She helped develop an early technique for spread spectrum communication, which we now use in cellular and WiFi technology.

Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906-1972) was a German theoretical physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize for developing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus.

Althea Gibson (1927 – 2003) was an American tennis player and professional golfer. She became the first black athlete to break through the color line of international tennis.  In 1956, she became the first person of color to win a Gram Slam title. The following year, she won both Wimbledon and the US Nationals, and won both again the following year.  In all, she won 11 Grand Slam tournaments, including six doubles titles, In the early 1960s she also became the first black player to compete on the women’s professional golf tour.

At a time when racism and prejudice were widespread in sports and in society, Gibson was often compared to Jackie Robinson. It was enormously difficult to play in professional sports if you were black, let alone a woman, but she she made history by competing not only in tennis but in the golf circuit as well.”I am honored to have followed in such great footsteps,” wrote Venus Williams. “Her accomplishments set the stage for my success, and through players like myself and Serena and many others to come, her legacy will live on.”

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was an author, a poet, actor, and a Civil Right’s Activist. With a career that spans over 50 years, she published many acclaimed works and received over 50 honorary degrees and had over 30 medical facilities named after her. She also wrote the first script by a black woman to be made into a Hollywood film. Her autobiographical book, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings is one of the most influential American books of the last century and is widely studied in high schools and colleges to this day.

Florence Nightingale  (1820 –  1910) was an English nurse and social reformer who greatly affected 19th-and 20th -century policies around proper nursing care.  During the Crimean War, she was put in charge of nursing allied and British soldiers in Turkey. As she walked around the wards at night, tending to the wounded, she became known as the “Lady with the Lamp.” Her efforts to formalize nursing education led her to establish the first scientifically based nursing school in 1860. She also helped set up training for midwives and nurses in workhouse infirmaries. Florence Nightengale is revered as the founder of modern nursing.

Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) is a Pakistani activist for female and child education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. As a young girl, Malala defied the Taliban in Pakistan and demanded that girls be allowed to receive an education. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012, but she survived and went on to become an important voice for international human rights. She also founded the Malala Fund, which works to secure the rights to education for girls all over the world. Malala has been accepted to study at Oxford University.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1928) was an English writer and journalist, widely considered one of the most distinguished writers of the 20th century. An early feminist, she attacked the double standards of the day in her writing, and her voice, still admired nearly a century later, is still strong. Her influential, stream of consciouness-styled work has been translated into fifty different languages. Some of her most famous books are: Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando. She was known also as a biting critic and journalist, widely respected in amongst the London literary circles of her day.

Rosalind Franklin (1920 – 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work provided key insights into DNA structure.

Artists note: The day I painted Rosalind was a very important day to our family, the third anniversary of the accident that led to my husband’s death as well as the 9th month anniversary since the day he died. I wanted to paint someone in tribute to him. Whenever I’d see a photo of Rosalind Franklin, I thought she looked a lot like Vernon in the face…and they were both British. I love the thoughtful look on her face…even in photographs, she comes across (to me) as very intelligent. He was the same way.

Katherine Johnson (born 1918), mathematician and computer scientist, was of NASA’s human ‘computers,’ who performed the complex calculations that enabled spacecraft to orbit Earth and to land on the moon. Check out the excellent movie Hidden Figures to learn more about Katherine (and her friends.) See video.

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (born into slavery on July 16, 1862 – died March 25, 1931), more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, feminist, and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Mother Teresa (1910-1997) was an Albanian Roman-Catholic nun who committed her life to the service of the poor in Calcutta, India. In 1950, she founded of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women who have taken a vow to give “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor” and minister to (in Teresa’s own words) “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” Considered one of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta in 2016.

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) was American novelist and poet, renowned for her work in science fiction and fantasy.

Aretha Franklin (1942) American soul singer. Often called “the Queen of Soul,” she is widely considered one of the greatest musical performers of all time.

Yuri Kochiyama (1921-2014) was a Japanese American who was put into an interment camp with her family after the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her experience greatly influenced a life of advocacy for many civil rights causes including the anti war movement, Black equality, reparations for Japanese-American internees, and political prisoners.  She was a passionate advocate for peace into her old age.

Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) was a Dorothea Lange was a photographer whose portraits of displaced farmers during the Great Depression greatly influenced later documentary photography.

Mae Jemison (1956–) is the first African-American female astronaut. In 1992, she flew into space aboard the Endeavour, becoming the first African-American woman in space.

Clara Rockmore (1911-1998) was a Lithuanian musician who became the most famous and accomplished performer of the electronic instrument, the theremin. As a child, Clara had been a violin prodigy, admitted to the Imperial Conservatory of Saint Petersburg at the age of five. Though she was poised for a life as a professional violinist, tendinitis in her bow arm (caused by childhood malnutrition) forced her to abandon the instrument. After her Jewish family fled Russia to live in America, Clara met another immigrant, Léon Theremin, who had invented the self-named theremin. With her refined violin skills, she became the most prominent theremin player, performing widely, bringing attention to the strange instrument, and helping Leon improve his invention. While the theremin is mostly known for spooky sounds used in vintage science fiction movies, under Clara’s control, it sounded like a classical stringed instrument or even a singing voice.

Marian Anderson (1897 – 1993) was an African American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. Though she travelled in Europe as a celebrity, on her travels through the United States, Marian experienced racial prejudice on a daily basis; she was often denied access to lodging or dining facilities. When the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Marian as a black woman to sing in Constitution Hall in Washington D.C., Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the organization in protest. Later, at the invitation of the Secretary of the Interior, Marian sang at the Lincoln Memorial for Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, for an audience of 75,000. Later on, she became the first African-American to perform as a regular member of the New York Metropolitan Opera. As well as traveling extensively as a singer for diplomatic events, she sang at two presidential inaugurations, and won numerous honors and awards throughout her life.

Marie Curie (1867-1934) is considered one of greatest scientists of all time. Her research opened the gates to modern science as we know it. Raised in Russian-occupied Poland, she was not allowed to study with the men in the Polish Universities, but after moving to Paris, she became the first woman to earn a physics degree from the Sorbonne—then the first woman to teach there. She was the rst woman to win the Nobel Prize (Physics in 1903) and the rst person to win the award in two different fields (Chemistry in 1911). She discovered the element radium, establishing the development of X-rays as well as radioactive therapies for cancer.

Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) American Abstract Expressionist painter who pioneered the "Color Field" school of painting. She made massive abstract paintings and found unusual success at a time when the art world was still dominated by men. 

Sigrid Undset (1882 – 1949) was a Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 for Kristin Lavransdatter, a trilogy about the life of a Scandinavian woman in the Middle Ages, from birth until death. When Joseph Stalin’s invasion of Finland began the Winter War in 1939, Sigrid donated her Nobel Prize to support the Finnish war effort she fled Norway for the United States because of her opposition Nazi occupation of Norway. Because she had strongly criticized Hitler since the early 1930s and her books were banned in German, she was forced to flee Norway for the United States when the Germans invaded her country. There, she tirelessly pleaded the case of occupied Norway and that of Europe’s Jews in writings, speeches, and interviews. Sigrid Undset’s face is portrayed on the 500 kroner note  (Norwegian currency.)

Naziq al-Abid (1898-1959) an early Syrian feminist and revolutionary, was known as the “Joan of Arc of the Arabs.”

Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874—1942) was a Canadian novelist, arguably Canada’s most widely read author.  Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables (published in 1908), became an instant bestseller and has remained in print for more than a century, making the plucky character of Anne Shirley a mythic icon for imaginative, intelligent young girls all over the world. The Anne of Green Gables series has been translated into at least 36 languages as well as braille, not to mention television and film adaptations. LM Montgomery was financially successful as a writer in her own right, but managed all this while being carrying out the duties expected of a minster’s wife and raising three boys. Montgomery went on to publish 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. She is revered not only for her charming Anne character, but for putting the smaller parts of Canada on the literary map, boosting interest and tourism for those areas of the country. In 1935, Maud was awarded the esteemed honor of officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Violette Szabo (1921 – 1945) was a French-born British spy during the WW2. Her young husband had been killed in the war, compelling her to fight against the Nazi Regime. She was posthumously awarded the St George Cross among other medals of honor. Her heroism shines light on what many brave women did for the resistance effort.

Bessie Coleman (1892 – 1926) was an American civil aviator. She was the first female pilot of African American descent and the first woman of Native American descent to hold a pilot license. She was also the first person of African American and Native American descent to hold an international pilot license. Bessie would only perform if the crowds were desegregated and entered thru the same gates.

Dr. Jane Goodall (1934) is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her groundbreaking 55-year study in the Tanzanian jungle. Now in her 80s, Jane continues to work extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.

Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth ( 1903 – 1975) was an English sculptor, one of the few female sculptors of her era. She was also revolutionary in her style as she carved massive Modernist sculptures by hand. She was also the mother of four….three of them, triplets. In her lifetime, she did achieve some international success, but she was often thought of as provincial because she was also a mother and lacked the freedom of her contemporaries. Still, the focus of her life and her attention to her children in each season caused her work to be extra special, which aficionados especially appreciate now.

Artist’s note: I was drawn to paint Barbara Hepworth after receiving an email from my husband’s first girlfriend (a friend of mine too) in which she remembered visiting the Barbara Hepworth house in St. Ives, Cornwall, when they were art students. I remembered visiting it too with him (over 20 years later) when we visited St. Ives with my traveling parents. I love when I paint a person, and learn about about her, and hers is just the message I need to hear. Granted, this is often the case when I paint artists and writers…but her story came to me in a time when I was really struggling with the idea of trying to be an artist and support my family as a single mother. I was trapped in the story that I couldn’t do it all. So finding out that this woman whom I already admired (I’ve touched her work in its natural habitat!) also had TRIPLETS (along with a first child from another marriage) was a kiss of life to a hurting soul.  Granted, she was a genius, but I am inspired. Yes, please, Ms. Hepworth, I’d love you to be my mentor! <3

“I found one had to do some work every day, even at midnight, because either you’re professional or you’re not.”—Barbara Hepworth

unko Tabei (1939-2016) was a Japanese Mountaineer--the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and the first woman to climb the highest peak on every continent.

Mary Blair (1911-1978), born Mary Robinson, was an  American artist, who produced drawings for the Walt Disney Company in the 1940s and 50s for such projects as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Song of the South, and Cinderella.  Her “explosion of color” style, which she would become famous for, emerged during the Disney Studios “South American Goodwill Tour." Her most beloved contribution was the design for the ride "It's a Small World" at Disneyland. Many of her illustrated children's books remain in print.

Dolores del Río (1904— 1983) was a Mexican actress, who became the first Latin American Hollywood star. Her starred in silent films as well as sound films, in which she worked hard to perfect her English.  As her Hollywood fame began to decline, she moved back to Mexico where she became an important fixture of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, which was now in full force. Throughout her long career, which also included radio, television, and theatre, she was admired internationally as a cinematic icon, the face of an Hispanic femme fetal. 

 Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell (born 1943) is an acclaimed Irish astrophysicist, who was among the few women to pursue a career in science at the time. As a graduate student, she discovered pulsars (a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star or white dwarf, that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation) but was snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize, most likely due to her gender. But she went on to enjoy a life filled with many honors in her field. Bell Burnell was president of the Royal Astronomical Society, president of the Institute of Physics, president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Dublin. 

Septima Poinsette Clark (1893-1987) was an African-American teacher and civil rights activist who set up citizenship schools for disenfranchised African Americans in the 1950s and 60s. Here, they were taught to read and write so they could pass the literacy tests required by southern states to register to vote.  The citizenship schools began to spread through the south, and were adopted by Martin Luther King Jr’s  Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1961. As a result, many began to take control of their lives and discover their full rights as citizens. Septima’s 40 years of teaching experience and her own struggles and triumphs of finding work as a black teacher in the south equipped her to design an education program that changed the course of history…and empowered many African Americans to take control of their lives and discover their full rights as citizens.  She became known as the “Queen mother” or “Grandmother” of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Rachel Carson (1907–1964)was a marine biologist, environmentalist and writer who alerted the world to the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides. Her best-known book, Silent Spring, led to a presidential commission that largely endorsed her findings and helped to shape a growing environmental consciousness. Her work also woke people up to the dangers of DDT, a poisonous ingredient that was used in household cleaners. Rachel Carson is remembered as an early activist who tirelessly worked to preserve the world for future generations.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) was an African American anthropologist, author, and Civil Rights activist. She wrote many plays and books about the African American experience, becoming one of the most influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York, spanning the 1920s. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is Zora’s most famous book. Though it was published in 1937, it is still widely read to this day and has come to be regarded as a very important work in both African-American literature and women’s literature.

Donna Tartt (b 1963) American novelist

—Nadia Comăneci (born 1961) is a Romanian gymnast who, at 14 years old, became the first woman to score a perfect 10 in an Olympic gymnastics event. She is credited with popularizing the sport around the globe...and was a HUGE inspiration to young girls in the 1970 and 80s.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet.  Throughout her life, she seldom left her home and visitors were few. The people with whom she did come in contact, however, had an enormous impact on her poetry.  Emily Dickinson published only eight poems during her lifetime.  Mostly published after her death, her almost- 2000 profound thoughts on life and death, nature, love, and art make her one of the most important poets of the English language to this day.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879-1961) was an American suffragette, educator, and orator who advocated for black women’s self sufficiency at a time when that was a double-battle. She founded what was at the time the largest black women’s organization in the US, and from that, founded a school for women and girls.

Pearl S. Buck (1892 – 1973) was an American writer and novelist.  The daughter of missionaries, she spent the first 40 years of her life in China so she was perfectly posed to describe the thus-hidden life of China to the west through her novel The Good Earth , which became was the best-selling fiction book in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. Later she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

After returning to the United States in 1935 as an immensely famous figure, she became an outspoken advocate for the rights of women and minority groups. Pearl also campaigned for the rights of Asian and mixed-race orphans, who were considered un-adoptable by existing adoption services. She established Welcome House, the first international inter-rational adoption agency and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, which provides sponsorships for thousands of Asian children overseas.

Anni Albers (1899 – 1994) was a German textile artist and printmaker. She is perhaps the best known textile artist of the 20th century. Rebelling against her comfortable upbringing by choosing to become an artist, she attended the modernist Bauhaus school, where students lived with challenging and impoverished conditions. For a woman, there there were very few options for further study after the foundation level so she entered the woman’s weaving workshop, but she quickly embraced the process and materials of an art form that she would come to revolutionize.  While at the Bauhaus, she met her husband, Josef Albers, who would become a master instructor at the school as well as one of the foremost artist/educators in the world. Anni eventually became the head of the Bauhaus weaving workshop herself.

When the Nazi party pressured the school to close (which it did a year later) the couple were invited to move to America and teach at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Though the Albers had never lived there, they embraced their new chapter of life, sharing their understanding of modernism and art to a new generation of American students. Over the years, they continued to make their own art and collect others’, rarely making work together but always encouraging each other’s creativity with deep understanding.

In 1949, Anni Albers became the first designer to have a one-person exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Albers’s design exhibition at MoMA began in the fall and then toured the US from 1951 until 1953, establishing her as one of the most important designers of the day. Through her long life, she continued in her passion for design as she wrote books and moved into the field of printmaking. She is credited for establishing Design History as a legitimate area of academic study.

Keiko Fukuda (1913-2013) Japanese American judoka who was the first woman granted the rank of sixth dan (sixth-degree black belt.) She continued her practice of Judo until she died at 99. She’s fondly referred to as Mrs Judo.

American folk singer Joan Baez is recognized for her nonviolent, antiestablishment (against a nation's political and economic structure), and anti-war positions. She has used her singing and speaking talents to criticize violations of human rights in a number of countries.

Source

Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown (1883-1961) Teacher and founder of Palmer Memorial Institute, a trailblazing Southern prep school for African-American students.

Billie Jean King (born 1943) is an American tennis player who broke don gender barriers in sport in her push (and win!) for equal prize money.

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was an outspoken Abolitionist and Human Rights Activist. She was born into slavery, but she escaped with her baby daughter after her owner reneged on his promise to emancipate her. Her other children stayed behind. Soon after, Sojourner found out that her owner had illegally sold her five year old son. Sojourner took the case to court and won. This was one of the first times a black woman successfully challenged a white man in the US courts. 

Over the years, Sojourner became a strong advocate for both civil rights and women's rights, and toured with other speakers at conventions around the country. In her most famous speech, "Ain't I Woman,"  she sought political equality for all women.not just black men. 

Diane Arbus (1923-1971) was an American photographer, who is best known for her black-and-white portraits of marginalized people, often thought as bizarre or unattractive by mainstream society. Diane and her husband were a successful team in fashion photography before she branched out on her own, wandering around the city, photographing the interesting New Yorkers she found on the fringes. She went to great lengths to meet her subjects and get the shot thats that she wanted, and her hard work paid off. She became admired as an artist as well as a photographer as she exhibited her work at the Museum of Modern Art and others. Diane Arbus is considered the most important female photographer of her generation and her work remains as groundbreaking and beloved today as it was then.

Susan B. Anthony (1820 – 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who dedicated her life to woman suffrage.  It is largely because of her determination and zeal that women in America have the equal right to vote and own their own property.

Alma Thomas (1891-1978) was an American Abstract Expressionist artist, and art educator, who devoted her life to the youth of her local Washington DC community. She was the first graduate of Howard University’s School of Fine Arts, after which she spent her life teaching middle school. Though she had painted throughout her life, taking graduate classes at nights, and using art as a communication tool in the classroom, it wasn’t until she retired at age 68 that she began another chapter of her life as an acclaimed professional artist. After a severe attack of arthritis that nearly left her paralyzed, she  restored her health and creativity by painting in a new style: “I decided to try to paint something different from anything I’ d ever done—different from anything I’ d ever seen. I thought to myself, ‘That must be accomplished.”’ With the tree and garden outside her room window as inspiration, Alma created a mosaic-like style, which would become her signature: small, rectangular shapes of bright, intense colors merged together in curves, and circles.  For the rest of her life, till she died at 86, she continued to paint, showing her work in many acclaimed galleries and shows. In 1972, at the age of 80, was was the first black woman to ever be given a solo exhibition at  New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art. 

“People come to me and say, ‘Tell me how to paint.’ I say, ‘I can’ t. It comes from inside you. You have to expose yourself. Nobody taught me how to paint. I had to do it myself.”’

Miné Okubo (1912-2001) was an American artist and writer. She is best known for her book Citizen 13660, a collection of 189 drawings and accompanying text chronicling her experiences in Japanese American internment camps during World War II. Still in print, it was the first book on the camp experience to be written by an internee. It remains a widely cited document in histories of the Japanese in America.

“I am a realist with a creative mind. I hope that things can be learned from this tragic episode, for I believe it could happen again.”

Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007) was an American author and poet best known for her young adult science-fiction, particularly the beloved book, A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels. She wrote over 60 books (many also for adults) that often reflected her faith and her strong interest in science. As an only child, Madeleine was raised by artistic parents in New York City, with plenty of freedom to use her imagination. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories. In fact, she wrote her first book at age 5. She later joined the theatre, married an actor, moved to the countryside, and raised her children, running a general store, while always keeping up her lifelong discipline of writing and journaling. When she wrote A Wrinkle in Time, which went on to win the prestigious Newbery Medal, almost didn’t get published. It was rejected by 27 publishing agencies, and in her mid-forties, Madeleine was ready to retire. We are so glad she kept writing.

To give an idea of her wonderful mind, here are a selection of wonderful quotes from Madeleine L’Engle:

“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”

“Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.”

“The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.”

“Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.”

“When we lose our myths we lose our place in the universe.”

“But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career.”

“It’s a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.”

“Somethings have to be believed to be seen.”

Anne Frank (1929-1945) was a German-born Jewish diarist, who documented her teenaged thoughts whilst hiding from the Nazis during World War II. For two years, Anne and her family lived in a secret annex of an Amsterdam warehouse until they were eventually captured. Though she did not survive the war, her writings were published as The Diary of a Young Girl, which became one of the world’s most widely read books about the Holocaust. Anne’s indefatigable spirit and hope for humanity in the midst of terrible circumstances made her one of the most beloved and admired heroines in modern history.

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was an American anthropologist and writer, whose work rose to enormous success, partly due to her outspoken personality. Margaret took two dozen trips to the South Pacific to study primitive cultures and afterwards, she published books on the effects of social convention on behavior. She was among the first women to do so, and her work is still respected in the field to this day.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American writer who authored over 30 books and short-story collections and wrote poetry as well. Little Women, her most famous book, was a novel for girls and an instant bestseller. Written in 1868, it departed from the existing  practice of idealized and/or stereotypical children in books meant for young readers. Instead, it offered a fully realized young heroine in the spirited character of tomboy Jo March. Little Women remains a beloved classic of children’s literature today. Alcott is also remembered for her book Hospital Sketches, which she penned in 1863 based on letters she had written home while serving as a nurse in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.

source: historynet.com

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1990-1990) was an Indian diplomat and the first woman to serve as president of the UN General Assembly.

“Education is not merely a means for earning a living or an instrument for the acquisition of wealth. It is an initiation into life of spirit, a training of the human soul in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue.”—Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Astronaut Sally Ride (1951-2012) became the first American woman sent into outer space and and the youngest person ever to be sent into orbit when she flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983. She made two shuttle flights and committed her life to educating young people and encouraging them to explore careers in science.  “We have to make science cool again,” she said. And indeed she did, as she became a role model for young people, especially girls, so often left out of the sciences, for the next generations.

Princess Diana Spencer (1961-1997) was married to Charles, the Prince of Wales, (who is eldest child and heir apparent to the Queen of England.) She became known as the “People’s Princess” because of the way she chose to connect with everyday people in a way that the aristocracy had not yet done. Diana got involved in charity work and went so far as to minister to AIDS victims in Africa, touching them and loving them in a time when people were still not sure the disease was not airborne or touch-contagious. She also became president of Great Ormand Street Hospital for children in London. A wonderful humanitarian that broke from royal tradition, she was also a mother of two boys. In the end, she was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, leaving the world heartbroken and without an famous, yet compassionate role model.

Björk Guðmundsdóttir (born 1965) is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and performance artist with a four-decade-long career. She released her first album at age 11.

Ruby Bridges (born 1954) was the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South. Her grace under pressure, even to the point of praying for the hateful crowds that protested her every day, and continuing to attend class with her teacher even while all the white students were kept out of school by their parents for some time, became a beacon of light in a changing America and inspired all other schools around the country to begin integrating. She remains a passionate activist for civil rights to this day, a living legend.

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) was an American poet. One of the first successful Jewish American authors, Lazarus was part of the late nineteenth century New York literary elite, but also became a passionate advocate for Jewish immigrants and refugees. Among other things, she helped establish the Hebrew Technical Institute in New York, which provided vocational training so that the destitute could learn to support themselves. She is most remembered for her poem “The New Colossus,” which is inscribed on the pedestal of the statue of liberty, welcoming incoming immigrants as they arrived in New York Harbor with these powerful words, which have become a lasting, iconic part of the American fabric: “Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Emma Lazarus was only 37 when she was commissioned by a group of NY writers to write the poem “The New Colossus,” which would, in turn, raise money for the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty (the statue was a gift from the French, though the US was required to buy the pedestal.) The inscription of the poem ultimately changed the meaning of the statue, making Lady Liberty a beacon of hope to the “huddled masses” looking for a better life within the freedoms America offered. But the statue was originally a token of the French people to celebrate republican (anti-monarchy) government as established in the American and French Revolutions.   Emma died without public notice one year after she wrote the poem. A century and a later, her words are considered one of the most beloved and important American poems. So, writer friends, be mindful of your opportunities to write while you are alive. You never know how it will affect the world and the generations to come. That part is out of your hands. 🙂

Mary Cassatt (1887–1948) was one of the leading artists in the Impressionist movement of the later part of the 1800s. She studied art in a art college in Pennsylvania, but dropped out because she found the studies too limiting for women. On a trip to Paris, she discovered the work of Edgar Degas, which inspired her to move to Paris and copy masterpieces at the Louvre. Eventually, one of her paintings was accepted at the Salon, which was THE place to exhibit art in Paris at the time. After a time, she joined the avant-garde Impressionist painters and began to enjoy a new success in their group. When she returned home, she was influential in bringing Impressionist art to the American scene.

Irena Sendler (1910 – 2008) was a Polish nurse, humanitarian, and social worker who rescued 2500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.  She saved more Jews than any other individual during the Holocaust.

Valentina Tereshkova (1937–) is a Russian cosmonaut and engineer. She is the first woman to have flown in space in 1963, twenty years before an American woman would ever go. She was also the first civilian to go into space. Before this, she worked in a textile factory with a skydiving hobby. Unfortunately, she only went to space once one in her life, but she has pined for it every since. She became known in Russia as a dignitary, and she speaks of her ideals and her experience.

Lee Krasner (1908-1984) was one of the first generation Abstract Expressionist painters. Through six decades devoted to art, she continually explored innovative approaches to painting and collage. Lee  mostly became known because of her marriage to the gifted, troubled painter Jackson Pollock,  but she was an established abstract artist well before she met him. Her engagement in the New York art scene and her long education of art and its history were important to the nourishment of Pollock’s career. They painted side by side in their country home, but after her husband was killed in an automobile accident, Lee devoted the rest of her life to promoting his art and legacy as well as exploring her own abstract painting. Shortly after her own death, she was given a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art, an honor bestowed on a small handful of women artists, even to this day. Today her work is considered some of the most significant in the Abstract Expressionist movement.*

*Abstract Expressionism is important because it was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. (wikipeda)

You can check out some of Lee Krasner’s work here.

Julia Morgan (1872-1957) America’s first truly independent female architect, left a legacy of over 700 buildings, many of which are now designated landmarks, in cities throughout California, as well as in Hawaii, Utah, and Illinois, her most famous being Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.

But her works were not limited to lavish buildings. As well as designing for the wealthy, she worked with many different clients in her her varied career. She designed several centers for the YWCA as well as private clubs and churches. One of the hallmarks of her varied career is that she worked with many different clients, not just the wealthy. She was willing to work with moderate budgets , creating less expensive family homes with open areas and large windows to give the impression of more space, using indigenous materials (progressive for her day) and changing the scale of her designs to work with uneven topography. She tried to give a careful solution to all of her clients, whether they were wealthy or not. In her way, she became an equal in her field (to the men who were dominating it so far) by treating all her clients equally. And with that attitude, she was able to leave an unforgettable mark.

“My buildings will be my legacy… they will speak for me long after I’m gone.” —Julia Morgan

Mary Temple Grandin (born 1947) is an American professor of animal science at Colorado State University, consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior, and autism spokesperson. She is one of the first individuals on the autism spectrum to publicly share insights from her personal experience of autism. She invented the "hug box" device to calm those on the autism spectrum. In the 2010 Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, she was named in the "Heroes" category.

credit: Wikipedia

Margaret Keane (born 1927) is an American artist, known for painting the kitschy “big-eyed waifs” that were popular in the 1960s. At one point, her sentimental work, mass-reproduced and sold cheaply in dime-stores, were among the most popular and recognized in the country. The problem was that her her husband, Walter Keane was taking all the credit. Walter was a great marketer, but he lied to the public so that her work would be passed off as his own. Caught in his deception, Margaret worked, at the height of (his) fame, up to 16 hours a day. This would become one of the greatest stories of art fraud in America, regardless of whether the work was critically acknowledged as serious art. When Margaret finally found the courage to leave Walter and branch off on her own, the word came out that she had been the artist behind these popular paintings all along. Walter denied the charges so a “paint-off” was called for in court (to which Walter found many excuses not to engage.) Eventually, it was established that Margaret had been the original painter all along. In her words, after being awarded 4 million in damages (including emotional distress): “I never saw a cent of it, but I won… It was a blessing just to sign my name.”

Artist’s note: I wouldn’t say that as an artist, Margaret was breaking new ground. But she was an overcomer and a survivor of an abusive relationship. In the end, truth won out, and she not only cleared her name, but she continued to make paintings, signed in her own name for the rest of her life. She’s 90 now. Bravo, Margaret!

I made her eyes just a little larger on purpose to pay tribute to Margaret’s style.

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) was one of the most important artists of American modern art. Considered the "Mother of American modernism," she painted abstractions of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. 

Rosa Parks (1913–2005) was a civil rights activist who refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, spurring the Montgomery boycott and other efforts to end segregation. The US Congress called her “the First Lady of Civil Rights.”

Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) is known as the first African American Army Nurse. She served in the Civil War as part of an All-Black regiment and taught the soldiers to read and write when they weren't fighting. She also was the only African American woman to publish a memoir of the Civil War: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops.

When she was young, Georgia laws prohibited Susie (the daughter of slaves) to get an education so she attended two secret schools taught by black women. From them she gained the rudiments of literacy, then extended her education with the help of two white youths, both of whom knowingly violated law and custom.

She became the first black teacher for freed African American students to work in a freely operating freedmen's school in Georgia. She taught forty children in day school and "a number of adults who came to me nights, all of them so eager to learn to read, to read above anything else." 

Nellie Bly (1864 – 1922) was an American journalist known for her investigative and undercover reporting. Though at first she found difficulty being hired as a female reporter, she took unusual risks to get the job. Nellie earned acclaim when she feigned insanity in order to expose the conditions of asylum patients at Blackwell’s Island in New York City. Her investigation resulted in several mental health care reforms. She continued her career as a stunt journalist, going undercover in various guises to expose corruption and injustice in jails, factories, and state legislature. Nellie achieved further fame after her newspaper sent her on a trip around the world in the fictional footsteps laid out in Jules Verne’s book, Around the World in Eighty Days. She did it in seventy-two, establishing a new world record. Nellie Bly was a spirited pioneer in her field, remembered most for launching a new kind of investigative journalism.

Dorothy Parker (1893 – 1967) was an American poet, short story writer, critic, and satirist, best known for her wit and wisecracks. 

Annie Malone (1869-1957) Was an entrepreneur, educator, and a legendary philanthropist. She trained over 7500 women entrepreneurs to sell her hair care product. She was also the first female African American millionaire. 

Kara Walker (born 1969) is an African-American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, and film-maker. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes, mostly focusing on the Antebellum-era slave experience. 

Delores Huerta (b. 1930) is an activist and labor leader who co-founded what would become the United Farm Workers, which continues to fight for fair conditions for farmers.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (b. 1933) is a U.S. Supreme Court justice, the second woman to be appointed to the position. 
Ruth Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her older sister died when she was a baby, and her mother, one of her biggest sources of encouragement, died shortly before Ginsburg graduated from high school. She then earned her bachelor's degree at Cornell University, and became a wife and mother before starting law school at Harvard, where she was one of the nine women in a class of 500—and also full time caregiver to her small daughter and cancer-patient husband, Marty (“The only young man I dated that cared that I had a brain.”) The women were chided by the law school's dean for taking the places of qualified males. But Ginsburg pressed on and excelled academically, eventually becoming the first female member of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. Following her husband to New York, she transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated tied for first in her class and then became a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field. Ginsburg spent a considerable part of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of gender equality and women's rights, winning multiple victories arguing before the Supreme Court. After advocating as a volunteer lawyer for the ACLU in the 1970s. She was appointed as a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served until her appointment to the Supreme Court in 1993....where she serves to this day.