Education - Lighting the Way, Historic Women of the SouthCoast

Martha Bailey Briggs

Born in 1838 to Black abolitionists, Martha Bailey Briggs (1838-1889) realized at a young age that education was essential to ending slavery.

Photograph Of Marial Harper - A Woman With Black Pulled Back Hair, She Is Wearing A Blue Sweater And Typing On A Computer Keyboard

Marial M. Harper

New Bedford educator Marial Harper (1934-2016) positively impacted numerous lives at New Bedford High School and was the first woman and minority to be appointed a Housemaster there.

Margaret Ryckebusch

Educator and labor leader Margaret A. Duggan Ryckebusch (1940-1998) was a professor, department head, and union leader at Bristol Community College.

Elizabeth Taber

Known as “Marion’s Fairy Godmother,” Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher Taber (1791-1888) became the town’s most significant benefactress.

Edith Guerrier

The first woman supervisor of branch libraries of the Boston Public Library, Edith Guerrier (1870-1958) included social reform in library programs.

Rosetta Douglass

Abolitionist and social reformer Rosetta Douglass (1839-1906) continued a family legacy of activism that began in New Bedford with her father, Frederick Douglass.

Photograph Of Hellen Ellis - A Young Woman Wearing A Dark Cap, Leaning Against Another Woman Out Of Frame

Helen Elizabeth Ellis

What do a tea room in Westport, a bookstore in New Bedford, special exhibits at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and a children’s museum in Dartmouth all have in common?