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.
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?
Kathleen Comiskey Roberts
Dartmouth educator and author Kathleen Comiskey Roberts wrote a history for children in 1959 so that students could learn about their town.
Rosalind Poll Brooker
Rosalind Poll Brooker (1928-2016) was a trailblazer for women in the fields of law and politics.
Lydia Grinnell Brown
New Bedford’s Lydia Grinnell Brown (1892-1945) became the first African American graduate of Simmons College in Boston.
Emily Howland Bourne
Emily Howland Bourne (1835-1922) showed the same careful planning in her inspired philanthropy as her father Jonathan showed as one of New Bedford’s most successful whaling merchants.
Elizabeth Carter Brooks
Equality was the vision of Elizabeth Carter Brooks (1867-1951) in her work as educator, social activist and architect.
Cecil Clark Davis
Her portraits won prestigious awards, her travels included battlegrounds, and her feminism was pervasive.
Eliza Bierstadt
Active in the local 19th-century art community of William Street, New Bedford’s “Gallery Row,” Eliza Bierstadt (1833-1896) was likely America’s first female art dealer.
Caroline Leonard Goodenough
Rochester’s Caroline Leonard Goodenough (1856-1946) and her husband spent 35 years as missionaries to the Zulus in Africa.