Biographies

Countless New Jersey women were, and still are, active in public life in myriad ways. Business, athletics, the arts, and medicine are only a handful of the areas in which New Jersey women contribute to their home state and the larger world. For brief biographies of some of these remarkable women, browse the tabs below.

All Biographies | A – E |  F – J |  K – O  |  P – T  |  U – Z

A -E

Elizabeth Almira Allen

Virginia Apgar

Hannah White Arnett

Margaret Bancroft

Arabella W. Barlow

Leonora Barry

Clara Barton

Mary Ritter Beard

Saima Bhutta

Antoinette Brown Blackwell

Judy Blume

Charlotte Bonaparte

Marietta Boggio Botto

Cornelia Foster Bradford

Jane Grey Burgio

Julia Keese Nelson Colles

Jemima Condict

Dorothy Cross

Juliet Clannon Cushing

Nora Thompson Dean

Joetta Clark Diggs

Dorothea Lynde Dix

Mary Mapes Dodge

Elsie Driggs

Jannetje Vrelandt Drummond

Florence Dwyer

Florence Peshine Eagleton

Lena Frances Edwards

Eleanor Egg

Dorothy Daggett Eldridge

 

F – J

Lillian Ford Feickert

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

Honorable Marie L. Garibaldi

Lucy McKim Garrison

Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Alberta Gonzalez

Elizabeth Haddon

Joy Bright Hancock

Grace Hartigan

Jennie Tuttle Hobart

Joy Bright Hancock

Celeste Holm

Ellen Clementine Howarth

Hannah Hoyt

Christina Huang

Baroness Hyde de Neuville (Anne Marguerite Henriette de Marigny)

Henriette W. Johnson

Cordelia Greene Johnson

 

K – O

Paula Kassell

Marie Hilson Katzenbach

Sarah Kiersted

Hannah Kinney

Ann Klein

Harriet Lafetra

Margaret Laird

Jarena Lee

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Wynona Lipman

Clara Louise Maass

Louisa Maculloch

Sybilla Righton Masters

Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley (Molly Pitcher)

Barbara McConnell

Rachel K. McDowell

Mother Mary Xavier Mehegan

Helen Stevenson Meyner

Elisabeth “Bessie” Holmes Moore

Marilyn Morheuser

Marie Muhler

Mary Yamashita Nagao

Mary Teresa Norton

Annie Oakley

Violet Oakley

Joyce Carol Oates

Marian Stephenson Olden

 

P – T

Nellie Morrow Parker

Ruth Marcus Patt

Alice Paul

Mary Paul

Eleanor Kendall Pettersen

Mary Philbrook

Jeannette Ridlon Piccard

Jennie Precker

Sophia Presley

Alice Huyler Ramsey

Florence Spearing Randolph

Jessie D. Read

Emily Warren Roebling

Mary Herbert Roebling

Ida Cohen Rosenthal

Margaret Roukema

Carrie Cook Sanborn

Esther “Hetty” Saunders

Katherine Schaub

Vera Schectman

Antoinette Quinby Scudder

Barbara Boggs Sigmund

Lilly Martin Spencer

Rebecca Buffum Spring

Ruth St. Denis

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Annis Boudinot Stockton

Lucy Stone

Mildred Fairbanks Stone

Ruth Cheney Streeter

Helen M. Stummer

Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune

 

U – Z

Jennie C. Van Ness

Mina Caroline Van Winkle

Sarah Vaughan

Dionne Warwick

Sara Spencer Washington

Ida Mae Hampton Wassell

Susan Waters

Angelina Grimke Weld

Rachel Lovell Wells

Viola Gertrude Wells

Ann Cooper Whitall

Alma Bridwell White

Elizabeth Coleman White

Madaline Worthy Williams

Beatrice Winser

Patience Lovell Wright

Marion Thompson Wright

Margaret Tufts Swan Yardley

 

Potential Resources for Further Research

 

Websites-

Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum: Home. Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. (n.d.). https://womenshistory.si.edu/

Biographies. National Women’s History Museum. (n.d.). https://www.womenshistory.org/students-and-educators/biographies

New-York Historical Society. (2023). Center for Women’s History | New-York Historical Society. Center for Women’s History. https://www.nyhistory.org/womens-history

National Women’s Hall of Fame. (2023). https://www.womenofthehall.org/

 

Books-

Wenzel, L., & Binkowski, C. J. (2003). More than petticoats. TwoDot.

Burstyn, J. N. (1997). Past and promise: Lives of New Jersey Women. Syracuse University Press.