Amanda Golby 'Woman of Recognition'

Born in 1867 in Hannibal, Missouri, Margaret Brown was one of five children born to her parents. Margaret also had two half-sisters from her parents’ previous marriages. At home, it was common for her family to refer to her as Maggie. Maggie went to school in the town she grew up in, which saw many people pass through it as they continued further west during the gold rush. It was when Maggie turned 18 that she and some of her siblings with their spouses decided to move west to Colorado to make a living. Margaret was able to work in a dry goods store sewing carpets and drapes. The men who went with the group worked as miners.

It was while Margaret was living in Colorado that she met her future husband, James Joseph “J.J.” Brown. J.J. was always described as an imaginative man, though not wealthy. Regardless of this fact, Margaret married him and went on to say a number of times that she genuinely loved him, even if he was never able to provide the most stable life. While Maggie and J.J. were married, they had two children. A boy and a girl. The couple also took in three of their nieces to care for. It was in the 1890’s that the Brown’s fortune turned for the better. J.J. struck wealth in the mining industry in the exploration of a large ore seam, and the company he worked for rewarded him handsomely, 12,500 shares of stock and a seat on the board. During this time, Maggie worked in a soup kitchen to provide food and assistance for the miners’ families.

After the Brown’s luck changed, they were able to begin living in a much nicer house in Denver, Colorado, as well as build a summer house for themselves. It was in Denver that Margaret became a member of the Denver Woman’s Club, who worked to improve the lives of women through education and philanthropy. Maggie learned how to navigate her new role in society and decided to become involved in the art and language scene. She learned how to speak French, German, Italian, and Russian. It was also during her time in Denver that Maggie became a suffragist and fought for women’s right to vote. It was during her activism that Maggie and J.J. began to drift apart and the couple quietly separated. Maggie continued her philanthropic work and worked to establish one of the first juvenile courts in the United States.

Margaret was visiting her daughter in Paris in 1912, when she received information that one of her grandchildren had become ill. Wanting to be there to provide comfort and support to her family, she booked passage on the first ship she was able to get a ticket for. The RMS Titanic. Margaret boarded the ship as a first-class passenger on April 10, 1912. The ship hit that fated iceberg on April 15th. Instead of instantly getting on a lifeboat to save herself, Maggie helped as many people board lifeboats as she could before she was finally persuaded to board one of the dinghies herself. Even then, Margaret did not sit back and watch what was happening around her. She picked up an oar herself and urged the crew to turn back and search for more survivors. Her urging was met with opposition from crew members, and Margaret went far enough to threaten the Quartermaster by saying she would throw him overboard the lifeboat. The RMS Carpathia rescued Margaret, where she and other surviving first class members organized committees to secure and provide necessities to second- and third-class passengers, as well as organized some informal counseling for survivors.

Margaret continued her activism work after the Titanic. In 1914, she briefly ran for Colorado’s Senate seat, but left her campaign in order to serve as the director of the American Committee for Devastated France overseas during World War I. In 1914, Margaret also helped contribute to mining families after the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado, as well as organize the International Women’s Rights conference for that year.

During World War I, Margaret worked in France with the Red Cross to help both the French and American wounded soldiers, as well as rebuild areas that were damaged from the fighting. Margaret helped to organize female ambulance drivers, nurses, and food distributors. For her service, she was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1932.

Margaret continued her charity work through the 1920’s, working with the theater. It was only after her death in New York in 1932 that she began to be called Molly Brown, and the Unsinkable Molly Brown. She is buried alongside J.J. in New York.

Molly was able to use her experience of surviving the Titanic sinking to promote her philanthropic work that she cared so much about. Her work focused on the rights of workers and of women, along with education and literacy programs for children. Molly cared greatly for historic preservation, and the remembrance of the people who passed in the sinking of the Titanic. Because of her work, the houses that Molly lived in have since been turned into museums, and in 1985, the Unsinkable Molly Brown was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.

-August 2025

Born in Alabama in 1880, Helen Keller was one of five children born to Arthur Henley Keller. Helen’s father worked as an editor for the Tuscumbia North Alabamian. Helen’s family was part of the elite community of the south, but after the Civil War ended, they lost part of their status. 

When Helen was young, only 19 months old, she got sick with what doctors referred to as an unknown illness. Helen’s sickness could have been meningitis or some other illness. Regardless of what the illness was, Helen survived at the expense of her sight and her hearing. Helen was left both deaf and blind. In her writing, Helen described her senses as ‘at sea in a dense fog.’ Helen got used to using home-made signs to communicate with the daughter of the family cook, Martha. By the time Helen turned seven years old, she had produced over 60 signs that she used with her family to communicate and was able to differentiate people by the vibrations of their footsteps.

In 1886, Helen and her father went to a doctor to seek advice about Helen and her abilities. It was the doctors’ advice that the family consult Alexander Graham Bell, who was already working with deaf children. Bell suggested that Helen be sent to Perkins Institute for the Blind in Massachusetts for Helen’s education. It was at this school that Helen was introduced to Anne Sullivan, who became Helen’s close friend, educator, and mentor. Sullivan traveled to the Keller’s home in Alabama to reside with Helen there.

Shortly after arriving, Anne began teaching Helen how to communicate using finger spelling into people's hands. Helen later expressed frustration in learning with Anne because she did not realize that everything had a different name attached to it. Helen began imitating what Anne was doing but not necessarily learning. Helen finally understood what Anne was teaching her when she spelled the word ‘water’ in one hand, while Helen’s other hand was placed in running water. After this, Helen was eager to learn what everything was called.

Helen was not solely taught at home. In 1888, when she was old enough, Helen was enrolled at the Perkins Institute for the Blind. In 1894, Helen was enrolled at the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf as well as the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in New York, where she learned from a woman named Sarah Fuller. During this entire time, Anne Sullivan accompanied Helen in her travels and her studies. Helen’s schooling did not end there. In 1896, Helen attended the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, and in 1900 she was accepted at Radcliffe College of Harvard University, returning to Massachusetts after beginning her education there in 1886 with the meeting of Anne Sullivan. While attending school, Helen was sponsored by the Rogers oil family, who paid for her schooling and supplies. Helen graduated from college in 1904 as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society, as well as being the first blind deaf person to earn a bachelor’s degree. 

Helen was determined to communicate in any way possible, and knew not only how to fingerspell, but also how to read lips by putting her hand up to a person’s mouth and throat and feeling the movement. Helen knew how to read braille, and spoke not only English, but French, German, Greek, and Latin. Helen also discovered that she could enjoy music by placing her hands on a resonant tabletop, she could feel the vibrations of nearby music playing. Helen also learned how to speak and spent many years of her life giving speeches and lectures on her life experiences. 

Helen spent her professional life as a touring speaker about her life and an advocate for people with disabilities. Helen toured not just the United States but visited a total of 25 different countries to speak about the treatment of disabled individuals. Helen was also a steadfast suffragist, pacifist, and supporter of women’s access to birth control. In 1915, Helen along with friend George Kessler founded the Helen Keller International organization, which focuses on combating the effects that malnutrition has on blindness. Helen also supported other advocacy organizations, such as the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which she donated to and claimed that she was ashamed of the south’s treatment of people of color. 

In 1920, Helen was one of the founding members of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and it was with the ACLU that Helen and Anne Sullivan traveled to over 40 countries together to do work for the organization. Due to her work, Helen met every U.S. President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as forming strong friendships with the likes of Alexander Graham Bell, Mark Twain, and Charlie Chaplin. 

As an author, Helen wrote about women’s rights and the effect war had on people and was published in numerous newspapers across the country. Helen published a total of 12 books in her lifetime, including her autobiography “The Story of My Life,” which was published when she was 22.

In the 1960s, Helen suffered a series of strokes and spent her last years at home. In 1964, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 1965, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In her final years, Helen dedicated her life to raising funds for the American Foundation for the Blind. Helen finally passed in her sleep in 1968, she was cremated and buried at the Washington National Cathedral next to her friend and teacher Anne Sullivan.

Since her passing, Helen Keller has been depicted in numerous films and documentaries, has been placed on the Alabama quarter, and has been named one of Time Magazine's ‘100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.’ Across the world, Helen Keller has hospitals, schools, and streets named after her.

-July 2025

Born in England in 1819, Mary Ann Evans was the third child born to Robert and Christiana Evans’. Mary's father was an estate manager and her mother was the daughter of a mill owner. 

As a child, Mary Ann was intelligent and enjoyed reading. Due to her being viewed as not societally pretty, she was deemed to have few marriage prospects. Her father decided to invest in her education instead. Mary had a formal education until the age of 16, then decided to pursue a path of self-education, taking advantage of the library located in the estate that her father managed. It was during her visits to the library that she observed the difference in wealth the estate owners have in comparison to those of the workers, a comparison she made in her own literary works in the future. It was at the age of 21 that Mary developed more radical views towards ideas such as religion and began to view writing as a career. 

She initially published translated works, which were highly received by the public. She continued writing as had some of her work published in a friend’s newspaper. At the age of 30, Mary moved abroad and lived in Switzerland for some time before returning to England to write more intentionally. Her first job as a writer was being hired at the Westminster Review as the assistant editor. Mary authored articles about the Victorian way of life and her views on society. Mary also wrote articles commenting on religion and the class divide in England. Mary drew inspiration from many of her own past experiences and was regarded as authentic. Mary Ann kept this job until 1854, during her time at the Westminster Review she was the one who was seen as having done most of the work to run the newspaper.

In 1854, Mary Ann 'married' a man named George Henry Lewes and traveled to Germany. Mary then began to draft full-length fictional novels, rather than translations or short newspaper articles. I was at this time that she took on the pen name George Eliot. It was common at this time for women to publish works under their own names, but she wanted to avoid the idea that women's fiction was lighthearted novels or romances. Mary also wanted to have published works that were separate from everything else that she had already published under her name.

Mary Ann Evans published a plethora of works both under her name and her pen name, as well as being a firm abolitionist and suffragist. Mary passed due to kidney disease in 1880 at the age of 61. Her works are still considered to be a part of classic literature, and there are landmarks located at the houses she lived in and the schools she attended.

-June 2025

Born in Bavaria in March 1882, Emmy Noether was the oldest of four children. Emmy was known as a clever child who was able to get along well with her peers. Like every other girl in this time period, Emmy was taught how to cook and clean at home, she also took piano lessons and liked to dance. At school, Emmy showed early proficiency in English and French and eventually excelled enough to be allowed to teach these subjects at a girl’s school, instead Emmy decided to continue her studies at the University of Erlangen. Emmy was one of two women who were accepted as students. She was allowed to audit the classes rather than fully enroll in them.

Despite the challenges she faced, Emmy passed the graduate exams in 1903. Emmy continued her studies, learning from several different astronomers and mathematicians. She submitted her dissertation in 1907 and worked occasionally as a teacher in this field.

Many people did not think that women belonged in the field of teaching at the university level, but Emmy was able to persevere through this chatter and continued to teach. Emmy eventually proved something that would eventually become known as Noether's Theorem. This theorem was called one of the most significant discoveries in modern physics, going as far as to relate it to the importance of the Pythagorean theorem. During all this time, Emmy was teaching but was not being paid for her work.

Noether's work was in abstract algebra. It was in this field that Emmy taught and supervised doctoral candidates before their thesis defense. Emmy was eventually driven out of Germany in the 1930's due to her being Jewish. She found safety in the United States, and continued teaching at Bryn Mawr College.

In April 1935, Emmy's doctors found a large tumor in her pelvis, she had an operation to remove the cysts that were growing there. Her recovery began normally, until she fell unconscious and her temperature reached 109 degrees. She passed April 14th at the age of 53. Her colleagues held a small memorial service for her, and other respected mathematicians wrote to pay their respects, including Albert Einstein, who was one of the people who titled her the most important women in the history of mathematics.

-May 2025

If there was anyone who was most equipped with life as a circus performer, it was Katie Sandwina.

Born in 1884 as Katharina Brumbach, this Austrian American strongwoman was one of fourteen children born to circus performer parents, Phillipe and Johanna Brumbach. Growing up, Katie would perform with her family, and her father would extend the challenge to men in the audience: 100 marks to anyone who could defeat Katie in a wrestling match. No one was ever able to claim the prize money. It was during one of these wrestling matches that Katie met her husband, Max Heymann.

In 1902, Katie managed to beat the famed strongman, Eugen Sandow in a weightlifting competition in New York. Katie won by being able to lift 300 pounds over her head, Sandow was only able to lift the same amount of weight to his chest. It was after this victory that Katie adopted the stage name of Sandwina, as a feminine version of the name Sandow. 

It was with this name that Katie and her husband traveled and worked with the Barnum and Bailey troupe. Katie would entertain audiences with feats of strength such as lifting her 165-pound husband over her head, being able to resist the pull of four horses, and bending steel bars. 

Katie traveled with the circus for 60 years before she and Max decided to settle down and open a bar and grill restaurant in New York. The two advertised the establishment as being owned by the world's strongest woman. Katie would continually entertain patrons with her strength.

Together, Katie and Max had two sons, and Katie passed due to cancer in January 1952.

-April 2025

Born as Elizabeth Jane Cochran in 1864, Nellie Bly was the thirteenth child of her father. She was born in his second marriage. Her father was the owner of one of the mills surrounding the land that Nellie grew up on. As a child, she would often wear the color pink, giving her a childhood nickname. After growing up some, Nellie wanted to be seen as more sophisticated and decided to start going by her own name.

In 1879, Nellie enrolled in what became Indiana University of Pennsylvania but only stayed there for one term due to a lack of funds. 

Nellie began her career as a journalist in 1885. The Pittsburgh Dispatch ran an article titled "What Girls are Good For" which stated that women were most adept at becoming wives, mothers, and homemakers. Nellie strongly disagreed with this idea of womanhood, and wrote her own response to it titled under the pseudonym The Lonely Orphan. The editors of the newspaper were so impressed by Nellie that they urged the author to come forward. Nellie stepped forward and was offered to draft an additional article for the newspaper, this one titled "The Girl Puzzle" in which she writes that not all women feel the need to marry and instead there should be better jobs offered to women.

Nellie continued to write for the newspaper, continued to write for the newspaper, adopting the pen name of Nellie Bly after the title character of a Stephen Foster song. Nellie wrote about how the lives of working women could be improved, writing a series of investigative pieces on women in factory work. After a few articles had been published in this line, women in the factories became upset at Nellie's writing, and she was given a new assignment in the women's pages covering fashion, society, and gardening. 

By this time, Nellie was only 21 years old was had grown bored of writing puff pieces, so she began to serve as a foreign correspondent in Mexico. She spent six months there writing about the lives and cultures of the Mexican people. When Nellie drafted an article about the unjust arrest of a Mexican citizen for speaking out against the Mexican dictatorship, the country threatened to arrest her, causing her to flee the country.

After returning to the United States, Nellie once again grew bored with writing in the women's column. She moved to New York and approached New York World for an undercover investigation series. Nellie faked insanity to be admitted to an insane asylum to learn firsthand what women in these institutions faced. Nellie was kept at the Blackwell Island asylum for ten days before the newspaper had her released under their orders. 

Nellie wrote a report of her time in the asylum that was published on October 9, 1887. Her report was also later turned into a book titled "Ten Days in a Mad House". Nellie's report caused such a sensation in the public eye that reforms were made and put in place that changed the treatment that women faced in asylums.

Nellie did not stop there. She continued to write as a journalist, going as far as to be allowed to interview the notorious serial killer, Lizzie Halliday. Nellie also continued her travels, in 1888 she wanted to prove whether it actually took eighty days to cross the globe as author Jules Verne had predicted in his book, "Around the World in Eighty Days". Nellie set out in New York and returned a mere 72 days later. This feat caused her to set a record for the fastest time to go around the world.

Nellie continued writing until she got married to a wealthy man named Robert Seaman, who was several years older than Nellie was. When Robert's health started to decline, Nellie left writing to succeed him in taking over and running his business, the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co. Nellie became one of the leading female industrialists in the United States. The company eventually went bankrupt and Nellie returned to writing and worked as a journalist until her death in 1922.

-March 2025

Lucy was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 by paleoanthropologist Dr. Donald Johanson. At the time, Lucy was not only the earliest human ancestor, but the most complete human ancestor. She was dated to have lived roughly 3.2 million years ago, standing at 3 1/2 feet tall.

Lucy's discovery was significant in the world of anthropology, showing evidence that human life evolved out of Africa. Lucy was also significant because she showed that early hominins walked on two feet. 

The remains of Lucy were initially brought to the United States, housed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where Dr. Johanson worked. She has since been returned home to Ethiopia where she currently resides at the National Museum in Addis Ababa.

Dr. Johanson's anthropological team named her after the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which they were listening to in their celebration after discovery. But this is not her only name. In Ethiopia, she is called Dinknesh, which translates to "you are marvelous."

Lucy goes to show that women have been changing the game of history not only currently, but for millions of years.

-February 2025

Photo credits: Cleveland Museum of Natural History