portrait-photo

Things I like: suffragettes, war workers, factory girls, socialites who got stuff done, ladies who ruled countries, and women who changed the world, even if it was just a little bit. Click on photos for sources.

Follow on Facebook

Cool Chicks from History is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com

thecivilwarparlor: Mary Tippee; Zouaves Unit; 114th Pennsylvania-Photograph taken at the Tyson Brothers studio in Gettysburg, wearing the Kearny Cross she received for gallantry on the field of Fredericksburg where she was wounded in the ankle by a bullet. Mary Tebe / Mary Tippee / Mary Tippie. A vivandere was a combination nurse, cook, seamstress, and laundress who travelled with the Zouaves. A vivandiere adopted the style of clothing of her regiment, but with men’s pants under a knee-length skirt.  Most vivandiere’s were sent home when the heavy fighting started, so Mary is considered the only enlisted woman at Gettysburg where she carried water and treated the wounded during the heaviest of the fighting. She was in 13 battles, and carried a .44 caliber pistol.

thecivilwarparlor:

Mary Tippee; Zouaves Unit; 114th Pennsylvania-Photograph taken at the Tyson Brothers studio in Gettysburg, wearing the Kearny Cross she received for gallantry on the field of Fredericksburg where she was wounded in the ankle by a bullet.

Mary Tebe / Mary Tippee / Mary Tippie. A vivandere was a combination nurse, cook, seamstress, and laundress who travelled with the Zouaves. A vivandiere adopted the style of clothing of her regiment, but with men’s pants under a knee-length skirt. 

Most vivandiere’s were sent home when the heavy fighting started, so Mary is considered the only enlisted woman at Gettysburg where she carried water and treated the wounded during the heaviest of the fighting. She was in 13 battles, and carried a .44 caliber pistol.

thecivilwarparlor: As the author of Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers, Susie King Taylor was the only African American woman to publish a memoir of her wartime experiences.  She was hired by the 1st South Carolina Colored Volunteers and worked for more than three years nursing wounded soldiers, as well as teaching those who could not read or write. She was the first Black Army nurse. She organized African American women, including Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, to care for sick and wounded black soldiers during the Civil War. She tended to an all Black army troop named the First South Carolina Volunteers, 33rd Regiment, where her husband served, for four years during the Civil War. Despite her service, she was never paid for her work. She established two schools in her lifetime. Susan died in 1912 at the age of sixty-four in Boston and she is currently interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Roslindale, Massachusetts. Full text of Susie’s memoir can be found here.

thecivilwarparlor:

As the author of Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers, Susie King Taylor was the only African American woman to publish a memoir of her wartime experiences. 

She was hired by the 1st South Carolina Colored Volunteers and worked for more than three years nursing wounded soldiers, as well as teaching those who could not read or write. She was the first Black Army nurse. She organized African American women, including Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, to care for sick and wounded black soldiers during the Civil War.

She tended to an all Black army troop named the First South Carolina Volunteers, 33rd Regiment, where her husband served, for four years during the Civil War. Despite her service, she was never paid for her work. She established two schools in her lifetime.

Susan died in 1912 at the age of sixty-four in Boston and she is currently interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Roslindale, Massachusetts.

Full text of Susie’s memoir can be found here.

theweekmagazine: In 1860, an 11-year-old girl wrote to Abe Lincoln, suggesting he grow a beard. He not only responded, he obliged. “Hon A B Lincoln… Dear Sir My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin’s. I am a little girl only 11 years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chautauqua County New York.  I must not write any more answer this letter right off Good bye Grace Bedell” Lincoln responded a few days later:  “Miss Grace Bedell My dear little Miss  Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received — I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters — I have three sons — one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age — They, with their mother, constitute my whole family — As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?  Your very sincere well wisher, A. Lincoln” While he made no promises about the beard to Bedell, he stopped shaving and allowed the beard to grow not long after their exchange and was elected as the 16th president of the United States a few weeks later. On his inaugural train ride from Illinois to Washington, D.C., the president-elect stopped in Bedell’s hometown of Westfield, N.Y., and asked to meet her.

theweekmagazine:

In 1860, an 11-year-old girl wrote to Abe Lincoln, suggesting he grow a beard. He not only responded, he obliged.

“Hon A B Lincoln…

Dear Sir

My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin’s. I am a little girl only 11 years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chautauqua County New York. 

I must not write any more answer this letter right off Good bye

Grace Bedell”

Lincoln responded a few days later: 

“Miss Grace Bedell

My dear little Miss 

Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received — I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters — I have three sons — one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age — They, with their mother, constitute my whole family — As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now? 

Your very sincere well wisher,

A. Lincoln”

While he made no promises about the beard to Bedell, he stopped shaving and allowed the beard to grow not long after their exchange and was elected as the 16th president of the United States a few weeks later. On his inaugural train ride from Illinois to Washington, D.C., the president-elect stopped in Bedell’s hometown of Westfield, N.Y., and asked to meet her.

(Source: theweek.com)

pbsthisdayinhistory: August 13, 1860:  Sharpshooter Annie Oakley Born On this day in 1860, American exhibition shooter Annie Oakley was born in Ohio.  Annie’s impeccable aim captured the attention of major figures worldwide, such as Queen Victoria of England and King Umberto I of Italy, for whom she performed while in Europe. One of Annie’s most famous tricks was splitting a playing card with a .22 caliber rifle, edge-on, and putting several more holes in it before it could touch the ground at 90 feet away. Learn about Annie Oakley’s lifelong adventures and travels with this timeline courtesy of American Experience.

pbsthisdayinhistory:

August 13, 1860:  Sharpshooter Annie Oakley Born

On this day in 1860, American exhibition shooter Annie Oakley was born in Ohio.  Annie’s impeccable aim captured the attention of major figures worldwide, such as Queen Victoria of England and King Umberto I of Italy, for whom she performed while in Europe.

One of Annie’s most famous tricks was splitting a playing card with a .22 caliber rifle, edge-on, and putting several more holes in it before it could touch the ground at 90 feet away.

Learn about Annie Oakley’s lifelong adventures and travels with this timeline courtesy of American Experience.

todaysdocument: “Matronly persons … will always have preference” Circular No. 8 Regarding Requirements for Female Nursing Applicants, 07/14/1862 In 1861, shortly after the Battle of Bull Run, U.S. Surgeon General William Hammond appointed Dorothea Dix as Superintendent of U.S. Army Nurses. This circular lays out Dix’s requirements for women who wanted to serve. Strict age and marriage requirements stemmed from fears that mixing young unmarried women with soldiers would lead to scandal. Dix appointed approximately 3,000 women to nursing positions. Approximately 30,000 women served in nursing and relief operations on both sides of the conflict. via DocsTeach

todaysdocument:

“Matronly persons … will always have preference”

Circular No. 8 Regarding Requirements for Female Nursing Applicants, 07/14/1862

In 1861, shortly after the Battle of Bull Run, U.S. Surgeon General William Hammond appointed Dorothea Dix as Superintendent of U.S. Army Nurses. This circular lays out Dix’s requirements for women who wanted to serve. Strict age and marriage requirements stemmed from fears that mixing young unmarried women with soldiers would lead to scandal. Dix appointed approximately 3,000 women to nursing positions. Approximately 30,000 women served in nursing and relief operations on both sides of the conflict.

via DocsTeach

todaysdocument: Presented to Congress on January 29, 1866, signers of this Petition for Universal Suffrage included pioneer suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and members of the former Women’s Loyal National League, Ernestine Rose, Lucy Stone, and Antoinette Brown Blackwell. This exceptional combination of signatures represents some of the period’s foremost advocates for suffrage and abolition.

todaysdocument:

Presented to Congress on January 29, 1866, signers of this Petition for Universal Suffrage included pioneer suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and members of the former Women’s Loyal National League, Ernestine Rose, Lucy Stone, and Antoinette Brown Blackwell. This exceptional combination of signatures represents some of the period’s foremost advocates for suffrage and abolition.

Columbia, the female personification of the US, ready for battle in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War. Currier & Ives

Columbia, the female personification of the US, ready for battle in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War.

Currier & Ives

Sampler by Bonitasa Flores, Mexico, circa 1860 The difficult shading technique used and the religious imagery (lamb, sacred heart) suggest this sampler was completed at a convent school in an urban area.

Sampler by Bonitasa Flores, Mexico, circa 1860

The difficult shading technique used and the religious imagery (lamb, sacred heart) suggest this sampler was completed at a convent school in an urban area.

Tennesse “Tinnie” Clafin Early Wall Street broker and suffragette Photographed by Matthew Brady Circa 1860 - 1865

Tennesse “Tinnie” Clafin

Early Wall Street broker and suffragette

Photographed by Matthew Brady

Circa 1860 - 1865