Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia is a 16-volume reference work of biographies of notable women. It includes biographies of around 10,000 women, and also includes genealogical charts of noble families and some joint entries about multiple women (such as "Astronauts: Women in Space"). The work covers women from all walks of life, including all nationalities, and particularly women whose lives are not well documented in other works. [1]
After nine years of work, the encyclopedia was published in 1999, under the editorship of Anne Commire. There were over 300 contributors. [1] It won the 2001 Dartmouth Medal for outstanding reference works from the American Library Association. [2]
Harriet Stratemeyer Adams was an American juvenile book packager, children's novelist, and publisher who was responsible for some 200 books over her literary career. She wrote the plot outlines for many books in the Nancy Drew series, using characters invented by her father, Edward Stratemeyer. Adams also oversaw other ghostwriters who wrote for these and many other series as a part of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and rewrote many of the novels to update them starting in the late 1950s.
The Byam Shaw School of Art, often known simply as Byam Shaw, was an independent art school in London, England, which specialised in fine art and offered foundation and degree level courses. It was founded in 1910 by John Liston Byam Shaw and Rex Vicat Cole. In 2003 it was absorbed by Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design.
Juliette Adam was a French author and feminist.
Damo was a Pythagorean philosopher said by many to have been the daughter of Pythagoras and Theano.
Katri "Kaisa" Vellamo Parviainen was a Finnish athlete. She competed in the javelin throw at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics and won a silver medal in 1948, finishing 16th in 1952; in 1948 she also placed 13th in the long jump.
The Dictionary of Scientific Biography is a scholarly reference work that was published from 1970 through 1980 by publisher Charles Scribner's Sons, with main editor the science historian Charles Gillispie, from Princeton University. It is supplemented by the New Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Both these publications are comprised in an electronic book, called the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
Hattie Elizabeth Alexander was an American pediatrician and microbiologist. Hattie earned her M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1930 and continued her research and medical career at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. She became the lead microbiologist and the head of the bacterial infections program at Columbia-Presbyterian. Alexander occupied many prestigious positions at Columbia University and was well honored even after her death from liver cancer in 1968. She is known for her development of the first effective remedies for Haemophilus influenzae infection, as well as being one of the first scientists to identify and study antibiotic resistance. Hattie has received many awards and honors including the E. Mead Johnson Award in 1942, for her headway in pediatric research and antibiotic resistance. Her research and studies helped lay the ground work for research into antibiotic and vaccine development.
Events from the year 1860 in France.
Saint Laura of Cordoba was a Spanish Christian who lived in Muslim Spain during the 9th century. She was born in Córdoba, and became a nun at Cuteclara after her husband died, eventually rising to become an abbess. She was martyred by Muslims, who took her captive and scalded her to death by placing her in a vat of boiling pitch. Her feast day is on 19 October; she is one of the Martyrs of Córdoba.
Soledad Acosta Kemble was a Colombian writer and journalist. A sophisticated, well-travelled, and social woman, she received a much higher and better rounded education than most women of her time and country, and enjoyed a high standing in society, not only for her family background, but for her own literary endeavours. She collaborated in various newspapers including El Comercio, El Deber, and Revista Americana, among other periodicals. Using her writings, she was a feminist well ahead of her time, she lobbied for equal education for women, and wrote on various topics pertaining to female participation in society and family, encouraging others to become proactive in the workforce and in the restoration of society.
Anne Commire was an American playwright and editor who frequently wrote about women's issues and struggles. Her first play, Shay, about a young pregnant high school dropout, was noted by The New York Times for having "sharp comic dialogue" despite the weighty subject matter.
Le Droit des femmes was a French feminist journal that appeared from 1869 to 1891. It was founded and edited by Léon Richer, and in the early days supported financially by Maria Deraismes. The newspaper supported many women's causes, but always avoided directly supporting women's suffrage. It was one of the longest running journals of its type in the 19th century.
Al-Khirniq bint Badr ibn Hiffān was an early Arabic elegiac poet. She was half-sister or aunt to the poet Tarafa ibn al'Abd.
Sylvia Fernando (1904–1983) was a Sri Lankan educator and family planning advocate. She co-founded the Family Planning Association of Ceylon in 1953.
Mary Morton Kehew was an American labor and social reformer. She was a president of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, a trustee of Simmons College, and the first president of the National Women's Trade Union League. She was also active in the women's suffrage movement, and on behalf of the blind.
Société le suffrage des femmes also known as Société le droit des femmes or (SFF), was a women's organization in France, founded in 1876.
Mary Ann Prout was an African-American educator. Thought to be born in either South River or Baltimore, Maryland, Prout founded a day school in Baltimore in 1830, and taught there until its closure in 1867. She was involved in other humanitarian ventures; a trusteeship of the Gregory Aged Women's Home, president of the local chapter of the National Reform Educational Association, and founded a secret order in 1867 that became the Independent Order of St. Luke, a Black aid organization. Prout died in Baltimore around 1884.
Virdimura was a Sicilian Jewish doctor, the first woman officially certified to practice medicine in Sicily.
Renate Burgess, born Renate Ruth Adelheid Bergius was a British art and medical historian and curator. From 1964 to 1980, she was the curator at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, responsible for catalogues and exhibitions of their extensive medical print, painting and photograph holdings. She earned a reputation as the world's leading expert in medical portraiture.
Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Throughout the Ages is a biographical dictionary of women. Published in 2006 by Yorkin Publications, the three-volume Dictionary was intended to redress the paucity of information on women available in other biographical dictionaries. Editors Anne Commire and Deborah Klezmer found that typically five percent or less of the text of such works was devoted to women.