This is a list of American women's firsts, noting the first time that an American woman or women achieved a given historical feat. Inclusion on the list is reserved for achievements by American women that have significant historical impact.
17th century 18th century 19th century: 1800s • 1810s • 1820s • 1830s • 1840s • 1850s • 1860s • 1870s • 1880s • 1890s 20th century: 1900s • 1910s • 1920s • 1930s • 1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s 21st century: 2000s • 2010s • 2020s See also References __NOTOC__
17th century 1635 Anne Hutchinson was the first American woman to start a Protestant sect.Read, Phyllis J., and Bernard Witlieb (1992). The Book of Women's Firsts: Breakthrough Achievements of Almost 1,000 American Women. New York, NY: Random House. 1640 Anne Bradstreet was the first published poet in the British North American colonies. 1647 Margaret Brent was the first American woman to demand the right to vote.Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, and New York Public Library. The Woman's Athenaeum For the Intellectual, Industrial and Social Advancement of Women. New York: Woman's Athenaeum, 1912. 1649 Sarah White Norman and Mary Vincent Hammon were charged with "lewd behavior upon a bed." They are the first American women convicted of lesbian activity.Alyson Publications (1990). The Alyson Almanac: A Treasury of Information for the Gay and Lesbian Community. Boston: Alyson Publications.
18th century 1700s Henrietta Johnston was the first known female portrait painter in the American colonies as well as the first woman pastelist.Saunders, Richard H. and Ellen G. Miles. American Colonial Portraits • 1700-1776. Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987. pp. 94-96 1739 Elizabeth Timothy was the first woman to print a formal newspaper as well as the first female franchise holder in the colonies. 1750 Jane Colden was the first woman botanist in America.Humphrey, H. B (1961). Makers of North American Botany. New York: Ronald. 1756 Lydia Taft was the first woman known to vote legally in Colonial America after her husband died and son left her; she was granted permission to vote through a Massachusetts town meeting."Women in Politics." International women's democracy center. International Women, n.d. Web. 26 Apr 2012.http://www.iwdc.org/resources/timeline.htm 1762 Ann Smith Franklin was the first female newspaper editor in America.Hanaford, Phebe A (1882). Daughters of America; or, Women of the Century. Augusta, Me: True and Co. 1776 Margaret Corbin was the first woman to assume the role of soldier in the American Revolutionary War and receive a pension for it.Pennington, Reina (2003). Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. 1784 Hannah Adams was the first American woman to become a professional writer. Hannah Slater was the first American woman granted a patent.
19th century 1800s 1808 Jane Aitken was the first American woman to print the Bible in English.Metzger, Bruce Manning (2001). The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
1810s 1812 Lucy Brewer was one of the first American women to join the United States Marine Corps.Lacy, Linda Cates (2004). We Are Marines!: World War I to the Present. [North Carolina]: Tar Heel Chapter, NC-1, Women Marines Association.
1820s 1828 Sarah Hale was the first American woman to become editor of a major women's magazine (Godey's Lady's Book).Burt, Olive Woolley (1960). First Woman Editor: Sarah J. Hale. New York: Julian Messner.
1830s 1835 Harriot Kezia Hunt was one of the first American women to practice medicine professionally, and "clearly the first to achieve a marked success".James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer (1971). Notable American Women, 1607–1950; A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
1840s 1840 Dorothy Catherine Draper was the first woman to be photographed. 1846 Sarah Bagley was the first woman in America to become a telegraph operator. Frances Whitcher was the first significant female comic protagonist in America, and the "first best-selling woman humorist".Stevens, Peter F (1993). The Mayflower Murderer and Other Forgotten Firsts in American History. New York: Morrow.Lauter, Paul, and Bruce-Novoa (1990). The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lexington, Mass: D.C. Heath. 1848 Maria Mitchell was the first female astronomer in the United States as well as the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell, born in England, was the first woman to earn a medical degree in America.Robbins, Trina, Cynthia Martin, and Anne Timmons (2007). Elizabeth Blackwell: America's First Woman Doctor. Mankato, Minn: Capstone Press.
1850s
1850 Harriet Tubman was the first American woman to run an underground railroad to help slaves escape. Some scholars label her the "Queen of the Underground Railroad".Stein, R. Conrad (2010). Harriet Tubman: "on My Underground Railroad I Never Ran My Train Off the Track". Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. 1853 Antoinette Brown Blackwell was the first woman ordained as a minister in America; she was ordained by the Congregational Church.Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs (1993). Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800-1925: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. 1854 Amelia Butler was the first known American woman to perform as a clown. 1855 Anne Elizabeth McDowell was the first American woman to publish a newspaper completely run by women; it was circulated weekly and titled, "Women's Advocate".Frost-Knappman, Elizabeth, and Sarah Kurian (1994). The ABC-CLIO Companion to Women's Progress in America. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.Heinemann, Sue (1996). Timelines of American Women's History. New York: Berkley Pub. Group. Emeline Roberts Jones was the first woman to practice dentistry in the United States. She married the dentist Daniel Jones when she was a teenager, and became his assistant in 1855.
1860s 1865 Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the federal government of the United States; she was hanged for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.Larson, Kate Clifford (2008). The Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln. New York: Basic Books. 1866 Mary Walker was the first woman in America to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.Mikaelian, Allen, and Mike Wallace (2002). Medal of Honor: Profiles of America's Military Heroes from the Civil War to the Present. New York: Hyperion. Lucy Hobbs Taylor was the first woman in America to graduate from a dental school (Ohio College of Dental Surgery).Oakes, Elizabeth H (2001). Encyclopedia of World Scientists. New York: Facts on File. 1869 Arabella Mansfield was the first American woman to become a professional lawyer; she was admitted to the Iowa bar.
1870s
1870 Louisa Swain was the first woman in the United States to vote in a general election, after the women of New Jersey lost the right to vote in 1807; she cast her ballot on September 6, 1870, in Laramie, Wyoming. Esther Hobart Morris was the first woman in America to serve as Justice of the peace.Loewen, James W (1999). Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. New York: New Press. Ada Kepley was the first woman to graduate from law school in America (Northwestern University School of Law). 1871 Frances Willard was the first American woman college president. She also presided over the Women's Christian Temperance UnionGordon, Anna A. (1898). The Beautiful Life of Frances E. Willard, A Memorial Volume. Chicago: Woman's Temperance Pub. Association. 1872 Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for President of the United States.Havelin, Kate (2007). Victoria Woodhull: Fearless Feminist. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books. 1873 Ellen Swallow Richards was one of first American women to become a professional chemist and first to earn a degree in Chemistry; she was the first woman to graduate from school of science or technology in America (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). 1876 Louise Blanchard Bethune was the first American woman to become a professional architect. 1877 Helen Magill White was the first woman in America to earn the Ph.D. degree (in Greek). 1878 Emma Abbott was the first American woman to form her own opera company. 1879 Sarah Loguen Fraser became the first African American woman to graduate from the Syracuse College of Medicine.
1880s 1880 Belva Ann Lockwood was the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court of the United States.Knowledge Center | Catalyst.org Mary Myers, a balloonist, who was the first woman to fly solo – done 4 July 1880 at Little Falls, New York. 1881 Emma Amelia Hall became the first woman to head a state institution in Michigan when she was appointed as the first superintendent of Michigan's Girls Training School, Adrian, Michigan. 1887 Susanna M. Salter was elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman mayor in the United States.Grout, Pam (2002). Kansas Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff. Guilford, Conn: Globe Pequot Press.Rutgers, Center for American Women and Politics, Firsts for Women in U.S. Politics Phoebe Couzins was the first American woman to serve as a United States Marshal.Willard, Frances E., and Mary Ashton Rice Livermore(1973). American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies with Over 1,400 Portraits; a Comprehensive Encyclopedia of the Lives and Achievements of American Women During the Nineteenth Century. Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1888 Verina Morton Jones became the first African-American woman and first woman to practice medicine in the state of Mississippi.
1890s 1890 Amanda Theodosia Jones established the first all-women's company, called Women's Canning and Preserving Company 1891 Marie Owens, born in Canada, was hired as America's first female police officer, joining the Chicago Police Department. Irene Williams Coit, was the first woman passing the Yale College entrance examination. Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson became the first woman and first African-American woman to be licensed as a physician in the U.S. state of Alabama. 1892 Wilhelmina Weber Furlong was the first American woman Modernist studio painter from the early American Modernism scene in Manhattan, New YorkThe Biography of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong: The Treasured Collection of Golden Heart Farm by Clint B. Weber, 1893 Florence Kelley was the first woman to hold statewide office when Governor John Peter Altgeld appointed her Chief Factory Inspector for the state of Illinois.Kathryn Kish Sklar, "Florence Kelley", Women Building Chicago, 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary, Rima Lunin Schultz and Adele Hast, eds., Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 2001, p. 463 Sarah Garland Boyd Jones became the first African-American woman physician to pass the Virginia Medical Examining Board's examination; some sources describe her as the first woman of any race to do so, while Encyclopedia Virginia states a white woman had passed the examination in 1890. 1894 Julia A. J. Foote became the first woman and first African-American woman deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 1896 May Irwin was the first actress in America to kiss on screen, which she did in the film The Kiss.Cullen, Frank (2004). Vaudeville, old and new: an encyclopedia of variety performers. New York: Routledge. 1898 Lutie Lytle became the first woman to teach law in a chartered law school when she joined the faculty of her alma mater, Central Tennessee College of Law. 1899 Eleonora de Cisneros was the first American trained opera singer the Metropolitan Opera company hired.
20th century 1900s
1900