Browse Items (13 total)

At a time when women had few rights, Ann Makemie Holden managed her large plantation on the Eastern Shore and strove to uphold the ideals of the American Revolution.

Accomack County

Clementina Rind was the first female printer in colonial Virginia.

Williamsburg

A quintessential hostess, Dolley Madison was at the center of the national political scene for many years and defined the role of First Lady in the 19th century.

Orange County

Edith Turner, chief of the Nottoway, successfully navigated nineteenth-century Nottoway and Anglo-American societies while she strove to keep the tribe’s children on the reservation.

Southampton County

Concerned about the plight of orphaned girls, Elizabeth Ambler Brent Carrington helped establish the Female Humane Association of the City of Richmond at a time when women rarely played a role in public affairs.

Richmond

Setting a charitable example, Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell fostered the fledgling Methodist Church in southwestern Virginia as a devoted adherent and through material and compassionate support of the church.

Saltville

Gowan Pamphlet was born enslaved, but persevered to become a well-known preacher, gain his freedom, and establish a Baptist church in Williamsburg that continues as an active congregation today.

Williamsburg

At the time of the American Revolution, Hannah Lee Corbin believed that female property owners were unfairly taxed because they could not vote.

Westmoreland County

Jean Miller Skipwith, Lady Skipwith, assembled one of the largest libraries owned by a Virginia woman early in the nineteenth century.

Mecklenburg County

Martha Washington was her husband's confidant and established the public role of First Lady after his election as president.

Fairfax County