Women Activists Educational Posters, “Br...-Bu...-”
for the social studies classroom, home schoolers and theme decor.

Sophonisba Breckinridge
Fredrika Bremer
Hallie Quinn Brown

Margaret “Molly” Brown
Nannie Helen Burroughs

Sophonisba Breckinridge
b. 4-1-1866; Lexington, KY
d. 7-30-1948

Social work pioneer researcher Sophonisba Breckinridge was the first woman admitted to the bar in Kentucky. Through her connections to Chicago's Hull House she was active in women's suffrage, civil rights, labor, and pacifism.

Fredrika Bremer Portrait Print

Fredrika Bremer
b. 8-17-1801; Finland
d. 12-31-1865; Sweden

Fredrika Bremer, writer, feminist and socialist interested in international peace, was uncomfortable in the aristocratic role she was born to and wrote novels about the lack of freedom for women in Sweden. She also wrote about her travels to the U.S. and Cuba, being deeply distrubed by slavery. Bremer's work, which was written in Swedish, was translated by Mary Howitt.

An indication of her popularity is that Louisa May Alcott describes Mrs. March reading Bremer's work, as well as that of Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth, to her daughters in Little Women.

Fredrika Bremer quotes ~
• “If these slaves had only any future, anything to hope for, to strive for, to live for, any prospect before them, then I should not deplore their lot but nothing, nothing.” Homes of the New World
• “There are words which sever hearts more than sharp swords; there are words the point of which sting the heart through the course of a whole life.”
• “People have generally three epochs in their confidence in man. In the first they believe him to be everything that is good, and they are lavish with their friendship and confidence. In the next, they have had experience, which has smitten down their confidence, and they then have to be careful not to mistrust every one, and to put the worst construction upon everything. Later in life, they learn that the greater number of men have much more good in them than bad, and that even when there is cause to blame, there is more reason to pity than condemn; and then a spirit of confidence again awakens within them.”

Hallie Quinn Brown
b. 3-19-1849; Pittsburgh, PA
d. 9-16-1949; Wilberforce, OH

Writer and activist Hallie Quinn Brown was a teacher and educator, serving as dean of Allen University, principal of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama from 1892 to 1893, and a professor at Wilberforce in 1893. She was a frequent speaker about temperance and represented the U.S. at the International Congress of Women in London in 1899. Brown also spoke at the Republican National Convention in 1924 and later directed campaign work among African American women for President Calvin Coolidge.

Margaret “Molly” Brown
née Tobin
b. 7-18-1867; Hannibal, MO
d. 10-26-1932

Socialite, philanthropist and activist Margaret “Maggie” Tobin Brown, better known as “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” was made famous in the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, and the musical based on her life story.

Margaret first became involved in women's rights, helping to establish the Colorado chapter of the National American Women's Suffrage Association and working in soup kitchens to assist miners' families.

FYI - Her husband, James Joseph “J.J.” Brown (1854-1922), was “instrumental in the production of a substantial ore seam at the Little Jonny mine of his employers”, and the previously poor family came into great wealth.

Nannie Helen Burroughs
b. 5-2-1879; Orange, VA
d. 5-20-1961; Washington, DC

Nannie Helen Burroughs was a teacher, orator, religious leader and businesswoman who gained national recognition from her 1900 speech “How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping” at the National Baptist Convention. The school she founded, the National Training School for Women and Girls, emphasized the importance of being proud black women.

Nannie Helen Burroughs quotes ~
• “What we need are mental and spiritual giants who are aflame with a purpose ... We're a race ready for crusade, for we've recognized that we're a race on this continent that can work out its own salvation.”
• “When the Negro learns what manner of man he is spiritually, he will wake up all over. He will stop playing white even on the stage. He will rise in the majesty of his own soul.”
• “To struggle and battle and overcome and absolutely defeat every force designed against us is the only way to achieve.”

• The Story of Nannie Helen Burroughs
• Black History posters

Frances Buss
b. 8-16-1827; England
d. 12-24-1894

Suffragette Frances Mary Buss, a pioneer of women's education, served as a teacher, headmistress, and co-founder teacher training colleges.

Josephine Butler
b. 4-13-1828; Milfield, England
d. 12-30-1906

Victorian era feminist and passionate Christian Josephine Butler was especially concerned with the welfare of prostitutes and led the long campaign for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. The act, a form of state regulation of prostitution by giving magistrates the power to order the examinations of prostitutes for veneral dieseases and to submit to a locked hospital for a three month course of treatment. The result was abuse of state power over women by false accusation and severe procedures that, according to Butler, were “surgical rape.”

• A Victorian Feminist Christian: Josephine Butler, Prostitutes and God
• The Rise of Caring Power: Elizabeth Fry and Josephine Butler in Britain and the Netherlands