Women's Heritage Stories

It's time to celebrate fascinating American women—many of whom have not gotten the attention they deserve. Women such as Reverend Dr. Anna Pauline “Pauli” Murray, the brilliant legal mind who co-founded the National Organization of Women and became an Episcopal saint. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the heiress who rebelled against her high-society upbringing to open a studio and encourage American artists. Jane Jacobs, the urban activist whose work presaged so many of our recent findings about the benefits of older buildings for cities. Madam C.J. Walker, a self-made millionaire who broke gender and racial barriers with her pioneering business models. Ann Pamela Cunningham, who brought Northern and Southern women together after the Civil War to save Mount Vernon, and who is effectively the American founder of the preservation movement. These are just a few of the remarkable women whose stories we at the National Trust strive to tell in recognition of women's role in American history. Explore their stories—and many more connected to women's history in the United States—through the stories and places below.

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund A Dynamic Performance: Three Historic Homes Tell the Story of Blues and Jazz in America
Where Women Made History Marguerite Wildenhain and Pond Farm, Where Art and Life Blended Seamlessly
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund A Song of Hope: The Making of the Documentary "My Name is Pauli Murray"
Where Women Made History Meet the Women (and Places) Who Inspired Our Women’s History Campaign Design
Where Women Made History Where Sculpture, Landscape, and Creativity Meet: The Dorothy Riester Home and Studio
Where Women Made History Settlement Houses: Sites of Service, Access, and Connection for Women
Where Women Made History The Places That Inspired the Work of Poet and Activist Suzan Shown Harjo
11 Most Endangered Historic Places Demolition Begins at the Sun-n-Sand Motor Hotel
Preservation Magazine Three Designers Who Helped Light the Way for Women in Architecture
Where Women Made History More Than a Pop Art Nun: Preserving the Studio of Sister Mary Corita Kent
Where Women Made History Ellen Woodward and the Women Who Brought Literacy to Southern Families
Brown v. Board of Education How Black Women Changed the Face of Education in America

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