Timeline: 1901-1950

Lorena Hickok

Lorena Hickok

Lorena "Hick" Hickok was a journalist during the U.S. Great Depression and a close friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Edna Ferber

Edna Ferber

Edna Ferber was a short story writer, playwright, and Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist who portrayed strong women characters.
Maud Neprud Otjen

Maud Neprud Otjen

Maud Neprud Otjen was the first woman in Wisconsin to be a county superintendent of schools and encouraged women to be involved in civic life.
Nellie Wilson

Nellie Wilson

Nellie Wilson spent her life fighting for employment opportunities for women and was the first African American woman to hold a leadership position in her local steelworkers union.
Helen C. White

Helen C. White

Helen C. White was the first woman to hold a full professorship in the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder

The first book in author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s popular LITTLE HOUSE series is about Wilder’s childhood in Wisconsin.
Ruth Harman Walraven

Ruth Harman Walraven

Ruth Harman Walraven was a trailblazing female pilot in the mid-20th century.
Dorothy Walker

Dorothy Walker

Trial lawyer Dorothy Walker was the first female district attorney in Wisconsin.
Emma Toft

Emma Toft

Emma Toft is known as “Wisconsin’s First Lady of Conservation” for her efforts to save an ancient forest in Door County from being destroyed by logging and commercial development.
Helen Van Vechten

Helen Van Vechten

Helen Van Vechten co-owned the Philosopher Press in Wausau and became an expert in hand-printing books.