June 1, 1995 - Episode 307 - Women of Achievement and Herstory

      Part IV and the conclusion of the tale of the Marvelous Smith
Sisters of Connecticut:
      Following Abby's death in 1878 at 87, Julia married a retired
judge of 86 and moved away from her home.  Her letters, according
to Elizabeth Spears who did a marvelous summation of the feisty
Smith sisters in an article of American Heritage in 1957, indicate a
"pathetic loneliness."  Dead at 94, Julia left instructions that she =
was to be buried between two of her sisters with only her maiden name
to be inscribed on the stone with that of her sisters.
      Julia Smith said she suspected the King James version of the
Bible was inaccurate and, knowing Latin and Greek, taught herself
Hebrew. In 1847 she began a word-by-word translation of the original
sources.  In the next five years she made five complete translations,
two from Greek, one from Latin, two from Hebrew.=20
      In 1876 she took the copies off the shelf - she had done it for
her own benefit - to a Hartford printer reasoning "that it might be
of value to the suffrage cause as part of what a mere women had
accomplished."  The translations are extensively referred to in
Elizabeth Cady Stanton's _The Woman's Bible_.
      (Elizabeth G. Spears retells the fascinating tale of the Smith
Sisters in a 1957 article in _American Heritage_.  It is worth finding  
and revisiting. Spears does a marvelous job bringing to life the
feisty, in-your-face Smith Sisters.  It's amazing that the men who
disguised themselves as Indians to secretly protest "taxation without
representation" are so well publicized in our histories but two old
women who bravely, by themselves, did the same thing are erased.)

06-01 ...............................................

      B. June 1, 1797, Abby Hadassah Smith, who together with her
sister Julia Evelina were prominent suffragists.  {See Women of
Achievement May 29, 1995 through June 1, 1995.  Julia Evelina Smith
was born 05-27-1792.}

      B. June 1, 1895, Eleanor Lansing Dulles, economist and
specialist for the U.S. State Department for the reconstruction of
West Berlin following World War II.

      B. June 1, 1905, Dinora de Carvalho, Brazilian pianist,
conductor, composer, professor, founded and directed the Feminine
Orchestra of S=FEo Paulo (1939) and the first woman member of the
Brazilian Academy of Music.

      B. June 1, 1908, Helen Mulford Thompson, orchestra manager
and a driving force behind the development of symphony orchestras 
throughout the United States from 1950 to 1970 =20

      Event June 1, 1944, Sara G. Krout becomes the first woman
dentist to serve in the US Navy.

      E.  June 1, 1964, the Equal Pay Act becomes law.  In July,
1962, the U.S. House of Representatives had passed the measure, but
October 3, 1962, the U.S. Senate refused to take action on a bill to
require equal pay for equal work for women in interstate commerce. It  
finally passed the Senate May 17, 1963 after fierce lobbying by
women and it went to the house for reconciliation of language.  Up to
this point a man working side-by-side with a woman, doing EXACTLY
the same thing, was often paid *twice* what the woman was paid.=20

      E.  June 1, 1975, Sallie McFague Teselle becomes the first
woman dean of the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University.

Quotes du jour ...............................................

      "We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or
strange that self may prove to be."
             --May Sarton, in _Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids

Singing_

>>>(C) 1995 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR
71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. Don't let anyone tell you there
weren't notable and effective women throughout history.  They were
always there, but historians failed to note them in our histories so
that of each generation of women has had to reinvent themselves. <<<