Year Inducted: 2020

Anna W. Spencer - Anna’s life is somewhat of a mystery, but her accomplishments are significant in the history of social reform, especially that for women’s equality and suffrage. In 1852 she began the publication in Providence of the newspaper The Pioneer and Woman’s Advocate; the newspaper’s motto was “Liberty, Truth, Equality, Temperance.” Anna’s newspaper is significant since it…
Bertha Grant Higgins - Bertha Grant Higgins was an American and civil rights activist deeply involved in supporting women's suffrage in Rhode Island. She strongly supported the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill and worked towards equal rights for African Americans. Higgins was born Bertha Grant Dillard on November 18, 1872. Before she was married, she studied fashion design in London and Paris.She married her first husband, Walker…
Elizabeth Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman - Lillie Chace Wyman was the eighth child born into the Quaker family of Samuel Buffington Chace and Elizabeth Buffum Chace on December 10, 1847. Her maternal grandfather was Arnold Buffum the noted Rhode Island abolitionist, a co-founder and first president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Her mother was the leading abolitionist and woman suffragist…
Ingeborg Kindstedt - The name of Ingeborg Kinstedt is associated with the woman’s suffrage movement not only in Rhode Island but nationally because of her accomplishments during the early decades of the twentieth century. Maria Ingeborg Kindstedt was born in Glava near the town of Karlstad, Sweden, on April 8, 1865; she arrived in the United States in…
Maria Kindberg - Maria Kindberg is intertwined with the woman’s suffrage movement not only in Rhode Island but nationally because of her accomplishments during the early decades of the twentieth century. Maria Albertina Kindberg was born in Ryd near the town of Skövde, Sweden on October 12, 1860; she emigrated to the United States arriving on June 25,…
Mary Francis “Fanny” Purdy Palmer - Fanny Purdy Palmer was an American author, poet, journalist, lecturer, social activist, and clubwoman. She was born in New York City, New York, on July 11, 1839, the only child of Henry and Mary Catherine Sharp Purdy, who descended on her father's side from Capt. Purdy, of the British army, who was killed in the…
Roberta J. Dunbar - Roberta Dunbar was born in Narragansett, Rhode Island on July 10, 1868 to John and Louisa Cartwright Dunbar. By 1870 the family was living in Providence and Roberta attended the English High school. She worked in a number of professions including dressmaker, masseuse and hairdresser but her work of note was as an activist dedicated…
Sara MacCormack Algeo - Sara M. Algeo was President of the Rhode Island College Equal Suffrage League; Founder and Chair of the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Party; Member of Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association; Rhode Island Vice President and Member of the Executive Committee of the New England Woman Suffrage Association; Chair of the Rhode Island Woman's Americanization Committee;…
Sophia R. Little - Sophia Little was born in Newport in 1799, the daughter of Asher Robbins. Her father was a prominent Rhode Island politician who served as U.S. Attorney General for Rhode Island and then in the state legislature before serving as U.S. Senator from 1825 to 1839. Not much is known about Sophia’s early education other than…
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