Discover the Women of the Hall

These are the Inductees of the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Select any of the women to discover their stories and learn how they have influenced other women and this country.

Achievements Year Born Where Born Year Inducted Last Name
Year Born: to
Birth State or Country: or
Year Inducted: to
First Letter of Last Name: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Inductee Name Achievements Born Where Born Inducted More

Emily Dickinson Arts 1830 Massachusetts 1973

Emily Dickinson

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1830 - 1886
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Arts

One of the world’s greatest poets. A New England woman who spent much of her life in one small community, her world vision and innovative style has had a lasting impact on literature.


Marian Anderson Arts 1897 Pennsylvania 1973

Marian Anderson

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1897 - 1993
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Arts

First African American singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera. An international star, Anderson was a brilliant musician whose talents helped shatter the color barrier for other African American performers.


Helen Hayes Arts 1900 1973

Helen Hayes

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1900 - 1993
Achievements: Arts

A major actress in all entertainment areas, from live theater to films and radio. In 1955, New York’s Fulton Theatre was renamed in her honor to commemorate a distinguished 50-year career.


Pearl S. Buck Arts 1892 West Virginia 1973

Pearl S. Buck

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1892 - 1973
Born In: West Virginia
Achievements: Arts

Novelist whose writing evoked two different cultures, American and Asian. Buck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth and was later the first American woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for her body of work.


Mary Cassatt Arts 1844 Pennsylvania 1973

Mary Cassatt

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1844 - 1926
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Arts

American impressionist painter who captured the soul of family life, women, children, interiors and gardens. A friend and student of the great Impressionists of Paris, Cassatt powerfully influenced American art.


Bessie Smith Arts c.1894 Tennessee 1984

Bessie Smith

Year Honored: 1984
Birth: c.1894 - 1937
Born In: Tennessee
Achievements: Arts

One the nation’s great blues singers, Smith earned stardom from her first record 1923’s “Down Hearted Blues,” which sold two million records. The “Empress of the Blues,” made more than 160 recordings with many of the country’s finest jazz musicians.


Harriet Beecher Stowe Arts 1811 Connecticut 1986

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Year Honored: 1986
Birth: 1811 - 1896
Born In: Connecticut
Achievements: Arts

Author and daughter of a minister, Stowe became one of the first women to earn a living by writing, publishing the best-seller Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. Although she wrote much more, her best-seller was often acclaimed as a major factor in the drive to abolish slavery.


Willa Cather Arts 1873 Virginia 1988

Willa Cather

Year Honored: 1988
Birth: 1873 - 1947
Born In: Virginia
Achievements: Arts

Newspaperwoman and editor who became an outstanding novelist with the publication of O Pioneers in 1913. Cather went on to write other great novels and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922. Her well-known works include My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop.


Ida B. Wells-Barnett Arts, Humanities 1862 Mississippi 1988

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Year Honored: 1988
Birth: 1862 - 1931
Born In: Mississippi
Achievements: Arts, Humanities

African American leader, anti-lynching crusader, journalist, lecturer and community organizer who fought social injustice all her life. Wells-Barnett sued a railroad over segregated seating, criticized segregated education and became editor and part owner of a newspaper. The horrors of lynching inspired her to lead a major effort to abolish the atrocity.


Gwendolyn Brooks Arts 1917 Kansas 1988

Gwendolyn Brooks

Year Honored: 1988
Birth: 1917 - 2000
Born In: Kansas
Achievements: Arts

Poet and novelist. Brooks was the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize (Annie Allen, 1949). She was very active in the Black arts movement.


Margaret Bourke-White Arts 1904 New York 1990

Margaret Bourke-White

Year Honored: 1990
Birth: 1904 - 1971
Born In: New York
Achievements: Arts

Trailblazing photographer, recording the Depression, London in the Blitz, Stalin and the Kremlin, World War II and more as the paramount photographer for Life, Fortune and other publications.


Georgia O'Keeffe Arts 1887 Wisconsin 1993

Georgia O'Keeffe

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1887 - 1986
Born In: Wisconsin
Achievements: Arts

Artist and perhaps the best-known American woman painter. An American original in both her lifestyle and painting, O’Keeffe produced works of high energy and vision throughout her long life.


Katherine Siva Saubel Arts, Education, Humanities 1920 California 1993

Katherine Siva Saubel

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1920 - 2011
Born In: California
Achievements: Arts, Education, Humanities

Founder of the Malki Museum at the Morongo Reservation in California. Born on a reservation in great poverty, Saubel became determined to preserve her tribe’s culture and language, despite overwhelming odds. A learned ethno anthropologist, Saubel was a founder of this first museum run by Native Americans.


Annie Oakley Arts 1860 Ohio 1993

Annie Oakley

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1860 - 1926
Born In: Ohio
Achievements: Arts

Markswoman, was probably the nation’s finest. A performer for many years with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Oakley was a staunch supporter of other women’s opportunities and raised funds to send needy women to college and nursing school.


Oprah Winfrey Arts, Business, Philanthropy 1954 Mississippi 1994

Oprah Winfrey

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1954 -
Born In: Mississippi
Achievements: Arts, Business, Philanthropy

The first Black woman to own her own television production company and who became television’s highest-paid entertainer. She is an advocate for ending child abuse, and she contributes generously to colleges and universities.


Jane Cunningham Croly Arts 1829 England 1994

Jane Cunningham Croly

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1829 - 1901
Born In: England
Achievements: Arts

Journalist and driving force behind the American Club women’s movement that inspired thousands of women into a wide range of social reform activities. Probably the nation’s first woman syndicated columnist, Croly was also the founder of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.


Charlotte Perkins Gilman Arts 1860 Connecticut 1994

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1860 - 1935
Born In: Connecticut
Achievements: Arts

Philosopher, writer, educator and activist who demanded equal treatment for women as the best means to advance society’s progress. Her landmark Women and Economics (1898) argued that until women gained economic independence, real autonomy and equity could not be achieved.


Zora Neale Hurston Arts 1891 Alabama 1994

Zora Neale Hurston

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1891 - 1960
Born In: Alabama
Achievements: Arts

Novelist, anthropologist and folklorist who contributed greatly to the preservation of African American folk traditions and to American literature. Hurston’s best known works include Their Eyes Were Watching God and her autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road.


Ella Fitzgerald Arts 1917 Virginia 1995

Ella Fitzgerald

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1917 - 1996
Born In: Virginia
Achievements: Arts

World-renowned jazz singer and the first pop musician awarded the Lincoln Center Medallion. At 15, she entered a talent contest to dance. Her knees shook so much during the contest, she chose to sing instead and was discovered by a Chick Webb band member.


Margaret Fuller Arts 1810 Massachusetts 1995

Margaret Fuller

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1810 - 1850
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Arts

Literary critic, editor, teacher and author. Fuller’s early writings inspired leaders of women’s rights. She was editor of the The Dial, a Transcendental journal, and she advocated liberation for all humanity.


Louisa May Alcott Arts 1832 Pennsylvania 1996

Louisa May Alcott

Year Honored: 1996
Birth: 1832 - 1888
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Arts

Author who produced the first literature for the mass market of juvenile girls in the 19th century. Her best-known work, Little Women, has appeared continuously in print since its first publication in 1868-69.


Maria Tallchief Arts 1925 Oklahoma 1996

Maria Tallchief

Year Honored: 1996
Birth: 1925 - 2013
Born In: Oklahoma
Achievements: Arts

Prima ballerina with the New York City Ballet and artistic director for the Lyric Opera Ballet in Chicago. Tallchief created a distinctive style and interpretation which continues to influence contemporary ballet. She used her international acclaim to bring about greater understanding and appreciation of Native Americans.


Wilhelmina Cole Holladay Arts, Business, Philanthropy 1922 1996

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay

Year Honored: 1996
Birth: 1922 - 2021
Achievements: Arts, Business, Philanthropy

Founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., which brings national and international attention to the vast achievements of women in art.


Anne Morrow Lindbergh Arts, Science 1906 1996

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Year Honored: 1996
Birth: 1906 - 2001
Achievements: Arts, Science

Author of numerous elegant essays, journals and other books. Lindbergh also excelled as co-pilot and navigator with her husband Charles on their historic flights to promote the development of international aviation.