On November 11, 2008 at the Plaza Branch, Jill Tietjen discussed her book, Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America. Read more about women in American history in these books at the Library.

U.S. Women’s History | Biographies | Kansas City Women

U.S. Women’s History

Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America
By Charlotte S. Waisman & Jill S. Tietjen
This one-of-a-kind illustrated timeline highlights the awesome, varied, and often unrecognized contributions of American women since the 1500s. The result is a captivating look at champions that will resonate with women and men alike.

Women's Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present
Edited by Lisa Grunwald & Stephen J. Adler
These letters offer fresh insight into the personal milestones in women's lives. With more than 400 letters and over 100 stunning photographs, Women's Letters is a work of astonishing breadth and scope, and a remarkable testament to the women who lived--and made--history.

A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told Through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances
By Laura Schenone
Filled with classic recipes and inspirational stories, this stunningly illustrated book celebrates the power of food throughout American history and in women's lives.

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence
By Carol Berkin
America's women played a vital role throughout the Revolutionary War, and Carol Berkin's study takes readers into the ordinary moments of their extraordinary lives. Erudite, wholly accessible, and fascinating, Revolutionary Mothers is a wonderful addition to our understanding of the birth of our nation.

The Boundaries of Her Body: The Troubling History of Women's Rights in America
By Debran Rowland
This book provides a detailed survey of the history of women's rights and how the biology of a woman has controlled her legal rights for centuries.

America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines
By Gail Collins
America's Women tells the story of more than four centuries of history. It features a stunning array of personalities, from the women peering worriedly over the side of the Mayflower to feminists having a grand old time protesting beauty pageants and bridal fairs. Courageous, silly, funny, and heartbreaking, these women shaped the nation and our vision of what it means to be female in America.

Find more books about U.S. women's history in the library.

Biographies

Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists
By Jean H. Baker
Baker interweaves the private lives of Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, and Alice Paul with their public achievements, presenting these revolutionary women in three dimensions--humanized, and marvelously approachable.

Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters
By Nancy Pelosi with Amy Hill Hearth
When Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House, she made history. Now she continues to inspire women everywhere in this thought-provoking collection of wise words--her own and those of the important people who played pivotal roles in her journey.

Wild Rose: A Civil War Spy
By Ann Blackman
From the Maryland plantation where her drunken father died allegedly at the hands of his personal slave, to her own violent death at sea, Rose Greenhow led a life filled with tragedy, drama, and passion. This is a superbly researched and wonderfully readable story about an influential woman who played an extraordinary role as a Civil War spy.

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation
By Cokie Roberts
In Founding Mothers, Roberts tells the fascinating yet overlooked story of the women who helped create a new nation. While the men were debating the merits of revolution, these women were living it even as the Redcoats landed on their doorsteps.

American Women Scientists: 23 Inspiring Biographies 1900-2000
By Moira Davison Reynolds
For most of the 20th century, American women had little encouragement to become scientists. In 1906, there were only 75 female scientists employed by academic institutions in the entire country. Despite considerable barriers, determined women have, distinguished themselves. Of the 23 American women scientists covered, six were awarded Nobel prizes.

The First American Women Architects
By Sarah Allaback
By 1920, there were over two hundred women practicing architecture in the United States, actively working on major design and building projects before they were even given the right to vote. These women designed thousands of buildings nationwide. In this book, Sarah Allaback chronicles the lives and careers of more than seventy pioneering female architects practicing in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Find more biographies of American women in the library.

Kansas City Women

Kansas City Women of Independent Minds
By Jane Fifield Flynn
This book profiles 92 women, such as Jean Harlow and Julia Lee, who were born or lived in Kansas City. Photographs accompany the short biographies covering their careers and accomplishments.

Show Me Missouri Women: Selected Biographies (Volumes 1 and 2)
Illustrated with many photographs, these books feature biographies of hundreds of women from Missouri, including many from Kansas City, who have made significant contributions in some way.

Missouri Legends: Famous People from the Show Me State
By John W. Brown
Brown profiles over 125 politicians, scientists, authors, artists, and more in this book about famous people from Missouri.

Nelly Don: A Stitch in Time
By Terence Michael O'Malley
A companion to the film documentary of the same name, this biography examines Nelly Don, a Kansas City woman who built a national dress design and manufacturing empire.

Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest
By Arnold Berke
Mary Colter, a resident of Kansas City for over 25 years, may well be the best-known unknown architect in the world: her buildings at the Grand Canyon National Park-which include Lookout Tower, Hopi House, Bright Angel Lodge, and many others. This book weaves together three stories – the remarkable career of a woman in a man's profession during the late 19th century; the creation of a building and interior style drawn from regional history and landscape; and the exploitation, largely at the hands of the railroads, of the American Southwest for leisure travel.

Some book descriptions provided by BookLetters.