The 2005 National Women's Hall of Fame Inductees

The National Women's Hall of Fame is a national membership organization recognizing and celebrating the achievements of individual American women. The Hall was founded in historic Seneca Falls, New York, the site of the first Women's Rights Convention in 1848. A not-for-profit educational organization, its programs include inductions of distinguished American women, educational activities, special exhibits, and events for the enrichment of public understanding and appreciation of the diverse contributions women make to society. Two hundred and seven women have been inducted since the Hall's founding in 1969. The National Women's Hall of Fame is supported by corporations, foundations, and individual benefactors.

In 2005, the following ten women will join the 207 already inducted into the Hall.

www.greatwomen.orgIn 1969, a group of women and men of Seneca Falls created the National Women's Hall of Fame, believing that the contribution of American women deserved a permanent home in the small village where it all began. The Hall is home to exhibits, artifacts of historical interest, a research library and office. The National Women's Hall of Fame, a national membership organization, holds as its mission:

"To honor in perpetuity these women, citizens of the United States of America whose contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science, have been the greatest value for the development of their country."©

The Hall is a shrine to some of the greatest women in the history of this country and a tribute that grows annually with each induction ceremony as we learn to appreciate more about the wonderful contributions that women make to our civilization.

Florence E. Allen's life is a series of firsts. An honors graduate of NYU Law School, she was the first Ohio woman appointed a county prosecuting attorney, the first woman attorney to argue before a state supreme court, the first woman to be elected to a state trial court and to preside in a first degree murder case. Most memorably, she was the first woman appointed to a federal court, when President Franklin Roosevelt named her to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In her autobiography “To Do Justly”, Allen recounts events of her upbringing, her education, and her judgeships.

Florence Ellinwood Allen (1884-1966) Judge Florence Ellinwood Allen was a legal pioneer, breaking barriers for women in law.

Ruth Fulton Benedict (1887-1948) A student of Franz Boas and mentor to Margaret Mead, Ruth Fulton Benedict was a highly influential anthropologist whose theories tremendously influenced the field of cultural anthropology.

During the 1930s, while editing the Journal of American Folk-Lore (1924-39) and teaching at Columbia University (1923-31), Ruth Benedict wrote Patterns of Culture.  Patterns of Culture brought together anthropological, poetic, and personal insights of the past ten years, and became an American Classic. Her 1934 Patterns of Culture became an American classic and is still a highly regarded publication today.

Betty Bumpers (1925 - ) Former first lady of Arkansas, Betty Bumpers has dedicated herself to world peace and health initiatives for children across the United States. As First Lady of Arkansas, Mrs. Bumpers spearheaded an immunization program in her state that became a national model.

The efforts of Mrs. Bumpers and Mrs. Carter also led to laws, now in every state, requiring certain vaccinations before entry into school. As a result of these laws, more than 95 percent of American children are immunized by the time they go to school, and once-common diseases are now rare.

She also co-founded Every Child by Two with Rosalynn Carter, a national immunization program. Mrs. Bumpers is active in the global campaign to eradicate polio.

Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947 - ) Hillary Rodham Clinton is the first First Lady ever to be elected to the United States Senate. She is the first woman Senator from New York. Her efforts on behalf of women's, family and children's issues began during her earliest employment as an attorney and remain steadfast today. Senator Clinton is the first New York State Senator to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

First Lady of the United States ......and a woman who loves to help children

Senator Clinton's latest book, Living History, was released in June of 2003. Living History was an immediate best seller, selling more than 1.5 million copies in the United States and another 1.5 million copies abroad. She is also the author of It Takes a Village: and Other Lessons Children Teach Us, An Invitation to the White House, and Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids Letters to the First Pets.

Rita Colwell (1934 - ) Dr. Rita R. Colwell became the first woman and first biologist to head the National Science Foundation in 1998, spearheading the agency's emphases in K-12 science and mathematics education, graduate science and engineering education/training and the increased participation of women and minorities in science and engineering.

Dr. Colwell has held many advisory positions in the federal government, nonprofit science policy organizations, and private foundations, as well as in the international scientific research community. She is a nationally respected scientist and educator, and has authored or co-authored 16 books and more than 600 scientific publications. She produced the award-winning film, "Invisible Seas," and has served on editorial boards of many scientific journals.

Mother Marianne’s example—her never-failing optimism, her serenity, her caring nature, and her considerable abilities—gave strength to the other sisters. Together, through devotion and self-sacrifice, the Sisters of St. Francis rendered a remarkable service to humanity in the islands of Hawai`i.

Mother Marianne Cope (1838 - 1918) As a Sister of the Third Order of St. Francis, Mother Marianne Cope worked for several years in Syracuse, New York, helping to found St. Joseph's Hospital. In 1883, she went to Kalaupapa, Hawaii where she spent thirty years ministering to those with leprosy. While in Hawaii, she worked hand in hand with Father Damien during the last part of his life.

Maya Lin (1959 - ) Lin, an architect who gained fame at the age of 21 as creator of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, is a Chinese-American who draws on a variety of culturally diverse sources for her inspiration. Some of her well-known works include the Civil Rights Memorial at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL and The Wave Field at the University of Michigan.

"Vietnam Veterans Memorial," Washington, D.C., 1982. Black granite, each wall: 246 feet long 10 1/2 feet high

Patricia Locke (1928 - 2001) Locke worked for decades to preserve American Indian languages and became a pioneer in an effort to grant the tribes greater authority in the education of their children. Locke was a 1991 MacArthur Fellow for her work to save dying tribal languages. In 1993, she became the first Native American woman elected to the national governing body of the Baha'i faith.

Patricia Locke, a Hunkpapa Lakota and Chippewa of the Mississippi Bank, lives on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota.  She shares with her audience wisdom of the elders of the Indian tribes.  Direct, yet gentle and persuasive, she talks about an alien and yet positive understanding about the earth and its people.  She has spent her adult life helping others bridge the gap between two ways of life. 

Blanche Stuart Scott (1889-1970) Born in Rochester, New York, Scott was a pioneering aviatrix, becoming the first American woman to take a solo hop into the air, although her flight is not regarded as official. In 1910, she became the first woman to drive an automobile coast to coast in her car - the "Lady Overland". Scott was also the first and only woman to take flying lessons from Glenn Curtiss, later flying with the Curtiss Exhibition Team and earning the nickname "Tomboy of the Air".

On September 6, 1948, Scott was once again achieving distinction. On a flight with pilot Charles E. Yeager in a TF-80C, she became the first American woman to ride in a jet. For the pleasure of his passenger, Yeager included some snap rolls and a 14,000 foot dive.

Mary Burnett Talbert (1866 - 1923) Civil Rights activist and suffragist, Talbert was the first African-American high school principal in the state of Arkansas. Moving to Buffalo in 1891, she went on to lecture internationally on race relations and women's rights. In 1905, she helped found and organize the Niagara Movement, a forerunner of the NAACP.

Mary Morris Burnett was born in 1866 and educated at Oberlin College. Following her graduation in 1886 from Oberlin, Ms. Burnett moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she accepted a position as a high school teacher. According to her biographer, Lillian S. Williams, Ph.D., Ms. Burnett taught history, math, science, Latin and geography at Bethel University before being appointed the school’s Assistant Principal. Ms. Williams noted, “She was the only woman ever to be selected for this position.” In 1887, Mary Burnett was named principal of Union High School in Little Rock. While her abilities and talents as an educator and orator were recognized nationally as well as in Little Rock, according to the custom of the time, Ms. Burnett was forced to give up her teaching career once she married. Her marriage to William Herbert Talbert, a City of Buffalo clerk and realtor, took place on September 8, 1891.  The Talbert’s only daughter, Sarah May was born in 1892.