The breadbasket state of Nebraska, which neighbors my home state of Colorado, is very proud of its history and the accomplishments of women with ties to the state. As I have discovered throughout my exploration of women through U.S. history, women have made significant contributions across all fields of endeavor throughout the existence of our country. The women of the Cornhusker state are no exception. Match the woman with her accomplishment:
_____ 1. She sold Nebraska Furniture Mart to Warren Buffett on a handshake deal for $60 million.
_____ 2. A writer and political activist, she reported on the landmark case before the U.S. District Court where Native Americans were ruled to be persons under the law with the full rights of U.S. citizens.
_____ 3. The first female dean in the U.S., 1924, University of Chicago.
_____ 4. A social activist who worked to protect immigrants, women, and children, she is credited with being a primary force behind the Social Security Act of 1935.
_____ 5. The first Native American female physician, she realized her dream of establishing her own hospital.
_____ 6. Her work led to the founding of the Feminist Press and the establishment of women’s studies programs at universities and colleges.
_____ 7. A Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose writing often depicted conditions on the Nebraska prairie.
A. Susette La Flesche Tibbles
B. Susan La Flesche Picotte
C. Grace Abbott
D. Willa Cather
E. Edith Abbott
F. Rose Blumkin
G. Tillie Olsen
A member of the Omaha tribe, born on the Omaha Reservation, Susette La Flesche Tibbles was a political activist, writer, interpreter and artist. Educated in English-language schools, Tibbles began her career as a teacher. She worked to bring justice for the Ponca tribe who had been uprooted from their ancestral lands. Tibbles reported on the trial of their chief Standing Bear, whose landmark case (1879) before the U.S. District Court ruled that Native Americans were persons under the law and had the full rights of U.S. citizens. She then served as Standing Bear’s interpreter during a lecture tour in the eastern U.S. under the name Bright Eyes, a translation of her Omaha name. In her later life, Tibbles authored and illustrated books and spoke around the world for social justice for Native Americans.
A sister of Susette, Susan La Flesche Picotte became the first Native American female physician in the U.S. She had decided on this course for her life after watching a Native American woman die because the white doctor wouldn’t provide treatment. Educated at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (1889), Picotte returned to the Omaha Reservation and provided medical care to 1200 people at the government boarding school. She and her husband later moved to Bancroft, Nebraska where she was in private practice. Shortly before her death, she saw her dream realized when she opened a hospital in Walthill, Nebraska. Today, that building is a museum honoring her work as well as telling the history of the Omaha and Winnebago people.
Born in Grand Island, Nebraska social worker Grace Abbott worked on improving the rights of immigrants and on child labor. After completing her undergraduate and graduate degrees, she lived at Hull House in Chicago, with her sister Edith. In Chicago, she was a stalwart supporter of the rights of immigrants, testifying before Congress on this topic. She also worked on women’s rights. Abbott was employed at the Children’s Bureau from 1917 to 1919, working to ensure child labor protection. Later, she was a professor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and is credited with being a primary force behind the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935.
Known for her vivid descriptions of prairie life in the Cornhusker State in her writings, Willa Cather’s family moved to Nebraska from Virginia when she was nine years old. After her father tried farming, the family moved to Red Cloud instead. Cather’s first pieces were published in the Red Cloud Chief, the local newspaper. Although she entered the University of Nebraska – Lincoln with the intent of becoming a physician, her love of writing prevailed and she graduated with a degree in English, having written articles throughout her college years for the Nebraska State Journal. While working in Pennsylvania and then New York, Cather wrote short stories and novels, often about frontier life in Nebraska. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for her novel One of Ours, Cather is widely remembered for O Pioneers! (1913) and My Antonia (1918). She has been honored on a U.S. postage stamp and inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Like her sister Grace, Edith Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. An educator, Abbott became the first female dean in the U.S. when she assumed that position in 1924 at the University of Chicago. Determined to reflect humanitarianism in education, Abbott, whose PhD was in economics, believed in establishing programs to reduce or eliminate poverty. Living at Hull House, afforded her the opportunity to advocate for women’s and children’s rights, as well as immigration and public assistance. She helped write the 1935 Social Security Act and served at one point on the California Supreme Court.
Businesswoman and entrepreneur Rose Blumkin, known as “Mrs. B” started her first store in Omaha, Nebraska in 1937 with $500 and a vision. She was going to buy in bulk and sell at a discount, passing the savings along to the customer. By the time she sold Nebraska Furniture Mart to Warren Buffett on a handshake deal for $60 million, the original store covered 75 acres. With her motto of “Sell Cheap and Tell the Truth”, Mrs. B had a reputation such that Mr. Buffett said of her “Put her up against the top graduates of the top business schools or chief executives of the Fortune 500 and, assuming an even start with the same resources, she’d run rings around them.”
Born in Wahoo, Nebraska and spending most of her youth in Omaha, Tillie Olsen dropped out of high school at age 15 to go to work, although by that point she had written a humor column for the school’s newspaper. Heavily interested in the communist party, she moved to California and was arrested in 1931 for inciting worker protests. After her incarceration, she returned to writing that over time included published and unpublished novels, poems, short stories, and newspaper articles. A writing Fellowship at Stanford University in 1955-1956 allowed her the freedom to complete and publish short stories and a novella. Olsen was particularly devoted to uncovering women’s contributions to literature over time. Her work and research led to the founding of the Feminist Press in 1970 and is credited with inspiring the founding of women’s studies programs at universities and colleges across the U.S.
Learn about more she-roes and celebrate amazing women. These women who all have ties to the State of Nebraska are among the more than 850 women profiled in the book Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America. I am proud to tell women’s stories and write women back into history. I stand on their shoulders.
(Answers: 1-F, 2-A, 3-E, 4-C, 5-B, 6-G, 7-D)