Julia Ward Howe

Born in New York City in 1819, she was raised in a well-to-do family and educated privately at a time when many women had limited access to serious study. After marrying reformer Samuel Gridley Howe in 1843, she moved into Boston’s intellectual world and began publishing poetry, essays, and other writing.

She entered American history most famously as the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” written during the Civil War after a visit to Union camps near Washington. But her work reached far beyond that single poem: she wrote books and lectures, supported the antislavery cause, and later became a leading advocate for women’s suffrage.

In her later years, she helped found and lead organizations that expanded women’s public voice, including major suffrage and club movements. She died in 1910, remembered not only as a poet, but as a writer who used her words in the service of reform.