Ruth Putnam

Born in Yonkers, New York, on July 18, 1856, Ruth Putnam was the daughter of publisher George Palmer Putnam and Victorine Haven Putnam, and one of eleven children in a notably accomplished family. She graduated from Cornell University in 1878 and was later known not only as a writer but also as a suffragist and an alumni trustee of Cornell.

Putnam built her reputation through historical writing. She worked from original materials in Dutch, French, German, and English, and wrote on subjects including William the Silent, Charles the Bold, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxembourg, and the history of the Netherlands. She also wrote a biography of her sister, the physician and suffragist Mary Corinna Putnam Jacobi.

She died in Geneva, Switzerland, on February 12, 1931. Today she is remembered as a careful popular historian who brought serious research to books meant for general readers.