How Women Have Shaped the State

Women in Minnesota: Weaving the Web of Society in the North Star State

Rhoda R. Gilman, a founding member of Women Historians of the Midwest and a former candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, considers the influence of women in Minnesota: the Willmar 8, the Schubert Club, the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association, and much more.

Mabel Ulrich with Victor Christgau

Mabel Ulrich with Victor Christgau

Mabel Ulrich (left) with Works Progress Administration administrator Victor Christgau, October 4, 1935.

Mabel Ulrich, ca. 1914

Mabel Ulrich, ca. 1914

Mabel Ulrich, ca. 1914. From W. G. Tinckom Fernandez, "Y. W. C. A. Traveling Lecturer on Sex Hygiene," Survey 32 (April 18, 1914): 76. Photo by Pearl Grace Loehr.

Ulrich, Mabel S. (1876–1945)

Mabel Simis Ulrich was a public health educator, physician, author, and public figure whose pioneering work in sex education propelled her onto multiple public health commissions in Minneapolis. She contributed to the cultural scene in Minneapolis through a bookstore that she owned, and headed the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) in Minnesota under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s.

Ruth Lamar McGhee

Ruth Lamar McGhee

Ruth Lamar McGhee, adopted daughter of Frederick L. and Mattie Crane McGhee, in St. Paul, ca. 1910.

Lippincott, Carrie H. (1860–1941)

In 1887, Carrie H. Lippincott was a twenty-seven-year-old New Jersey native with an eighth-grade education. She moved to Minnesota, where she created a mail-order company focused on selling flower seeds to women. Lippincott established herself in her new home by practicing innovative marketing methods and developing what we might call today a personal brand, declaring herself “The Pioneer Seedswoman of America.”

Carrie H. Lippincott in her flower shop

Carrie H. Lippincott in her flower shop

Carrie H. Lippincott in her flower shop, 1922. Miss C. H. Lippincott seed company scrapbook, ca. 1893–ca. 1922, Sound and Visual Collection, Minnesota Historical Society.

Page from the 1906 Lippincott Seeds catalog featuring Lippincott’s home

Page from the 1906 Lippincott Seeds catalog featuring Lippincott’s home

Carrie H. Lippincott’s home (602–604 Tenth Street S., Minneapolis), ca. 1906. Lippincott is shown in the inset at the upper right. The image was printed in the 1906 Lippincott Seeds catalog and in periodicals like the Citizen and Farmer. Miss C.H. Lippincott seed company scrapbook, ca. 1893–ca. 1922, Sound and Visual Collection, Minnesota Historical Society.

Views of Lippincott’s Seed Store

Views of Lippincott’s Seed Store

Photos of Lippincott’s Seed Store in Hudson, Wisconsin, showing plants and cut flowers. From the 1914 Lippincott Seeds catalog, page 50. Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection, National Agricultural Library, US Department of Agriculture.

Cover of Carrie H. Lippincott’s first seed catalog, 1893

Cover of Carrie H. Lippincott’s first seed catalog, 1893

The cover of Carrie H. Lippincott’s first seed catalog, 1893. Biodiversity Heritage Library.

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