Pioneering women who led and won struggles for equality and civil rights; created and advanced educational and professional opportunities; and made great contributions to the arts, sciences and humanistic causes are honored each year during the month of March — National Women's History Month. This special celebration evolved from National Women's History Week which began in 1981 as a result of a Joint Congressional Resolution. In 1987, the National Women's History Project petitioned Congress to expand the national celebration to the entire month of March. The Canton Public Library offers year-round access to a wide variety of resources highlighting the accomplishments and achievements of women. This Special Collection provides an overview of those materials.

Marie Curie. Eleanor Roosevelt. Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth I of England. Florence Nightingale. These remarkable women are well known to most of us, but there are many others in history just as remarkable whose names may not be as recognizable. In honor of Women's History Month we should all make some time to learn about them by reading some of the many biographies to found in the library's collection:

• Bella Abzug — American lawyer, congresswoman and social activist
• Jane Addams — American social reformer, suffrage leader and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• Anna Akhmatova — Influential Russian poet
• Arbella — English Renaissance noblewoman
• Florence Baker — Explorer of Central Africa
• Letitia Baldridge — American etiquette writer and White House social secretary to Jacqueline Kennedy
• Gertrude Bell — English writer, traveller and archaeologist
• Margaret Bourke-White — American documentary photographer. Was the first female photographer for Life magazine
• Anne Bradstreet — First American woman poet to have her works published
• Myra Bradwell — First woman lawyer to practice in the United States
• Hannah Breece — Teacher on the Alaskan frontier 1904-1918
• Louise Bryant — American journalist and political activist
• Frances Cabrini — First American citizen to be canonized a saint by the Catholic Church
• Catherine of Siena — Catholic philosopher, theologian and Dominican nun
• Camille Claudel. French sculptor and graphic artist
• Bessie Coleman — First African American woman pilot
• Helene Deschamps — Heroine of the French Resistance in World War II
• Anna Elizabeth Dickinson — American orator, abolitionist and advocate of women's suffrage
• Waris Dirie — Somali author, actress and human rights activist
• Dorothea Dix — 19th century American social reformer and advocate for the mentally ill
• Jacqueline du Pre — Celebrated British cellist
• Gertrude Ederle — First woman to swim the English Channel
• Sarah Emma Edmonds — Soldier in the 2nd Michigan Infrantry, who while posing as a male, fought at the Civil War battles of Antietam, Vicksburg and Bull Run
• Jocelyn Elders — First African American Surgeon General of the United States
• Charlotte Forten — African American antislavery activist, poet and educator
• Jessie Benton Fremont — American pioneer, writer and political activist
• Martha Gellhorn — American journalist and war correspondent
• Lillian Gish — American actress of stage, screen and television whose career spanned 75 years from 1912 to 1987
• Rumer Godden — English writer of over 60 fiction and nonfiction books
• Hetty Green — American businesswoman and the first female tycoon
• Sarah and Angelina Grimke — Abolitionists
• Edith Gregor Halpert — Art dealer
• Fannie Lou Hamer — Civil rights activist
• Dorothy Height — American educator and social activist
• Patricia Highsmith — American novelist and short story writer
• Hildegard of Bingen — 12 century German writer, composer, philosopher and mystic
• Charlayne Hunter-Gault — American journalist and foriegn correspondent
• Zora Neale Hurston — American folklorist and anthropologist
• Anne Hutchinson — 17th century American social reformer
• Molly Ivins — Amerian journalist, political commentator and humorist
• Harriet Jacobs — American writer, abolitionist and social reformer
• Judith Jamison — American dancer and choreographer for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
• Mary Harris "Mother" Jones — American labor and community organizer
• Barbara Jordan — First Black woman to be elected to the U.S. Houe of Representatives from the South
• M.M. Kaye — British novelist and memoirist
• Fanny Kemble — British actress and anitslavery activist
• Hedy Lamarr — Austrian-American actress, scientist, inventor and mathematician
• Dorothea Lange — Documentary photographer and photojournalst
• Henrietta Swan Leavitt — Groundbreaking American astronomer
• Mother Ann Lee — Founder of the Shakers
• Belva Lockwood — Anerican lawyer, advocate for women's suffrage and Presidential candidate in 1884 and 1888 for the National Equal Rights Party
• Lost Bird — Survivor of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre
• Beryl Markham — British aviator and adventurer. First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west
• Barbara McClintock — American scientist and geneticist
• Odette Meyers — Holocaust survivor
• Sister Parish — American interior decorator. Was the first interior designer to decorate the Kennedy White House
• Frances Perkins — U.S. Secretary of Labor (1933-45). Was the first woman appointed to the United States Cabinet
• Emily Post — American writer on etiquette
• Katherine Routledge — Archaeologist on Easter Island
• Mary Seacole — Jamaican nurse in the Crimean War
• Betty Shabazz — American educator and civil rights activist
• Mary Shelley — British novelist and author of Frankenstein
• Margaret Chase Smith — First woman elected to both the U.S. House and Senate
• Edith Stein — German philosopher, nun and saint of the Catholic church
• Jesse Stuart — American writer of novels, short stories and poetry about Southern Appalachia
• Maria Tallchief — First American prima ballerina
• Ida Tarbell — American teacher and "muckraking" journalist
• Corrie ten Boom — Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis
• Twyla Tharp — American dancer and choreographer
• Theodora — Empress of the Byzantine Empire
• Therese of Lisieux — French Carmelite nun and Catholic saint
• C.J. Walker — African American businesswoman, hair care entrepreneur and philanthropist
• Ida B. Wells — African American journalist and newspaper editor
• Narcissa Whitman — American missionary in 19th century Oregon
• Fanny Wright — Scottish-born writer, feminist, abolitionist & social reformer of the 19th century

When the United States entered World War II, American men went into the military and American women filled their places in the offices and factories. "We can do it" was the slogan and Rosie the Riveter was the symbol of these working women. The American Rosie the Riveter Association has gathered together the stories of the "Rosies" and, thanks to a donation by a Rosie, the Canton Library has the set of these books.