Olive Mellor

Olive Mellor was a pioneer and advocate of women’s horticultural and garden design education and professional status. She became one of the first Australian trained professional horticulturist and garden designers, designing over 500 gardens throughout her career. She was a published author, radio broadcaster and wrote prolifically for magazines and newspapers.

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Zitkala-Ša

Zitkála-Šá (“Red Bird”), also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Native American musician, writer and activist who fought for women’s suffrage and Indigenous voting rights in the early 20th century. Her writings and activism led to citizenship and voting rights for not only women, but all Indigenous people.

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Ellen Kettle

Ellen Kettle worked in medical services, particularly for Indigenous people in Australia’s Northern Territory and Papua New Guinea.

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Emily Gibson

Emily Gibson was a pioneer Australian trained horticulturist, the first female landscape architect and a campaigner for professional Australian landscape design training. She wrote prolifically for broadsheet newspapers and worked on significant public landscapes.

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Priscilla Wakefield

English writer. She published numerous works, chiefly educational, including Mental Improvement, Leisure Hours, Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex, with Hints for its Improvement and several volumes of descriptive geography.

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Sei Shōnagon

Poet and author Sei Shōnagon was a court lady who served the Empress Teishi (Sadako) around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is the author of The Pillow Book (枕草子, makura no sōshi), a collection of essays, anecdotes, poems and descriptive passages  inspired by moments in her daily life.

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Wáng Zhènyì

Qing dynasty scientist Wang Zhenyi accomplished much in her short life, excelling particularly in astronomy, mathematics and poetry.

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