Madeline McDowell Breckinridge (1872–1920), a great-granddaughter of Henry Clay and sister-in-law of Sophonisba Breckinridge, served as president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association from 1912 to 1915 and from 1919 to 1920.
Patty Smith Hill, together with fellow educator Anna Bryan (1858-1901), worked in Louisville to modernize the traditionalist kindergarten system and bring Friedrich Froebel's vision to American kindergarteners. Between 1890 and 1905, over 3,000 visitors across the nation came to Louisville to learn about their methods and subjects of teching. In 1893, Hill was named the Director of the LFKA, a role in which she further developed the Teachers College and successfully advocated for the incorporation of kindergartens into the Louisville Public School System. In 1905, Hill was appointed to the faculty of Columbia University Teachers College, where she taught for over 30 years. Hill published dozens of articles, wrote children's books, and invented "Patty Hill blocks" that are still used in kindergarten classrooms today.
Dinnie Thompson (1857-1939) was a member of the Sisters of Mysterious Ten (SMT), a Black women's benevolent society in Louisville. As a young child, she was enslaved by the Speed family, along with her mother, Diana, and grandmother, Phyllis Thurston. From 1889 through the 1920s, she worked as a laundress or domestic in private households, eventually earning enough money to purchase her own home. In the SMT, Thompson found a social support network and opportunities to do charitable work. In the Knights of Friendship, a related branch of the organization, she participated in patriotic demonstrations and competitive drills and was given a sword engraved with her name.
“Photograph was taken during the first week of October 1917 shows a very fine growth of the second crop of potatoes grown on this same land this year.”
Women contributed in war zones through nursing and Red Cross volunteer work, though most participated on the home front. Camp Zachary Taylor saw women performing roles in social and recreational services, nursing, and rehabilitation work.
Pictured here: Army Nursing Staff, Base Hospital, First Lieutenant A. N. Henson Commanding.