The Joyous Illustrations of an Artist like No Other: Ellen Clapsaddle

As a shy child from a quiet corner of America, I had no idea that one day, I would craft a business that would eventually be brought down by war itself. I found my refuge in my drawings, expressing my innermost thoughts my shy nature was never capable of expressing. Those drawings displayed all the...

The First Lady of Parachuting: Tiny Broadwick

Not many people land on the roof of a fast-moving train after a parachute mishap, only to slide off the roof and break several rather important bones. I guess I was wondering, as I lay in the ditch, covered in scratches and imbued with agony, just what I was doing with my life. Of course,...

The Architect of the New Woman: Fay Kellogg

I would be lying if I said I didn’t get a kick out of balancing reporters on beams. And these were no ordinary beams. These were beams of steel and iron, over 100 feet above the streets of New York. Reporters clambered to hear my story, the ‘female architect’ like some kind of lab rat...

The First Lady of Clowning Around: Lady Evetta

Not many people choose to become feminists by walking along a tightrope. Fewer still actually succeed. I grew up in a house surrounded by clowns, which sure, sounds terrifying but actually, I loved every second of it. I wanted nothing more than to join them, but a ‘lady clown’ was a novelty. Just ask the...

The Unknown Star of Indian Science: Bibha Chowdhuri

Not to toot my own horn, but I’d already bought the Nobel Prize polish before I was screwed out of receiving the prize. It needn’t matter, of course, I didn’t do what I did for fame and fortune. Certainly not fortune. I did what I did in the name of science, for the passion I had...

The First Agent of the Bureau of Investigators: Alaska P. Davidson

As I was at home one day cooking lasagne, a thought suddenly occurred to me that I would be a damn good FBI agent. Sure, it had never happened before, but I felt as though I had something to offer the agency and its newfangled ideas. I’ve had worse ideas in the kitchen, granted. While...

The Outrageous Life of Lady Scandal: Grace Elliott

Not many people find themselves in the bed in a mansion in Paris with angry Jacobins stabbing the mattress. I’d find it funny if the revolution wasn’t so terrifying. I had no idea when I was sitting in that convent, suffering, that I would, one day, escape to live a life in the lap of...

The Cop Who Survived the Worst of the Criminal Underworld: Lillian May Armfield

This is no ordinary police story. No, this is a police story that involves a crazy cocaine dealer throwing an iron at my face. And here’s the thing: it’s not an ordinary iron, no. It’s PIPING hot. Perhaps at times like those, I wondered why I ever became a police officer, nor such a pioneering...

The Most Famous Lady Rider of them All: Marjorie Cottle

Just nine days before Britain went to war with Germany, I was riding through occupied Czechoslovakia. This was a competition, after all. Even after the British ordered me to return home, I refused and carried on with the army team instead. I was one of the best-known motorcyclists in the 1920s and 1930s. So few...

The WASP Ferrying the Planes of War: Nancy Harkness Love

The way I figured it, nobody would care about flying freshmen. They did care about my kind though, and not always for the right reasons. I just felt so useless sitting around doing nothing that I figured there had to be a way to fulfil my passion for flying. Little did I know then that...