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Place Setting Tags > location: Europe
Amazon
(Legendary)According to Greek mythology, the Amazons were warrior women living northeast of Ancient Greece during the later Bronze Age, between approximately 1900 and 1200 B.C. The source of the Amazonian... Read more
Aspasia
(b. circa 470 B.C., Miletus, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey); d. circa 410 B.C., location unknown)Aspasia of Miletus was a scholar and philosopher whose intellectual influence distinguished her in Athenian culture, which treated women as second-class citizens during the 5th century B.C. She used her... Read more
Natalie Barney
(b. 1876, Dayton, Ohio; d. 1972, Paris, France)Natalie Barney was both a poet and a prose writer, who was famous for her weekly salons, which gathered together many of the twentieth century's greatest artists and writers from... Read more
Elizabeth Blackwell
(b. 1821, Bristol, England; d. 1910, Sussex, England)In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. The English-born physician opened the field for other women while founding important medical... Read more
Boadaceia
(b. circa A.D. 25, Celtic Britain; d. circa A.D. 62, Celtic Britain)Boadaceia is one of many spellings for the name of the famous warrior queen from Celtic Britain, who ruled during the first century, when the Roman Empire was growing and... Read more
Isabella d'Este
(b. 1474, Ferra, Italy; d.1539, Romagna, Italy)Isabella d'Este (Gonzaga) was a powerful and well-educated political figure, humanitarian, patron of the arts, and mother of seven. Known as "The First Lady of the Renaissance," she was related... Read more
Petronilla de Meath
(b. circa 1300, Meath, Ireland; d.1324, Kilkenny, Ireland)Petronilla de Meath was the first Irish woman to be burned at the stake for the crime of heresy. She served as a maid to Lady Alice Kyteler, one... Read more
Christine de Pisan
(b. 1364, Venice, Italy; d. 1430, Poissy, France)Christine de Pisan (Christine de Pizan) was a medieval writer and historiographer who advocated for women's equality. Her works, considered to be some of the earliest feminist writings, include poetry... Read more
Eleanor of Aquitaine
(b. 1122, Aquitaine, France; d. 1204, Anjou, France)Eleanor of Aquitaine served as queen of both France and England in the twelfth century, making her one of the most powerful women of the time. Eleanor and her court... Read more
Elizabeth R.
(b. 1533, London, England; d. 1603, London, England)Queen Elizabeth I, or Elizabeth R, as she referred to herself, was a revered English queen, and a member of the Tudor family, who ruled over a period of English... Read more
Fertile Goddess
(Mythic)Many societies have worshipped the Fertile Goddess as the supreme site of fertility, motherhood, and the creation of life. The earliest proof comes from archaeological finds—paintings and figurines of women... Read more
Artemisia Gentileschi
(b. 1593, Rome Italy; d.1652/3, Naples, Italy)Artemisia Gentileschi was an early Italian Baroque painter, and the only female follower of Caravaggio, whom she worked with in Italy in the early 17th century. Her innovative compositions and... Read more
Caroline Herschel
(b. 1750, Hannover, Germany; d. 1848, Hannover, Germany)Caroline Herschel was a pioneering female astronomer, and the first woman to discover a comet. Her achievements enabled generations of women to develop a career in the sciences, a field... Read more
Hildegarde of Bingen
(b. 1098, Böckelheim, Germany; d. 1179, Ruperstberg, Germany)Hildegarde of Bingen, also known as St. Hildegard and the Sybil of the Rhine, was an enormously influential and spiritual woman, who paved the way for other women to succeed... Read more
Hrosvitha
(b. circa 935, possibly Lower Saxony, Germany; d. circa 1000, Gandersheim, Germany)Hrosvitha is the earliest-known woman poet in Germany, and some scholars even consider her the first dramatist, or playwright, since ancient times. The various spellings of her name include Hroswitha... Read more
Anne Hutchinson
(b. 1591, Alford, Lincolnshire, England; d. 1643, Pelham Bay Park, New York)Anne Marbury Hutchinson was a Puritan, who held discussions in her home in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, critiquing the Bible and Puritan laws. These sessions, which were in opposition to... Read more
Marcella
(b. circa 325, Rome, Italy; d. 410, Rome, Italy)Marcella was a Roman noble woman who was canonized, or declared a saint, by the Vatican for her role in founding the Christian monastic system. Monasticism dates back to Marcella's... Read more
Primordial Goddess
(Mythic)What we know about prehistoric goddess traditions comes to us from archaeological record and remnants of oral traditions, such as the "Old Woman" of the Aboriginals in Australia. The original... Read more
Saint Bridget
(b. 453, Fochard, Northern Ireland; d. 523, Kildare, Ireland)Saint Bridget of Ireland was a determined, faithful Catholic who was responsible for starting convents and monasteries throughout Ireland. Bridget's Celtic name, Brigid, which means "fiery arrow," can be... Read more
Sappho
(b. 625 B.C., Island of Lesbos; d. 570 B.C., location unknown)Called the Tenth Muse by Plato, Sappho was a prolific poet of ancient Greece. She innovated the form of poetry through her first-person narration (instead of writing from the vantage... Read more
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum