Albina Washburn (1837–1921) was an important early resident of what is now Loveland and later an influential proponent of women’s suffrage and temperance across Colorado. In 1876 she advocated for women’s suffrage at the state constitutional convention,…

Alice Hale Hill (1840–1908) was a Denver philanthropist who helped lead institutions such as the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the Denver Free Kindergarten Association. Wife of Nathaniel P. Hill, a smelting entrepreneur and US senator,…

Carrie Clyde Holly (1856–1943) of Pueblo County was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1894, making her one of the first three female legislators in the United States. In 1895 Holly became the first woman to get a bill she drafted made into…

Clara Cressingham (1863–1906) served in the Colorado House of Representatives in 1895, making her one of the first female legislators in the United States, along with Frances Klock and Carrie Clyde Holly. In office, she became the first woman to serve in…

Eliza Pickrell Routt (1839–1907) was the first First Lady of the territory and later state of Colorado in 1875–79 and 1891–93. A strong supporter of women’s suffrage, she used her position as wife of Governor John Long Routt to advocate for expanded…

Farmers State Bank of Cope (Washington County) opened in 1918 at the southwest corner of Main Street and Washington Avenue. The first and only bank that ever operated in Cope, Farmers State Bank was founded and led largely by local women until the Great…

Frances S. Klock (1844–1908) was one of the first three women—along with Clara Cressingham and Carrie Clyde Holly—to serve as a state legislator in the United States. The three ran for office in 1894, one year after women in Colorado achieved the right…

Built in 1878, the Hornbek House in Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is significant for its association with Adeline Hornbek, a single mother who started a ranch in the Florissant area and lived in the house for twenty-seven years. The large one…

In 1893 Colorado became the first state to enact women’s suffrage by popular referendum, when a majority of male voters approved an amendment to the Colorado Constitution. The passage of women’s suffrage built on decades of earlier work in the Colorado…

Patricia (Pat) Scott Schroeder (1940–) represented Colorado’s First Congressional District—the city of Denver—in the US House of Representatives from 1973 to 1997. The first female US Representative elected in Colorado, she championed liberal issues,…

Established by the Colorado legislature in 1887, the State Industrial School for Girls was a combined reform school, foster care, and prison that trained young, marginalized women to be domestic servants. Late nineteenth-century industrialization had…