Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe was born in New York, New York on May 27, 1819 and died on October 17, 1910. Julia Ward Howe was an author. She wrote a lot of children's books. In 1861 she wrote the famous poem "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." It became very popular during the Civil War as a song. We still sing it today. She was very active in the women's rights. She founded the New England Women's Club, which later became the American Woman Suffrage Association. Eventually it became the League of Women Voters that we still have today. She also headed the American branch of the International Peace Association. She was the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Some of her books were "Life of Margaret Fuller"(1883) and "From Sunset Ridge: Old and New"(1898). Her husband was Samuel Gridley Howe. He founded the New England Asylum for the Blind (later the Perkins Institute), where he was the first to educate a blind deaf-mute successfully. In the 1840s Julia and Samuel edited Commonwealth, a newspaper that was in favor of abolishing slavery,