The Women's L Project Blog

MK Czerwiec

Unit 371 at Illinois Masonic Hospital was the first hospital unit in Chicago dedicated to serving AIDS patients plus their families and friends. At the height of the AIDS epidemic...

Mary Ann McMorrow

Mary Ann McMorrow

Mary Ann McMorrow (1930-2013) was born and raised on Chicago’s Northwest Side. After earning an undergraduate degree from Rosary College, she went to Loyola University (Chicago) Law School where she...

Koko Taylor

Not long after Koko Taylor (1928-2009) moved to Chicago in 1952, she became a regular performer at blues clubs. A record producer spotted Taylor which led to her recording of...

Potawatomi Women

Potawatomi Women

The Potawatomi tribe lived in what is now Chicago from the late 1600’s through the 1830’s when they were forcibly moved west of the Mississippi River. The Potawatomi believed “the...

Nancy Faust

Nancy Faust (born in 1947) grew up in a musical household. Her mother performed the piano and organ on radio shows, banquets and receptions. Faust followed in her mother’s footsteps...

Lucy Flower

Lucy Flower (1837-1921) was born in Massachusetts, raised in New Hampshire, educated in New York and worked her first job at the US Patent Office in Washington D.C. before making...

Ella Jenkins

Ella Jenkins, born in St. Louis in 1924, grew up on Chicago’s South Side. After high school, she worked at the Wrigley Gum factory and earned an associate degree from...

Mary Rose Loney

Mary Rose Loney

Mary Rose Loney (1952-2020) was born and raised in Pittsburgh. She first came to Chicago in 1989 to serve as the city’s deputy aviation commissioner. In 1996 she was lured...

Edith Emerald Johns

Edith Emerald Johns

Edith Emerald Johns (1915-1999) was born on the Nebraska reservation of the Winnebago Tribe and named Patche-Ka-Danga which means “Keeper of the Home Fires.” She was sent to a boarding...

Jeanne Gang

Jeanne Gang (born 1964) grew up in Belvidere, Illinois. Gang's introduction to design arose when her father, a civil engineer, took the family on vacations across the U.S. to see...

Myrla Baldonado

Myrla Baldonado

Myrla Baldonado was born in the Philippines. She was a student at the Philippine College of Commerce during the 1970’s, a time of turmoil in her country. The seeds for...

Mary Livermore

When Mary Livermore (1820-1905) was hired as a tutor for a Virginia family, she witnessed firsthand the terror of slavery—memories that would never leave her. After getting married Livermore moved...

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