Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe

1819-1910

• American author and social reformer
• Born in New York, NY
• Married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who edited the Boston Commonwealth, an abolitionist paper
• Worked on her husband’s philanthropic projects
• She wrote and lectured on behalf of woman suffrage, black emancipation, and other causes, and helped found a world peace organization
• She wrote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in November 1861 after watching Union troops march into battle; this was her most famous work
• "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862
• The American Academy of Arts and Letters elected her as its first woman member
• Howe was the author of Modern Society (1881), and a biography of Margaret Fuller (1883); she also wrote several volumes of poetry