Costumes

Bessie Coleman

Aviation pioneer Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) was the first black woman in the world to earn a pilot's license. The child of sharecroppers in Texas, she overcame incredible odds---poverty, racism, ...

Bila

Some sun goddesses are motherly types. They shed their nurturing light on the earth, helping the plants grow and the people thrive. Not Bila. She preferred to burn people up. Every day she would ...

Billie Holiday

"Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years," said Frank Sinatra back in 1958, and he was right. Billie Holiday (1915-1959) changed ...

Boudicca

Boudicca (first century; died around 61 CE) was one tough lady. This British queen fought a war of resistance against the Romans, and though she lost, her heroism has echoed down through the ages. ...

Brighid

Brighid was one of the most prominent Irish goddesses in the pre-Christian era. Fundamentally a fire-and-sun goddess, she was also associated with springtime and fertility; with poetry, healing, and ...

Calamity Jane

Calamity Jane (1852-1903) was born Martha Canary, and after that things get fuzzy. Almost every detail of her life is disputed, mostly because she told quite a few tall tales (as did all the other ...

Carlota of Mexico

Empress Carlota (1840-1927) is one of the most intriguing and tragic figures in Mexican history. Born Charlotte of Belgium, she married Archduke Maximilian of Austria when she was only seventeen ...

Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great (1729-1796) was probably the best tsar Russia ever had. She arrived in the country as a teenaged German bride, and eventually took the throne in a coup that deposed her idiot ...

Chalchiuhtlicue

Chalchiuhtlicue, whose name means "She of the Jade Skirt," is the Aztec goddess of rivers, lakes, seas, springs, and all running water. She is traditionally depicted as an elegant woman in ...

Ching Shih

Ching Shih, or Madame Ching (1775-1844), has been called the most successful pirate in history. For one thing, there was the sheer size of her operation: her Red Flag Fleet consisted of at least ...

Christina of Sweden

If you're unfamiliar with Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689), you might wonder why there are so many pictures of men in our main illustration. It's because Christina liked to dress as a man---not ...

Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan (ca.1364-1430) was a brilliant writer, poet, philosopher, and feminist. At a time when females were regarded as profoundly defective beings, Christine boldly imagined a "City of ...