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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Nellie Bly
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
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    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
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    • Ida B. Wells
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    • Isabel Allende
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    • Jane Austen
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Toni Morrison
    • Marianne North
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
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    • Emilie du Chatelet
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    • Stephanie Kwolek
    • Hedy Lamarr
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    • Wangari Maathai
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    • Maria Sibylla Merian
    • Ynes Mexia
    • Maria Mitchell
    • Mary Sherman Morgan
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Henrietta "Hetty" Green

November 21, 1834 - July 3, 1916
(New Bedford, MA - New York, NY)
  • RICHEST woman in the world during her lifetime
  • Only heir of her family's large whaling business fortune
  • Learned much from her father while accompanying him on business dealings
  • Inherited $5M upon her father's death, and another $1.1M from her aunt soon after
  • Married and had two children with Edward Green, a millionaire in his own right, but divorced him after she discovered he was secretly making bad investments and borrowing against her fortune
  • Never owned a business, but significantly increased her wealth by investing in government bonds, railroads, and real estate
  • Due in large part to her Quaker upbringing, she practiced a life of frugality, for which she was often criticized
  • Refused to adhere to the expectations of women of her social status, wearing plain, old clothes instead of the latest fashions
  • Nicknamed the "Witch of Wall Street," but those closest to her denied the mischaracterization
  • Worth more than $100 million at her death (that's equal to about $2.2 BILLION today!)
Picture
Photo by Hollinger & Rockey [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Bibliography: Drachman, Virginia G. Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Print.
(2015, Feb 28). Juana Briones. https://www.nps.gov.

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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Nellie Bly
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Ida B. Wells
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Authors & Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Jane Austen
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Toni Morrison
    • Marianne North
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Ruth Handler
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
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    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Scientists & Mathematicians
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Doctors, Nurses, & Medical Researchers
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • Mary Anning
    • Marie d'Arconville
    • Hertha Ayrton
    • Florence Bascom
    • Laura Bassi
    • Katharine Burr Blodgett
    • Annie Jump Cannon
    • Rachel Carson
    • Emilie du Chatelet
    • Martha Coston
    • Marie Curie
    • Sylvia Earle
    • Dian Fossey
    • Rosalind Franklin
    • Lillian Gilbreth
    • Jane Goodall
    • Catharine Littlefield Greene
    • Mary Jackson
    • Shirley Ann Jackson
    • Margaret E. Knight
    • Stephanie Kwolek
    • Hedy Lamarr
    • Mary Leakey
    • Wangari Maathai
    • Lise Meitner
    • Maria Sibylla Merian
    • Ynes Mexia
    • Maria Mitchell
    • Mary Sherman Morgan
    • Ellen Ochoa
    • Sally Ride
    • Stephanie Schwabe
    • Donna Shirley
    • Kathryn Sullivan
    • Wang Zhenyi
    • Peggy Whitson
    • Wu Chien-Shiung
  • Exploration & Sports
    • Nicola Adams
    • Laila Ali
    • Ann Bancroft
    • Simone Biles
    • Bonnie Blair
    • Bessie Coleman
    • Nadia Comaneci
    • Dominique Dawes
    • Anita DeFrantz
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Gertrude Ederle
    • Althea Gibson
    • Mia Hamm
    • Sonja Henie
    • Amy Johnson
    • Florence Griffith Joyner
    • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
    • Billie Jean King
    • Katie Ledecky
    • Lisa Leslie
    • Nancy Lieberman
    • Ellen MacArthur
    • Cheryl Miller
    • Jackie Mitchell
    • Martina Navratilova
    • Annie Smith Peck
    • Wilma Rudolph
    • Sacagawea
    • Annika Sorenstam
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Pat Summitt
    • Sheryl Swoopes
    • Valentina Tereshkova
    • Dara Torres
    • Lindsey Vonn
    • Serena Williams
    • Venus Williams
    • Lynette Woodard
    • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
    • Dorothy Dandridge
    • Ellen DeGeneres
    • Katherine Dunham
    • Ella Fitzgerald
    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
    • Mary Pickford
    • Ma Rainey
    • Maria Tallchief
    • Sister Rosetta Tharpe
  • Picture Book Biographies
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