Local Women's History: Lighting the Way

Women from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds have shaped the SouthCoast region, the nation, and the world. Lighting the Way: Historic Women of the SouthCoast is unearthing the remarkable stories of local women and bringing them to light in the museum’s exhibits, through programs, and on the website historicwomensouthcoast.org.


Women have played many significant roles in local history. They have been educators and philanthropists, abolitionists and crusaders for social justice, investors and confectioners, sister sailors and millworkers. 
The features nearly 100 women who have impacted the SouthCoast. You can read profiles of women like Awashonks from the 17th Century, Rosetta Douglass in the 19th Century, Rosalind Poll Brooker in the 20th Century, and Sister Rosellen Gallogly in the 21st Century. 

Check out the featured profile and then visit historicwomensouthcoast.org to discover more local women's history.

Explore the Lighting the Way Tour further on your mobile device from Google Play or the App Store. Take a walking tour of downtown New Bedford by printing the Lighting the Way Walking Trail. 

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Featured Profile

Awashonks was a Native American woman who served as a chief of the Sakonnet (variations include Sogkonate, Seconit,Seaconnet) people in what is today Little Compton, Rhode Island before, during, and after King Philip’s War (1675-1676). The name Awashonks appears in official records more than the name of any other Native American woman.. She was among the signers of a peace agreement between tribes and Plymouth Colony.

​Painting: "Awashonks" by Dora Atwater Millikin 2008. In the collection of the Little Compton Historical Society.

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