Many women who have never held children of their own in their arms have been mothers to many in their work. It was surely the mother heart of Frances E. Willard that made our "maiden crusader" a helper and healer, as well as a standard bearer. It was the mother heart of Alice C. Fletcher, that made that student of the past a champion of the Indians in their present-day problems and a true "campfire interpreter." It was the woman's tenderness that made Mary Slessor, that torch-bearer to Darkest Africa, the "white mother" of all the black people she taught and served. The Russian peasants have a proverb: "Labor is the house that Love lives in." The women, who, as mothers of their own families, or of other children whose needs cry out for their understanding care, are always homemakers. And the work of each of these--her labor of love--is truly "a house that love lives in." CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I MARY LYON 3 II ALICE FREEMAN PALMER 31 III CLARA BARTON 61 IV FRANCES E. WILLARD 89 V JULIA WARD HOWE 119 VI ANNA HOWARD SHAW 151 VII MARY ANTIN 185 VIII ALICE C. FLETCHER 211 IX MARY SLESSOR 235 X MARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE 267 XI JANE ADDAMS 297 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Mary Lyon _Frontispiece_ Mary Lyon Chapel and Administration Hall 17 Alice Freeman Palmer 36 College Hall, Destroyed by Fire in 1914 53 Tower Court, which Stands on the Site of College Hall 53 Clara Barton 79 Frances E. Willard 94 The Statue of Miss Willard in the Capitol at Washington 103 Mrs. Julia Ward Howe 133 Anna Howard Shaw 167 Mary Antin 201 Alice C. Fletcher 227 Mary Slessor 253 Marie Sklodowska Curie 280 Madame and Dr. Curie and Their Little Daughter Irene 289 Jane Addams 299