Julia Ward Howe(1819–1910), born in New York City, was a staunch abolitionist and a pioneer in the women's suffrage movement. She assisted her husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, in his philanthropic projects and in editing the Boston Commonwealth, an abolitionist paper. After the Civil War, she was president of the Massachusetts Women Suffrage Association and the New England Women's Suffrage Movement. The American Academy of Arts and Letters elected Howe as its first woman member.

Before and after the Civil War, Howe was much in demand as a lecturer. Although best known as author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," she also wrote several volumes of poetry and a memoir entitled Reminiscences, 1819–1899.