She was born in New York City in 1819, and died in 1899. She married Samuel Gridley Howe, a humanitarian, who worked at an antislavery newspaper. Julia was a famous author and poet, she wrote the famous poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic," after a visit to the Union Army during the American Civil War, from 1861-1865. After the Civil War, she became a woman's rights activist. She founded the New England Woman's Club in 1863, and went on to found the Association for Advancement of Women.
In 1883 she wrote the Life of Margaret Fuller, and other books and poems which made her the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She went on to write such books as, From Sunset Ridge: Poems Old and New. In 1898 she wrote Reminiscences, right before she died in 1899. She was most for being an author and poet, but her best feat was being the first woman's right activist of her time.
Julia's education consists of her LL.D. degree from Smith College. One feat that many people do not know, is that if it weren't for Julia Ward Howe, woman would not be able to vote, or get a fair education. From one of her poems. "Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience."
(1) REMINISCENCES, 1819-1899, Boston, 1899. THE WALK WITH GOD, ed. Laura E. Richards, New York, 1919 http://www3.edgenet.net/fcarpenter/howe.html
(2)Howe, Julia Ward" Microsoft(R) Encarta.Copyright(c) 1995 Microsoft Corporation.http://www.netsrq.com/~dbois/howe.html