Unknown Woman

“Unknown Woman” Because for centuries, that’s mostly what women rated in the compiling of human history.

Joan Wages, president of the National Women’s History Museum, has made it her mission in life to make these women known. To present them and their stories to the world.

Historian’s previous priorities were the “kind of history that ‘mattered’ at the time: the history of big national events, influential mend their families,” according to Carolyn Eastman, a history professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University. Historians ignored the dynamic lives of the women who helped build this wonderful nation.

The Declaration of Independence has the name of a woman printed on the bottom. Did you know this? I sure didn’t. Columnist Petula Dvorak writes about Mary Katharine Goddard. Mary was born in Connecticut in 1738 and educated primarily by her mother in the early years. Later she attended schools in New London studying math, science and languages. Her only surviving sibling was William Goddard, two years older than Mary. She spent most of her adult life working in the publishing, bookbinding and postal industries. 

Mary Katharine and her mother, Sarah, ran several print shops and bookstores sometimes in partnership with William, although they claim they spent much of their time bailing him out of his business mishaps. William was hot tempered and despite having trained in New Haven, was not a sound business partner. Early in William’s career, Sarah invested money in William’s publishing endeavors, and by doing so, she established the first printing press in Providence, Rhode Island. Following this, Mary and Sarah moved to Providence to work with William in the shop, printing the Providence Gazette and Country Journal, in addition to Almanacs.

Mary Katharine moved to Maryland and established herself as a printer in Baltimore. She ran the newspaper, The Maryland Journal, that her brother abandoned, often penning fiery editorials about the revolution and wrote reports from the battlefront of Bunker Hill, and one of the first papers to report on the battles in Lexington and Concord and the British blockade of Boston Harbor. She signed her work as M K Goddard. Later. Om 1773, she ran the Baltimore Advertiser. She often used her own funds to have the papers delivered. The following year there were paper shortages, but despite this Mary Katharine kept the presses rolling. 

In 1775, Mary Katharine Goddard became postmaster of the Baltimore, Maryland post office, and most likely the first woman postmaster in America. She had her own bookstore, was skilled at bookbinding, and published an Almanac. Mary Katharine also reprinted Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and often railed against British brutality.According to Eastman, “Only in the last 10-15 years have historians come to recognize her role as a printer and postmistress.” 

On January 18, 1777, the Second Continental Congress moved that the Declaration of Independence by widely distributed, Mary Katharine Goddard was one of the first to offer the use of her presses. There were monumental risks of being accused of treason by the British, but she printed anyway, and was the first to include in the document typeset names of all the signatories, the Founding Fathers. 

Mary Katharine was postmaster from 1775 to 1789 but Postmaster General Samuel Osgood removed her from this position, asserting that this position required “more traveling that a woman could undertake” and appointed a friend and political supporter to replace her. Mary Katharine was not one to take part in public controversies and didn’t fight this matter herself, but wrote to President Washington. She reminded him she had supported the Post Office during the Revolutionary War, “at her own risqué (and) advanced hard money to defray the charges of Post Riders for many years, when they were not to be procured on any other terms…” She felt she was the best person to accomplish this job. President Washington responded he refused to interfere in political appointments. In November of 1789, over 230 citizens of Baltimore presented a petting demanding her reinstatement but it was unsuccessful. 

Mary Katharine never married or had children. She held slaves and at one time reportedly four, whom she treated well. She maintained one until her death, Belinda Starling. Her death bed declaration granted Belinda her freedom. She wrote in her will that she “give[s] and grant[s] to my female slave, Belinda Starling, aged about 26 years, her Freedom at my death; and I also give and bequeath unto said Belinda Starling all the property of which I may did possessed; all which I do to recompense the faithful performance of duties to me.”

The life of Mary Katherine Goddard was not a standard one for the era. As an independent businesswoman, she made her own money and lived by herself. She embodied the revolutionary spirit of casting aside traditional roles and embracing a new and independent spirit. Personally, professionally, and politically, Mary Katherine Goddard was a symbol of her times.

In 1922, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr., criticized historians for “assuming that one half of our population have been negligible factors in our country’s history.” Eva Moseley, archivist and curator of the Schlesinger collection, wrote in the 1970s.

NOTE: The Maryland State Archives provided some gathered information. Additionally, there is a discrepancy in the spelling of her name, either Katharine or Katherine. I have chosen Katharine as it appears in the Maryland State Archives and on a photo of the Declaration that is housed in Massachusetts.