Our series American History XX concludes today with a look at the career of Jeannette Rankin, a pioneering suffragist who was the first woman elected to the United States Congress in 1916. Jean Luckowski, professor at the University of Montana, takes a look at her remarkable—if controversial-career as a legislator.

Today's edition of American History XX is about Hetty Green, who has been called America’s first female tycoon. At the time of her death in 1916 she had amassed a huge fortune that rivaled Carnegie, Rockefeller, and the male titans of the Gilded Age. Green bought and sold real estate, railroads, mines, and whole city blocks, and she even bailed out a number of cities—including New York—when they ran into financial trouble. She was also a notorious miser. Author Charlie Slack tells the story of the so-called “Witch of Wall Street.”

Today's edition of American History XX is about Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, a freeborn African American woman who was a noted writer, abolitionist, and suffrage advocate. Historian Nell Irvin Painter fills us in on why Harper clashed with white suffragists and was written out of the history books.

For today's installment of American History XX, composer Victoria Bond talks about the life of Victoria Woodhull, who in 1872 became the first woman to run for president of the United States. Woodhull pushed for women’s suffrage, social reforms, and even free love. Victoria Bond’s opera, "Mrs. President," will be performed at Symphony Space  July 9.

To celebrate the Independence Day we’re profiling forgotten, underappreciated, or just plain interesting American women who, in many cases, have been written out of the history books. For today’s installment of that series, American History XX, The New Yorker’s Jill Lepore fills us in on the life of Jane Franklin Mecom, Ben Franklin’s sister whom he corresponded with often, but eventually wrote out of his own autobiography.