Don't call these fabric anatomical recreations creepy. They helped save thousands of lives in Europe and were the brainchild of a pioneering midwife.

Misty Copeland is the first black female American Ballet Theater Soloist in 20 years, and she's helping redefine what it means to look like a dancer.

Mary Morris Lawrence, an accomplished photojournalist who was the first female photographer ever hired by the Associated Press, has died at 95. (That's her work at left.) [SFGate]

Lillian Bassman is hard to define: a pioneering fashion photographer who objected to the politicization of the 1960s, an artist who destroyed all her own work, a free-thinker who objected to the women's movement.

Frances Blaisdell, a musician who, when she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic was known as "the girl flutist," has died at 97. A musical pioneer, Blaisdell was also an accomplished teacher. [NYT]

In 1960, Nancy Dickerson became the first female reporter on television. A new book by her son John, On Her Trail: My Mother, Nancy Dickerson gives a pioneer and a complex woman her due. [NPR]