Florence Trail (1854-1905)
Florence Trail was born in 1854 in Frederick, Maryland. She was a highly educated member of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, attending the Frederick Female Seminary and the Mount Vernon institute, where she graduated with honors. Despite an illness that left her with impaired hearing, she studied music at the Peabody Conservatory, which likely contributed to her book of musical criticism, Meanings of Music (1918). Trail never married and advocated for women’s suffrage. She was a non-resident member of the WLCB from 1899-1908. Trail received a letter of recognition from King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy for her book, History of Italian Literature (1903). This high distinction was recognized both by the Club and the Baltimore Sun, which regularly recognized her for her literary accomplishments.
Sources
Hurley, William N., Our Maryland Heritage: The Trail Families. Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books, 2001.
Livermore, Mary A., and Frances E. Willard. A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893.
Baldwin, Frances E. “New Honors For Woman Writer,” Baltmore Sun, Oct. 14, 1928.
“Purely Personal,” The News (Frederick, MD), April 28, 1916.