Windsor-Essex women told with heart: a newspaper born on this shore, a mayor who broke the chain, sisters who built a hospital, factory and auxiliary women who held the line, and the minds and athletes already celebrated on sister tabs. Verified from primary sources; gaps stay labelled.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary, about 1855 to 1860. Unknown creator. Mary Ann Shadd Cary collection, Library and Archives Canada, e011536885. Via Wikimedia Commons (LAC Flickr upload, CC BY 2.0). Used here with LAC credit.Provincial Freeman, 2 Sep 1854. First issued in Windsor on 24 March 1853. New York Public Library, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
Voice and freedom
Mary Ann Shadd Cary's Windsor years open this tab. Freedom Shore keeps the wider Underground Railroad timeline; we deepen her newspaper and school story here.
Free to use
Mary Ann Shadd Cary
Settled Windsor 1851; Provincial Freeman first issued here, 24 March 1853
Born Wilmington, Delaware, 9 Oct 1823. She opened a school for Black refugees in Windsor with American Missionary Association support, published A plea for emigration (1852), and drove the Provincial Freeman, with its first trial number in Windsor before regular publication from Toronto and later Chatham. Canadian Encyclopedia: first Black woman in North America to publish and edit a newspaper. The paper backed abolition, Black self-reliance, women's rights and temperance reform. Cross-link Freedom Shore for the wider Underground Railroad chapter; this card tells her Windsor start with heart.
Sources: Dictionary of Canadian Biography; Canadian Encyclopedia; Parks Canada; Ontario Heritage Trust plaque paper
Mary Ann Shadd, 1850s. Photographer unknown. Library and Archives Canada, C-029977. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Free to use
Provincial Freeman
First issued Windsor, 24 March 1853
Motto: "Self-Reliance is the True Road to Independence." Samuel Ringgold Ward lent his name as editor at the start; Shadd was the driving force. Regular weekly publication began from Toronto in March 1854. Later moved to Chatham. We do not over-claim "first newspaper by any Canadian woman" from secondary captions; we stick to the Black woman publisher-editor first documented by the Canadian Encyclopedia and DCB.
Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia; Dictionary of Canadian Biography; Ontario Heritage Trust
Front page of the Provincial Freeman, 2 Sep 1854. New York Public Library digital collections, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
Free to use
Sandwich First Baptist
Built by Underground Railroad settlers; National Historic Site
Place context for the Freedom Shore world Shadd entered. Not a portrait. Cross-link Freedom Shore and Sandwich.
Sources: Parks Canada; Canada's Historic Places; Frederick Neal, The Township of Sandwich (1909)
Sandwich First Baptist Church, before 1909. From Frederick Neal (1909). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Civic firsts
Mayors, MPs and MPPs with sources. Building photos stand in until City and living-person portraits clear.
Free to use
Elizabeth Kishkon
Mayor of Windsor, 1983 to 1985; first and only woman mayor to date
City of Windsor Previous Mayors list: mayor 1983-1985. Windsor Star and CBC remember her as the city's first woman mayor; as of 2024-2026 reporting she remains the only woman elected mayor. Star: alderwoman in 1970-71 and 1981-82; Save Peche Island Committee; later Ontario Human Rights Commission; University of Windsor honorary LL.D.; east-end park renamed 2017. Flag: Star calls the 1970-71 term her first council seat; we have not yet confirmed from a City election return PDF that no woman sat earlier. Official 1980 returns list both Kishkon and Peggy Simpson among the aldermen. Cross-link City Hall. No free portrait; City Mayors Portrait Project needs permission.
Sources: City of Windsor: Previous Mayors; City of Windsor Mayors Portrait Project biographies; Windsor Star 30 Aug 2018; CBC 30 Aug 2018; City 1980 election PDF
Second City Hall, about 1910. SWODA / Leddy Library. Public domain. Place stand-in; not a portrait of Kishkon.
Free to use
Shaughnessy Cohen
MP for Windsor-St. Clair, 1993 to 1998; not born in Windsor
Born Elizabeth Shaughnessy Murray, London, Ont., 11 Feb 1948; grew up in Thamesville. University of Windsor; called to the Ontario bar 1979; practiced law before politics. Defeated Howard McCurdy in 1993; chaired the Commons justice committee; died in the House of Commons 9 Dec 1998 after a cerebral hemorrhage. Writers' Trust later created the Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing. We say represented Windsor-St. Clair, never born Windsor. Secondary sources call her the first woman MP for a Windsor federal riding; confirm against the full women-in-Parliament list before any harder "first" headline.
Sources: House of Commons member record; Windsor Public Library biography page; contemporary Star / Globe obituaries (secondary); Writers' Trust award page
Parliament Hill in Ottawa, 24 September 2013, with the Centre Block and Peace Tower. Shaughnessy Cohen served in the House of Commons as MP for Windsor-St. Clair from 1993 to 1998, and died in the House on 9 December 1998. This is the Hill, not a portrait. Photograph: Saffron Blaze, 24 September 2013, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Free to use
Sandra Pupatello
Born Windsor; MPP Windsor-Sandwich / Windsor West, 1995 to 2011
Born Sandra Pizzolitto in Windsor, 6 Oct 1962 (WPL / Legislative Assembly record). Ontario Liberal MPP from 1995; cabinet roles including Community and Social Services, Women's Issues, Education (briefly), and Economic Development and Trade. We do not claim she was Ontario's first woman MPP (that was 1943, Agnes Macphail and Rae Luckock). Flag whether she was the first woman MPP for a Windsor riding until riding-by-riding checks finish.
Sources: Legislative Assembly of Ontario member page; Windsor Public Library; Order of Canada / later Senate notes are secondary for later updates
Sandra Pupatello speaking at the Toronto Board of Trade, 2013. Sandra Pupatello, CC BY 2.0.
Sandra Pupatello, 11 January 2013. Sandra Pupatello, CC BY 2.0.
Labour
Wartime plants, the 1945 Ford strike's Women's Auxiliary, and the long fight for equal pay. Ford plant photos are place context, not pretend portraits of women barred from that floor.
Free to use
Wartime women in Border Cities plants
1939 to 1945; Ford of Canada was the exception on the factory floor
Windsor Public Library's Some Assembly Required (Part 8) documents women at Chrysler, Auto Specialties, General Motors and parts shops during the labour shortage. Women built Browning Automatic Machine Guns at government-owned, GM-managed Border Cities Industries, while machine set-up and "most vital inspection" stayed male. Ford employed about 200 women in its office and wanted factory hires, but after workers struck over equal pay for women, Ford chose not to hire women on the plant floor rather than pay men's wages. Do not show the War Chest Ford assembly-line photo as a women's workforce image; workers there are unnamed and the plant policy kept women off that floor.
Sources: Windsor Public Library, Some Assembly Required, Part 8: Women in Auto; Canadian Encyclopedia, Windsor Ford Strike of 1945
Ford Motor Co. plant, Windsor, 1913. Gardner souvenir book. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Place context only; not a women's workforce photo.
Free to use
UAW Local 200 Women's Auxiliary
1945 Ford strike support, 14 Sep 1945 photo in WPL exhibit
The 99-day Ford strike (12 Sep to 19 Dec 1945) involved about 11,000 Local 200 workers and led to Justice Ivan Rand's 29 Jan 1946 decision (the Rand Formula). WPL's exhibit shows Auxiliary members preparing coffee and sandwiches on 14 Sep 1945 (Windsor Star collection, courtesy Art Gallery of Windsor). Named in the caption: Mrs. William Huggard, Mrs. Lorne Powers, Mrs. William Wilmot, and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Marwood. That strike photo is not free for reuse here (Star / AGW courtesy). Cross-link Works and Wages.
Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia (Windsor strike; Rand Formula); WPL Some Assembly Required Women's Auxiliary page; Canadian Labour Congress history note
Text only for the Auxiliary photo. Ford Canada plant, 1908 (Julie Ceccaldi, CC0) stands as place context, not a substitute portrait.
Free to use
Equal pay and the 1970 Code change
Women auto workers push Ontario Human Rights Code sex-discrimination ban
WPL Part 8: by the 1960s many women had long seniority in auto; they challenged sex-based job classes and separate seniority lists, helping amend the Ontario Human Rights Code in 1970 so sex discrimination was illegal and prejudiced collective-agreement clauses could not stand. Plant-wide seniority and equal pay followed in law. Keep this as labour history, not a single-hero story, until named leaders are verified from primary union minutes.
Sources: Windsor Public Library, Some Assembly Required, Part 8
Windsor's Chrysler assembly plant, about 1990. Women auto workers in the plants helped push the 1970 Ontario Human Rights Code change on sex discrimination. This is the plant, not a portrait of those workers. Photo: Lawrence Monkhouse, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Medicine and care
Hotel-Dieu's founding sisters and the hospital line. Nursing and poison-control leaders also appear on Windsor Minds.
Artis Lane bust of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, BME Freedom Park, Chatham. Photo: Chris Woodrich, 6 Jul 2025. CC BY-SA 4.0. Sculpture permanently in a public place (Canada freedom of panorama). Chatham, not Windsor; kept as a Shadd memorial image with an honest place label.
Hotel Dieu, 1895. From Souvenir: Windsor and Walkerville. SWODA / Leddy. Public domain.Grace Hospital, about 1950. Salvation Army. SWODA / Leddy. Public domain.
Sandwich First Baptist Church. Ontario Heritage Trust (Doors Open Ontario). CC0.University of Windsor campus, August 2006. Mikerussell. CC BY-SA 3.0. Place context for ElMaraghy, Shirley and Pupatello's alma mater.
Free to use
Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph
Hotel-Dieu of St. Joseph, Windsor, from 1888
Five sisters of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, led by Mother Josephine Paquet, arrived from Montreal in 1888 to found Hotel-Dieu (Windsor Regional Hospital history; parish and Star anniversary features; CHAC 40th-anniversary record marked public domain). They built hospital care on the river decades before modern regional mergers. Patient stories stay private; we tell the founding community of women religious and the wards that later trained Windsor nurses.
Sources: Windsor Regional Hospital Our History; CHAC digitized Record of Hotel-Dieu of St. Joseph's Hospital 1888-1928 (public domain notice); Windsor Star anniversary features (secondary)
Hotel Dieu, Windsor, 1913. Gardner souvenir book. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Not a portrait of the founding sisters.
Free to use
Hotel-Dieu and Grace wards
Place of care across generations
Free SWODA and Gardner-book hospital photos show the buildings. Poison-control advocacy under Henri Breault and nursing leadership of Windsor native Mary Jo Haddad live on Windsor Minds; this chapter keeps the founding sisters and the hospital line.
Sources: SWODA / Leddy Library; Gardner souvenir book 1913
Hotel Dieu postcard. Southwestern Ontario Digital Archive, Leddy Library. Public domain.
Minds (cross-links)
Already told on Windsor Minds. Kept here so readers looking for women find them without a duplicate biography.
Cross-link
Hoda ElMaraghy
University of Windsor; first woman engineering dean in Canada, 1994
Full card on Windsor Minds. Order of Canada; Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Centre. No free portrait; Dillon Hall stands for campus.
Sources: University of Windsor IMS; Governor General; McMaster Engineering
Dillon Hall, University of Windsor, 26 Apr 2026. Chris Woodrich. CC BY-SA 4.0. Not a portrait.
Cross-link
Queenie Halford Shirley
Settled Windsor 1936; Pitt Street research shop; EE Ph.D. 1952
Believed first Canadian woman with an electrical-engineering doctorate (U Michigan 1952). Full card on Windsor Minds.
Sources: UWindsor Leddy / Centre for Digital Scholarship Omeka; Windsor Daily Star 15 Jul 1952
Leddy Library, University of Windsor, July 2010. Alam1s. Public domain. Not a portrait of Shirley.
Cross-link
Mary Jo Haddad
Windsor native; later SickKids CEO; first woman UWindsor Chancellor
Full card on Windsor Minds. Living person; portrait waits on permission.
Sources: University of Windsor President's Office; Governor General; Windsor Star profiles
Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, Windsor. Mikerussell. CC BY-SA 3.0. Not a portrait of Haddad.
The Administration Building at the University of Manitoba Fort Garry campus, 8 August 2023. Marion Lewis co-founded the Winnipeg Rh Laboratory; her scientific career was in Winnipeg. This is the campus, not a portrait. Photo: HW1122, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Cross-link
Casey Plett
Windsor-based novelist
Full card on Film, Stages and Songs. Based in Windsor; this is not a "born here, went far" card.
Sources: Arsenal Pulp Press · Windsor Star
ThePortraitLady. CC0. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Free to use
Frances M. Gage
Born Windsor, 1924; sculptor
Windsor-born sculptor. See also Film, Stages and Songs. Dates follow the Windsor Public Library and Globe and Mail obituaries, not an earlier 2013 death date that had crept into a research line.
Women's College Hospital in Toronto, 26 August 2025, home of Frances M. Gage's public work Woman. This is the hospital, not a portrait. Photo: Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sport (cross-links)
Already told on Sports. Agosta has a free Commons portrait; Spencer and Markos stay honest about birthplace and missing portraits.
Cross-link
Meghan Agosta
Team Canada; three Olympic golds (2006, 2010, 2014)
Full card on Sports (On Ice and Field). WECSHOF 2024. Free Commons portrait from the 2010 Games.
Sources: Olympedia; WECSHOF
Meghan Agosta, 17 Feb 2010 Winter Olympics. Allie from Vancity. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Cross-link
Mary Spencer
Trained Windsor Amateur Boxing Club from 2002; three world titles; London 2012
Born 12 Dec 1984, South Bruce Peninsula / Wiarton (Olympedia); Ojibwe, Cape Croker First Nation. Do not say born Windsor. Full card on Sports. No free portrait; London 2012 ring photo is place context only.
Sources: Olympedia 125434; Canadian Encyclopedia; CBC Sports 2012
Women's boxing ring, London 2012 Olympics. Place context, not a portrait of Spencer. See the Sports page credit line.
Cross-link
Randa Markos
Raised Windsor from age 3; UFC strawweight via The Ultimate Fighter 20
Born Baghdad; family reached Windsor when she was three (CBC). Do not say born Windsor. Full card on Sports. No free portrait.
Sources: CBC Windsor 11 Mar 2019; Sherdog
Text only on Sports; Windsor Arena barn photo is place context only, not a portrait.
The Saddledome in Calgary, 23 July 2005, later photographed under the Pengrowth name. Denise Benning competed in pairs figure skating here at the 1988 Winter Olympics. She is not pictured. Photo: JamesTeterenko, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
Cross-link
Miah-Marie Langlois on the bench during the 2016 Edmonton Grads International Classic series, 11 July 2016. Photo: IQRemix, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped.
University of Windsor campus, August 2006, where Danielle Wade studied theatre. She is not pictured. Photo: Mikerussell. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Chapters in view
Women of Windsor follows the approved RCR card design used on Windsor Minds.
1. Voice and freedom
Shadd Cary's Windsor school and the Provincial Freeman's first number, with Freedom Shore carrying the wider Underground Railroad story.
2. Civic firsts
Kishkon as first woman mayor; Cohen as MP for Windsor-St. Clair; Pupatello as Windsor-born MPP. Flags stay on until election PDFs close the "first councillor" and "first MPP" claims.
3. Labour
Wartime women in Border Cities plants, Ford's refusal to hire women on the factory floor, the Local 200 Women's Auxiliary in 1945, and the 1970 Code fight.
4. Medicine and care
Hotel-Dieu founding sisters from 1888, Grace and later wards; minds and nursing leaders cross-link to Windsor Minds.
5. Minds and sport
ElMaraghy, Shirley, Haddad, Agosta, Spencer and Markos stay on their home tabs; this page points readers there.
Still open
Free portraits still needed: Kishkon (City Portrait Project permission), Cohen, Pupatello, founding Hotel-Dieu sisters by name, named Women's Auxiliary members, ElMaraghy / Shirley / Haddad (also on Minds), Spencer / Markos (also on Sports).
Fees / commercial (price to Kyle before any buy; buy nothing tonight): Windsor Star / Postmedia file photos of Kishkon, the 14 Sep 1945 Auxiliary sandwich line, Ethel Williams at Auto Specialties, and later plant women. No price quote pulled tonight; treat as paid archive requests if pursued.
Permission, not a listed fee: City of Windsor Mayors Portrait Project (Kishkon formal portrait); living-person photo asks for Pupatello, ElMaraghy, Haddad, Agosta refresh if needed.
Primary digs still open: 1970 and earlier City election PDFs; Hotel-Dieu founding letters; Local 200 Auxiliary minutes; named women in the 1970 Human Rights Code campaign.
Do not claim: Ford wartime assembly-line LAC photo as women workers; Artis Lane as a Windsor biography. (Marion Lewis was born in Windsor; the old not-Windsor note is withdrawn. See her card under Minds.)
Credits and rights
Shadd 1850s portrait: LAC C-029977, public domain. Shadd Cary 1855-60 portrait: LAC e011536885 via Commons (credit LAC; Flickr mirror CC BY 2.0). Provincial Freeman 1854: NYPL / Commons, public domain. Sandwich First Baptist 1909: public domain; OHT exterior CC0. Hotel Dieu / Grace / 1913 Gardner book: public domain via SWODA or Commons. Ford 1908: CC0; Ford 1913: public domain. Campus and Dillon Hall: CC BY-SA. Agosta 2010: CC BY 2.0. Artis Lane bust photo: Chris Woodrich, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Chatham public sculpture). City Hall postcard: SWODA public domain. Building photos are place-holders with honest captions. We do not buy art licences tonight.
Research folders: research/rcr-new-sections-2026-11-10/, research/rcr-whos-missing-2026-11-10/. Nothing on this page is live until Kyle OKs the exact text and layout. Seen a mistake, or have a free portrait with clear rights? Tell us.
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