03/29/2026
Myra Colby Bradwell was born in Vermont the youngest of 5 children in 1831. Her parents Abigail and Eden Colby were ardent abolitionists and Myra learned from an early age to fight for justice. She later married attorney James Bradwell and studied law at his firm for many years before applying to the Illinois bar. Though Myra Colby Bradwell was the first woman to seek a law license in 1869, she would not receive it until March 29, 1890. Bradwell was denied her license by the Illinois Supreme Court because she was a married woman and was thus prevented from entering into contracts with clients. She responded by arguing that many of the common law rules concerning married women had been lifted. However, the court responded by denying her solely based on her gender. Bradwell appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court who disappointingly upheld the lower court ruling. With the passing of the 1872 Illinois law banning discrimination against women in occupation, Alta M. Hulett would become the first woman to admitted to the Illinois bar. Though Bradwell could have re-applied for her license, she did not. She was too busy running her very successful and nationally regarded legal paper, the Chicago Legal News.
Bradwell had used this paper to highlight her own cases for the right to practice law as well as the 1872 nondiscrimination law. The paper was broadly read across the country, and she used this influence to make the case for not only the right to practice any profession but also for the rights of women in general. From school suffrage, to defending Mary Todd Lincoln to gaining representation for women at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Bradwell leveraged her intelligence and her industry to advocate for the rights of women. In 1890 the Illinois Supreme Court corrected its error and awarded Bradwell her license retroactively to the date of her original application in 1869. Bradwell died of cancer on February 14, 1894, and is buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
