Penny Colman is the author of award-winning biographies and social histories. Her intriguing topics range from Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II to Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial. A popular speaker, Penny has appeared on television and radio, including National Public Radio, and on Book TV, C-Span2.

She has been honored by the New Jersey State Legislature for her books and public appearances that have “contributed to the advancement of women.” The New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs presented her with the New Jersey Women of Achievement Award.

A graduate of The University of Michigan and The Johns Hopkins University, Penny has taught nonfiction literature and creative writing at various colleges and universities, including Teachers College, Columbia University and Queens College, The City University of New York, where she was a Distinguished Lecturer.

In 2021, Penny Colman donated her unique and extensive collection of images of landmarks to historic women to the School of Humanities and Global Studies at Ramapo College.

“The Penny Colman Collection of Women’s Historical Landmarks” was conceptualized 30 years ago with simple questions: Where are the women? In particular, were women’s names and deeds recognized, as were men’s, with statues, signs, plaques, roadside markers, memorials, artwork, or on gravestones, except as a ‘wife’?

After many intentional road trips, Colman amassed an extensive collection of 35 mm slides, prints, and jpegs documenting landmarks for an A-to-Z list of women from economist and educator Edith Abbot to antislavery activist, Civil War scout and spy Harriet Tubman to premier athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Colman’s images have been reproduced in articles and books and appear in her popular slide presentations, including “On the Trail of Suffrage Landmarks” for the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. Her 2019 road trip through England and Scotland, “In the Footsteps of Suffragettes,” is documented on her blog, pennycolman.com/blog. Images also appear on Instagram @pennycolmancollection.