Abby Day Slocomb (October 5, 1836 – December 6, 1917) was an American inventor, philanthropist and historic preservationist.

He died in 1873, leaving his share of the lucrative hardware firm, Slocomb, Baldwin & Company, to his wife and sister, Ida A. Richardson.

She was the inaugural regent of the Groton chapter and first state director for the Children of the American Revolution (CAR).

Realizing that Connecticut did not have an official flag, she pressed the legislature to adopt one and submitted designs for consideration.

Interested in historical preservation, she wrote letters to President Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of War Elihu Root convincing them to turn over Fort Griswold to the care of the state of Connecticut in 1902.

A society was formed to preserve the site and the DAR developed a museum at the fort, making its headquarters in the former caretaker's cottage.

Her father, James Day, originally from New London, Connecticut, turned down a military career in favor of business.

The couple had six children after Abby – Helen Amelia, Sallie E., Jane W., James Armitage, Marie Louise, and Robert Slark Day.

The store had been founded by his father, Samuel B. Slocomb, who died in 1833, leaving an estate of over a million dollars to his wife,[7][8] Cora Ann (née Cox), and three children, Ida, Augusta, and Cuthbert.

[8] During the war, Slocomb worked as a nurse and after Cuthbert died in 1873, she and her sister-in-law Ida A. Richardson maintained the family interest in the hardware firm.

[18] When Cuthbert died in 1873, Slocomb donated two memorial windows in his honor to the Christ Church Cathedral, where he had served as a vestryman.

Unable to make a decision on what to do,[23] Slocomb, her sister-in-law Ida, and her mother-in-law Cora, organized the members of the Ladies Aid Society to raise money to pay off the debts.

Establishing a charter and funding its organizational activities, she founded the first Louisiana chapter, the "Spirit of '76" in New Orleans on March 2, 1895.

Other designs were proposed by the Grand Army of the Republic, the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Society of Colonial Wars.

[46] She taught local women how to make lace, founded six lace-making schools, and helped them market their wares.

[49][50] She was diagnosed with a form of osteoporosis, known as Paget's disease of bone, which impacted her skull and caused severe and debilitating headaches.

[51] Although her family visited her, for the rest of her life, Cora was confined to mental hospitals, as she was often confused and unable to comprehend or recognize people and events she encountered.

[55] Legend maintained that the "Lady Slocomb" fired the "last shot in the last battle of the last American war", at the engagement of Spanish Fort.

[29] In 2014, a time capsule Slocomb had created in Italy in 1914, hoping that Italian newspaper clippings would add historic perspective to the events of World War I was opened by the Anna Warner Bailey Chapter of the Connecticut DAR at their annual fundraising event.