Lucretia Blankenburg (née Longshore; May 8, 1845 – March 28, 1937) was an American second-generation suffragist, social activist, civic reformer, and writer.

Together, the Blankenburgs worked for the things that uplifted humanity, that made for cleaner politics, and for better citizenship.

They called her "The woman doctor's child", a term intended to convey as much reproach as that of "witch's daughter" in New England colonial days.

[11] When she was a young girl, a German youth, age 22, Rudolph Blankenburg, came to Philadelphia with letters of introduction to her family.

The Blankenburg business of manufacturing bedquilts, spreads and yarn was doing well, and its head, unlike the average money-maker, thought he could discern equally important duties elsewhere.

Women's clubs were few and the majority of those in existence were given over to literary and musical events and to the study of Shakespeare and Browning.

[15] She succeeded in having Anna Hallowell elected, and later Mary Mumford, and Philadelphia schools benefited by the work of these two educational experts.

Before this time, the State of Pennsylvania gave this right to the mother only when the father had been proved a drunkard or worthless or had failed to provide for his family.

[9] Blankenburg was a member of the committee of women who inaugurated the system of police matrons in Philadelphia.

In her own district, Blankenburg got up a petition, secured the signatures of several hundred householders and sent it to the offending firms.

One firm immediately changed its fuel and put in smoke consumers; a second reduced the number of smokestacks.

In order to raise money to continue the campaign and to carry it to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for better laws on the smoke nuisance, Blankenburg sent out a printed notice asking for contributions.

[9] In 1904, Blankenburg was a delegate from Philadelphia to the Second Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held in Berlin, and made an address on the legal condition of women in the United States.

They asked every conceivable question about the ward and the city—how many voters there are, how many schools, how many churches, what are the methods of city government, the powers vested in the mayor and council.

Together, the Blankenburgs worked for the things that uplift humanity, that make for cleaner politics, and for better citizenship.

[6] In 1914, with Marie Jenney Howe of New York City, Blankenburg joined a feminist campaign waged against "labelling" married women by their husband's names.

The movement was for the purpose of permitting married women to retain their maiden name and eliminating the prefix "Mrs".

Blankenburg managed her own household affairs, planned her dinners, cooked them herself, and made her own dresses.

[22] On April 12, 1918, Rudolph died at the couple's home at 138 West Walnut Lane in the city's Germantown neighborhood.

[23] In their time in the Longshore home on Arch Street, Lucretia and Rudolph had three children, all daughters, but none survived to adulthood.

[24] Blankenburg had been ill with pneumonia for three days before she died, March 28, 1937,[25] in her apartment in the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia.