[6] Her husband was also a member of a prominent family in New Jersey and in Philadelphia, tracing their lineage back to the Quaker preacher John Woolman.

[7] This event, followed by serious illnesses for her mother and husband, forced Woolman to become both household manager and family health care provider.

[4] Having to learn additional skills such as cooking, care for invalids and budgeting impressed upon her the inadequacies of the training in practical matters provided to women at the time.

[5] Several faculty members of the Teachers College also lived in the boarding house, and one of them brought her a book on the teaching of sewing to review.

[5] The manual she wrote de-emphasized then-current methods of teaching, involving fancy stitch work and repetition.

[4] The success of her sewing text led to Woolman being hired as an assistant in domestic science at the college in 1892,[2] one of only two women on staff up to the time.

[3] In 1912, Woolman became acting head of the home economics department at Simmons College in Boston,[2] a position she held until 1914.

[11] She was decorated by Herbert Hoover for her service during World War I organizing a Clothing Information Bureau for the Department of Agriculture.

[9] In 1926, the National Institute of Social Sciences awarded her its gold medal for "services to humanity and the promotion and conducting of industrial and vocational education.

[4] Woolman died a few years later on August 1, 1940,[2] in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, aged 80,[5] and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery[8] in her birthplace of Camden, New Jersey.