Annie Rensselaer Tinker, the daughter of a wealthy New York City banker, was born on October 28, 1884. Tinker, or “Dan” as she preferred to be called, was known for her masculine fashion and unconventional life. She became active in the Woman’s Political Union, advocating for women’s rights, including the right to vote. Tinker formed a cavalry of suffragists on horseback that rode in several New York City suffrage parades. During World War One, Tinker volunteered with the British Red Cross, serving as a nurse in Belgium, France, and Italy. The French government awarded her a medal of honor for her service during the war.  

Although there is limited existing evidence of her love life, it appears from a few letters written about her after her death that Tinker engaged in romantic affairs with various women in Paris in the 1920s. Tinker willed the vast majority of her estate to her closest friend, and possible romantic partner, Kate Darling Nelson Bertolini. Tinker passed away on February 21, 1924. She was laid to rest in Greenwood Heights, New York.  

For more on Tinker, see Wendy Rouse, Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Suffrage Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2022); Catherine Tinker, “Annie Rensselaer Tinker (1884–1924) Of East Setauket and NYC: Philanthropist, Suffragist, WWI Volunteer in Europe,” Long Island History Journal 26, no. 1 (2017). For an OutHistory exhibit that addresses Tinker, see The Queer History of Women’s Suffrage: Scholarship and Censorship in 2025, by Wendy Rouse.