Ever heard of May Kendall?

May was a poet and sociological researcher, who worked with Seebohm Rowntree on some of his pioneering studies of poverty in York.

She was acknowledged as a co-author of his 1913 book How the Labourer Lives, for which she interviewed rural labourers’ wives about their finances to highlight the inadequacy of workers’ wages. Yet today, while Seebohm is rightly remembered as a pioneer, May is all but forgotten.

How about Lucy Macbean Ross? Lucy had a doctorate in public health from the University of Glasgow and, in about 1920, became medical officer at the Grey Coat charity school for girls in Monkgate, York. She also worked as a house surgeon and anaesthetist at York County Hospital.

She died in 1932 aged just 46 – but in 1935, the sanatorium at Grey Coat School was completely renovated with funds left in her memory. Yet how well known is she today?

Then there’s Maud Sellers. Born in Harrogate she became, in 1913, the first female member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of York for nearly 400 years. As curator of the Merchant Adventurers Hall, she worked tirelessly to restore the building. Yet few outside the company know her name today.

These three are among 100 extraordinary women who helped shape the way York is today - and whose lives and stories are now celebrated thanks to an epic local history project.

HerstoryYork has uploaded 100 mini-biographies of the women, many with photos, to its website herstoryyork.org.uk.

They range from Almyra Gray who, in 1920, became one of the first women to sit as a magistrate in York, to wartime code breaker Marion Paton and, in more recent times, international cricketer Lauren Winfield.

Pauline Alden of Herstory said the aim of the project had been to give these unsung women the recognition they deserved. "It is noticeable that there isn't a lot of information about women when you look for them in the history of York," she said.

HerstoryYork is out to change all that.

Find out more about these 100 women at herstoryyork.org.uk