Whether Hillary Clinton wins the White House or not, she is NOT the first woman to try, not by a long shot.
The first woman to seek the presidency did so before women even had the right to vote in America; does the name Victoria Woodhull ring a bell? Woodhull and the later seekers are profiled in Ellen Fitzpatrick's book The Highest Glass Ceiling.
Fitzpatrick dazzled us a few years back with Letters to Jackie. She returns to give the highlights of presidential campaigns before the Clinton era.