Mary "May" F. Sheldon (b. French) (1847-1936) was born in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania, and died in London, England. Sheldon was the oldest daughter of Elizabeth J. French, who was a student of Mary Baker Eddy. She married Eli L. Sheldon, a banker and publisher, in 1876, and they moved to London where they established a publishing firm. Sheldon was an author who wrote a number of short stories, essays, and translations, including one of Flaubert's Salammbô. She was also an explorer, specifically to various parts of Africa, and was one of the first women to be admitted into the Royal Geographical Society in November 1892. Sheldon received multiple awards for her exhibition at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and was appointed membership in societies such as the Writer's Club and the Anthropological Society of Washington. She was well-known as a lecturer, mainly on her own journeys, in England and America. In 1903, she defended African rights in the Belgian Congo and was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Couronne of Belgium in 1921 for her work.

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