The first person to lead troops

When Stacey A. Corddry first heard the name Juliette Gordon Lowe, she was a Brownie. She was immediately attracted to the woman who founded the Girl Scouts in 1912, and to the fact that she had been hearing-impaired for most of her adult life. "Her deafness made me want to learn sign language, which I tried as a child," said Corddry, now a historian and professor at Monmouth College in Illinois.

But in high school and in Texas, In college and graduate school at the University of Southampton, Corddry noticed that Low was absent from history textbooks and lectures. “The older I get, the more I feel like we don’t know enough about her,” Corddry said. Low's legacy is enduring: Now celebrating its 100th year of existence, Girl Scouts is the largest girls' education organization in the world, with 3.3 million current members. Over the years, some 50 million women have donned the uniform and earned a badge for the belt.

Corddry's new biography, Juliette Gordon Lowe: Distinguished Founder of the Girl Scouts, pieces together the story of Lowe's life, from her beginnings in Savannah, Georgia, after the Civil War broke out. She founded the first Girl Scouts in the United States. Drawing from diaries, letters, institutional correspondence, and photographs, Corddry describes Loy's debut in Georgia, her years in England when she was married to an aristocrat named William Mackay Love, Willie's Adultery and death during divorce, as well as her discovery of Robert Baden Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, British guide.

Why You Want to Learn More About Juliet Gordon Low Every biographer has some autobiographical connection to his or her subject. For me, it's not just that I'm a Brownie, but that my mother was a Girl Scout and my grandmother was a troop leader. My mom always wore her Girl Scout uniform. I still have it. I thought, why is this organization so important that my mom puts her Boy Scout uniform in the same box as her wedding dress? "

By accessing primary source documents, you get a little sense of Low's personality. How would you describe her? "She's as edgy as her mother. She is as considerate as her father. She was more organized than I expected. She likes literature. She is very spiritual and also very superstitious. She has a family commitment to responsibility.

I think she has biblical teachings to do good in the world and she has been doing good in the world in her own way since she was a girl doing drama and charging Entering to see off the missionaries. She described herself as a "comfortable woman" when she was hanging out with the British aristocracy, which she simultaneously enjoyed and felt very guilty about. Her husband, Willie, was not a supporter of women's rights and did not believe that women should leave home. Therefore, Juliet Law had to do good deeds in secret.

After Luo led three groups of Girl Scouts into the United Kingdom, the first 18-member American Girl Scouts were formed on March 12, 1912. How did they receive it? ”

In the United States, there is not as much opposition to female tour guides as there is in the UK. In the UK, some people complain that men and girls will not be at ease if the uniforms they wear look like military uniforms. Some people There is concern about girls being overly active or indulging in sports, games, or outdoor activities that are inappropriate for their gender. However, there are already progressive era movements going on in the United States that suggest that children need to be outdoors, play, get out of the classroom, and be able to run free.

In a part of Savannah near her home, girls could play tennis and basketball. Basketball was a new sport in our country. She tied up this canvas curtain. Having these girls wear skirts and throw their basketballs away from the eyes of passers-by, for fear of offending some of them, makes everyone wonder what the hell is going on. of interest, but that's the effect it had. The kids had to take a peek, and it looked like a lot of fun. Robertine "Robbie" McClendon, left, of Thomasville, Ga., Juliette Gordon. Lowe and Helen Ross, right, of Macon, Georgia, after Juliet Gordon Lowe presented them with a golden eagle in May 1925 in Macon, Georgia, GA and Girl Scouts National Center for Historic Preservation, New York, NY) Low, Most On the left, the "Founder's Flag" is awarded annually to the troop that most supports the ideals of Girl Scouting.

(Courtesy Birthplace of Juliet Gordon Lowe, Savannah, Georgia, and Girl Scouts National Center for Historic Preservation, New York State) "Oil Portrait of Lowe" by Edward Hughes. (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Gift of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America; Frame preserved with funds from the Smithsonian Commission on Women) Mrs. President Harry S. Truman accepts the first box of cookies at Blair House, opening 1951 Annual Girl Scout cookie sales. (Bettmann/Corbis) Girl Scouts collect peach seeds during World War I. The oil extracted from the seeds was used in the war industry. (Bettmann/Corbis)

What skills does Low want Girl Scouts to learn

Most women will be wives and mothers, she knows, so it’s best to raise girls to be truly outstanding housewife. She wanted them to learn to cook and preserve food. She wants them to know how to run a sterile kitchen. She taught nursing the sick and sick children and sewing. Anything a wife and mother should do, she thought she could train her daughters to do better.

Low understands that any woman may find herself needing to take care of herself. Therefore, she emphasized vocational training for girls. Some of the early badges were about flying, typing, telegraph technology and agriculture.

Then there’s the whole road to outdoor pursuits, from gardening to camping. Her program teaches you how to identify poisonous mushrooms from nontoxic ones, how to pitch a tent, and what kind of wood burns in a fire and what doesn't. Some worry these ideas are starting to fade.

Then there was part of her process that had to do with citizenship. She wanted her daughters to learn about the U.S. Constitution, American history, geography, especially during World War I, military preparations, signal lights, Morse code and how to respond to any form of civil emergency.

How do these skills impact her view of female roles in the world? "I think Juliette Gordon Lowe, at the age of 51, having founded the Girl Scouts, understood that a woman's life was no longer predictable, that you could no longer expect to be a pampered wife and a spoiled child. A beloved mother and grandmother. As a teacher of young girls, you are expected to prepare them for an unexpected future.

Girls of all kinds join the Scouts, from all religious and ethnic backgrounds. Picking middle-class girls, elite girls, factory girls and orphans, they all join for different reasons. Juliet Lowe wants to make girls better. Woman.

Do you think she was a feminist?

That's a term that wasn't really used in this country until she founded the Boy Scouts. I don't have a single piece of paper that she claimed to be. Feminist. I know she supports suffrage. Do I think that applies to Juliet Lowe today? Yes, do I think it always applied to her as an adult? People.

Other similar Girl Scout organizations emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. What, cultural I mean, do you think this sparked the need for the Scouts?

< p> Historians call the late 19th and early 20th centuries an era of industrialization, immigration, and urbanization. American factories are hurtling away at an alarming rate. The 1920 census told us for the first time that there were more people living in cities than in rural areas. People were coming from everywhere and we didn’t know what to do.

Juliet Lowe wanted immigrant girls to join the Boy Scouts. She thought it would help Americanize them, which might be an ugly thing from a 2012 perspective, but wasn't seen as a bad thing in 1912. Urbanization also plays a role, because these children in the city do not have fresh air, fresh water, fields to run on, and hills to roll over, like Juliet did when she was a child. The Girl Scouts learned about the Fresh Air Movement and other camping activities at the time and said, get the kids out of the city. The Boy Scouts and other reforms of the Progressive Era were designed, in part, to mitigate the worst excesses of industrialization, to help immigrants become American bees and succeed personally and professionally here, and to ensure that we did so in an atmosphere of friendliness and trust. to this point.

Some things are impossible to know about Lowe's life. What are you most curious about? "That's the biographer's problem.

If you asked your subject to have tea, what three questions would you ask her? I would ask her a professional question: How did you feel when you voluntarily gave up your position as president of the Girl Scouts in 1920? I think that must have been one of the hardest decisions she ever made. And then, the personal, gossipy question: What's Robert Baden Powell's dish? I wonder if they really fell in love or decided to just be good friends. And, I guess the question I would ask historians is, are you aware of all the reforms and reformers around you? As a historian, this is what really confuses me. I kept thinking that among her letters I would see letters from famous reformers of her day, but they weren't there. No letter to Florence Kelly. Jane Addams didn't have a long, thoughtful letter that said, let's talk about how you do things with youth and how I do things with youth. Although she contributed to the reforms of the Progressive Era, she was not associated with the Progressive Era women we are so familiar with. I just want to know why this connection wasn't made.

What lessons does her life experience teach us?

There must be a lesson, that is, don’t let the worst mistakes get you. I think her biggest mistake was marrying Willie Lowe. By her own estimation, her life was a mess. She had no successful marriage and no children. She could have been a miserable old woman sitting on her money jar. She could have been angry and withdrawn, but somehow she wasn't. From that rose came a woman who was tenacious, determined, passionate, and dedicated to her career in Scouting. She opens doors for girls who are closed to her. I think her story illustrates her resilience and optimism