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Things I like: suffragettes, war workers, factory girls, socialites who got stuff done, ladies who ruled countries, and women who changed the world, even if it was just a little bit. Click on photos for sources.

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Dee So La Lee (circa 1829-1925) was a well known Washoe basket weaver popular during the Arts and Crafts movement. Supported by her benefactors Amy and Abe Cohen, Dee So La Lee made nearly 300 baskets during her lifetime. Today her baskets can be seen at the Smithsonian and the Nevada State Museum.  

Dee So La Lee (circa 1829-1925) was a well known Washoe basket weaver popular during the Arts and Crafts movement. Supported by her benefactors Amy and Abe Cohen, Dee So La Lee made nearly 300 baskets during her lifetime.

Today her baskets can be seen at the Smithsonian and the Nevada State Museum.  

Women (and a few men) picketing the Curlee Colthing Co. St. Louis, 1925.

Women (and a few men) picketing the Curlee Colthing Co. St. Louis, 1925.

Margaret Bramer (later Mrs. Otto Hanson) in her homestead shack in South Dakota.   Thousands of single women traveled west to stake their claim to a homestead in the post-Civil War period.

Margaret Bramer (later Mrs. Otto Hanson) in her homestead shack in South Dakota.  

Thousands of single women traveled west to stake their claim to a homestead in the post-Civil War period.

Pictured, front row, left to right: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Carlotta Walls, Mayor Wagner, Thelma Mothershed, Gloria Ray; back row, left to right: Terrance Roberts, Ernest Green, Melba Pattilo, Jefferson Thomas. This photo was taken in June 1958 after the students had spent a tumultuous year integrating Little Rock’s Central High.  The students were being given an award by the local hotel workers union in New York City and Mayor Wagner changed his schedule in order to personally praise the students for what they had overcome.  Holding Carlotta and Thelma’s hands was a public show of support for school integration.   Little Rock public schools were closed down by segregationists for the entire 1958-1959 academic year.  The combined efforts of civil rights groups, the federal government, and local citizens who preferred integrated schools to no schools at all eventually led to the reopening of Little Rock’s schools in the summer of 1959.

Pictured, front row, left to right: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Carlotta Walls, Mayor Wagner, Thelma Mothershed, Gloria Ray; back row, left to right: Terrance Roberts, Ernest Green, Melba Pattilo, Jefferson Thomas.

This photo was taken in June 1958 after the students had spent a tumultuous year integrating Little Rock’s Central High.  The students were being given an award by the local hotel workers union in New York City and Mayor Wagner changed his schedule in order to personally praise the students for what they had overcome.  Holding Carlotta and Thelma’s hands was a public show of support for school integration.  

Little Rock public schools were closed down by segregationists for the entire 1958-1959 academic year.  The combined efforts of civil rights groups, the federal government, and local citizens who preferred integrated schools to no schools at all eventually led to the reopening of Little Rock’s schools in the summer of 1959.

Creating a sampler such as the example above was a common educational activity for young girls in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The main goal was to improve the girl’s stitchery, an important womanly skill in the pre-industrial age.   The absence of the letter J in this sampler is not unusual as the letter J was not part of the early Latin alphabet.

Creating a sampler such as the example above was a common educational activity for young girls in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The main goal was to improve the girl’s stitchery, an important womanly skill in the pre-industrial age.  

The absence of the letter J in this sampler is not unusual as the letter J was not part of the early Latin alphabet.

Girls at Isleta Day School in a tug of war, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1940.

Girls at Isleta Day School in a tug of war, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1940.

Steady of eye and hand, women workers at the great Willow Run bomber plant are among those throughout the country who are relieving serious shortages of skilled workers by doing such semi-skilled jobs as the one shown here. She’s welding parts of the cooling system direct to the supercharger. 

Steady of eye and hand, women workers at the great Willow Run bomber plant are among those throughout the country who are relieving serious shortages of skilled workers by doing such semi-skilled jobs as the one shown here. She’s welding parts of the cooling system direct to the supercharger. 

todaysdocument

Suffrage did not come easy. 

The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920.  These photos and documents within the records of the National Archives show that the right to vote was not easily won.  

Girls’ basketball team from Manual Training High School in Denver

Girls’ basketball team from Manual Training High School in Denver

Lady rocket scientist on What’s My Line? in 1959

A group of ritualists from the “Forward into Light” pageant which will close the “Women for Congress” conference of the National Woman’s Party at Westport-on-Lake-Champlain, New York, August 1924. 

A group of ritualists from the “Forward into Light” pageant which will close the “Women for Congress” conference of the National Woman’s Party at Westport-on-Lake-Champlain, New York, August 1924. 

todaysdocument: August 15, 1944 - African American U.S. Army Nurses arrive in Greenock, Scotland From the US Army Center of Military History The Army Nurse Corps accepted only a small number of black nurses during World War II. When the war ended in September 1945 just 479 black nurses were serving in a corps of 50,000 because a quota system imposed by the segregated Army during the last two years of the war held down the number of black enrollments…. Army authorities argued that assignments available to black nurses were limited because they were only allowed to care for black troops in black wards or hospitals. But unfavorable public reaction and political pressure forced the Army to drop its quota system in 1944. Subsequently, about 2,000 black students enrolled in the Cadet Nurse Corps program, and nursing schools for blacks benefited from increased federal funding. The US Army Center of Military History mentions a unit of sixty-three nurses went to the 168th Station Hospital in England to care for German prisoners of war in June 1944, while other served in the Pacific and North Africa.  These women might be part of the group sent to care for prisoners of war two months earlier.   

todaysdocument:

August 15, 1944 - African American U.S. Army Nurses arrive in Greenock, Scotland

From the US Army Center of Military History

The Army Nurse Corps accepted only a small number of black nurses during World War II. When the war ended in September 1945 just 479 black nurses were serving in a corps of 50,000 because a quota system imposed by the segregated Army during the last two years of the war held down the number of black enrollments…. Army authorities argued that assignments available to black nurses were limited because they were only allowed to care for black troops in black wards or hospitals. But unfavorable public reaction and political pressure forced the Army to drop its quota system in 1944. Subsequently, about 2,000 black students enrolled in the Cadet Nurse Corps program, and nursing schools for blacks benefited from increased federal funding.

The US Army Center of Military History mentions a unit of sixty-three nurses went to the 168th Station Hospital in England to care for German prisoners of war in June 1944, while other served in the Pacific and North Africa.  These women might be part of the group sent to care for prisoners of war two months earlier.   

todaysdocument:

Making the Impossible Decision

On August 12, 1961, immediately before the construction of the Berlin Wall this couple makes the decision to pass their son over barbed wire to West Berlin.

The original caption:

A German fate at the fence of barbed wire!

It may be that a couple from Berlin will never see each other again because it became separated by the drawing of the line across Berlin. On August 12, one day before Ulbricht had ordered to surround West Berlin with barbed wire, a man was flying into West Berlin. His wife should follow him a few days later as the little son was still in a holiday-camp. In the meantime the nearly impenetrable “iron curtain” was drawn around West Berlin. The couple met at the fence of barbed wire. The “Vopo” guard was indulgent and allowed the meeting. The couple discussed their situation and they decided that the little son shall grow up in freedom. At a moment when the “Vopo” did not watch them the mother handed the child over the barbed wire.  

Teletype operator in the telegraph office of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. The time here changes from Mountain to Pacific time. Seligman, Arizona. 

Teletype operator in the telegraph office of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. The time here changes from Mountain to Pacific time.

Seligman, Arizona. 

Sakakawea (Sacajawea) statue in sculpture Leonard Crunelle’s studio.  The original 1905 sculpture can be seen at the North Dakota State Capitol while a copy can be seen at the US Capitol Visitors Center.

Sakakawea (Sacajawea) statue in sculpture Leonard Crunelle’s studio.  The original 1905 sculpture can be seen at the North Dakota State Capitol while a copy can be seen at the US Capitol Visitors Center.