WAYLAND GIRL SCOUTS – 2020 TREE – FAMOUS AMERICAN WOMEN

Juliette Gordon Low (1860–1927) founded Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912, an organization that today serves millions of girl members and alumnae. An ardent believer in the potential of all girls and the importance of fostering their individual growth, character, and self-sufficiency, Juliette is credited with establishing and nurturing a global movement that has changed the world. (Troop 66268)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993-2020) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United Sates from 1993 until her death in September 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton, replacing retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was generally viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. (Troop 72570)

Harriet Tubman (c. 1820-1913) was born into slavery in Maryland, but in 1849 escaped to freedom in the North and became the most famous “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. Tubman risked her life to lead hundreds of family members and other slaves from the plantation system to freedom on this elaborate secret network of safe houses. A leading abolitionist before the American Civil War, Tubman also helped the Union Army during the war, working as a spy among other roles. (Troop 67373)

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) spent her life working for women’s rights. She traveled the country giving speeches demanding that women be given the right to vote and risked being arrested for sharing her ideas in public. Every year, she lobbied Congress for women’s rights and suffrage but died in 1906, 14 years before women were given the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. (Troop 82134)

Amelia Earhart (1897-1937?) was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1928, and the first person to fly over both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In addition to her piloting feats, Earhart was known for encouraging women to reject restrictive social norms and to pursue various opportunities, especially in the field of aviation. She mysteriously disappeared in 1937 while trying to circumnavigate the globe along the equator. (Troop 70135)

Rachel Carson (1907-1964) started the modern environmental movement by challenging the notion that humans could obtain mastery over nature by the use of chemicals, bombs and space travel. Her sensational book Silent Spring (1962) warned of the dangers to all natural systems from the misuse of chemical pesticides such as DDT, and questioned the scope and direction of modern science. (67307)

Katherine Johnson (1918-2020) was a mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecraft during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program. When she began working in 1953 as part of a group of African American women who performed complex mathematical calculations for the program’s engineers, the workplace was segregated, and the women had to use separate bathrooms and dining facilities until 1958 when NASA banned segregation. Her work analyzing test data and providing mathematical computations helped send astronauts to the Moon. (Troop 83270)

Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986) is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, renowned for her contribution to modern art. By the mid-1920s, she was recognized as one of America’s most successful artists, known for her paintings of New York skyscrapers – a quintessential American symbol of modernity – as well as her equally radical depictions of flowers. O’Keefe is also renowned for her paintings of the stark landscape and Native American culture of New Mexico where she lived and worked for two decades. (Troop 62720)

Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), a Wayland resident, was a prolific writer who advocated women’s rights, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and North American 19th-century Black activism. Her best-known piece today is “Over the River and Through the Wood,” but her influential anti-enslavement writing helped sway many Americans toward the North American 19th-century Black activist movement. (Troop 67361)

Kamala Harris (1964 – ) is the Vice President-elect of the United States, the first woman and the first African American to hold that office. She is currently a Democratic member of the Senate from California. (Troop 83271)

Sally Ride (1951 – 2012) was the first American woman in space. She made her journey into history on June 18, 1983. During the mission, Ride was the flight engineer; she launched two communication satellites, operated the shuttle’s mechanical arm and conducted experiments. Throughout her life, Dr. Ride broke barriers and worked to ensure that girls and women were encouraged to do the same. (Troop 69202)

Mae Jemison (1956 – ) always reaches for the stars as a doctor, engineer, and NASA astronaut. In 1992, Jemison became the first African American woman to travel in space orbiting the Earth 127 times on the space shuttle Endeavor. She has also written several books and appeared on many television programs including an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Johnson continues to encourage the study of science, technology and social change. (Troop 69202)