Description
Book SynopsisWho are the girls that helped build America?
Conventional history books shed little light on the influence and impact of girls’ contributions to society and culture. This oversight is challenged by Girl Museum and their team, who give voices to the most neglected, yet profoundly impactful, historical narratives of American history: young girls.
Exploring American Girls’ History through 50 Historic Treasures showcases girls and their experiences through the lens of place and material culture. Discover how the objects and sites that girls left behind tell stories about America that you have never heard before. Readers will journey from the first peoples who called the continent home, to 21st century struggles for civil rights, becoming immersed in stories that show how the local impacts the global and vice versa, as told by the girls who built America. Their stories, dreams, struggles, and triumphs are the centerpiece of the nation’s story as never before, helping to define both the struggle and meaning of being “American.”
This full-color book is a must-read for those who yearn for more balanced representation in historic narratives, as well as an inspiration to young people, showing them that everyone makes history. It includes color photographs of all the treasured objects explored.
Table of ContentsList of Figures
Preface: Why Girls?
Timeline
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Finding Girls in American History
PART I
9500 BCE to 1590s CE – In Search of ‘Home’
- Xaasaa Na’ (Upward Sun River), Alaska
- Hā’ena State Park, Kaua’i, Hawai’i
- Mound 72, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Collinsville, Illinois
- “The Display with Which a Queen Elect is Brought to the King”
- Virginia Dare Monument, Roanoke, North Carolina
PART II
1600 to 1760s – Her and Me: Otherness in the New World
- Pocahontas Statue, Jamestown, Virginia
- Samuel Parris Archaeological Site, Danvers, Massachusetts
- Mary Wright’s Sampler
- Mary Jemison Statue, Letchworth State Park, New York
- Phillis Wheatley Statue, Boston, Massachusetts
PART III
1770s to 1840s – Becoming “American”
- Anna Greene Winslow’s Diary
- Sybil Ludington Statue, Carmel, New York
- Sacajawea Statue, Salmon, Idaho
- Bill of Sale for a Girl Named Clary and Runaway Advertisement for Harriet Tubman
- Pantaloons
- Patty Reed’s Doll
PART IV
1850s to 1860s – Reckoning
- Lime Rock Light House, Newport, Rhode Island
- Belle Boyd House, Martinsburg, West Virginia
- Reminiscences of My Life in Camp by Susie King Taylor
- “Vinnie Ream at Work”
- Poems and Translations by Emma Lazarus
PART V
1870s to 1910s – Hope
- “Group in Bathing Costumes” by Alice Austen
- Water Pump at Ivy Green, Alabama
- Statue of Annie Moore, Ellis Island, New York
- Portrait of Georgia Rooks Dwelle
PART VI
1870s to 1910s – Strife
- Photograph of Princess Kai’ulani
- “Indian Girls dressed for a ball game”
- “Sadie Pfeifer” by Lewis Hines
- Dormitory at Angel Island, California
PART VII
1910s to 1940s – Becoming “Modern” American Girls
- Girl Scout Pledge Card
- Paper Doll of Clara Bow
- Cashay Sanitary Puffs
- “Stand Up and Cheer” Dress worn by Shirley Temple
- “Jumping Rope on Sidewalk” by Edwin Rosskam
PART VIII
1940s to 1950s – Voices
- Elizabeth Kikuchi’s Letter to Clara Breed
- Seventeen Magazine
- Patty-Jo Doll
- Monument to the Westminster Case Children, Westminster, California
- Transportation Token from Montgomery, Alabama
- Barbie Teen-Age Fashion Model
PART IX
1960s to 1970s – Revolutions
- “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” by The Shirelles
- Kachina Doll
- Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
- Mary Beth Tinker’s Black Armband
- “Peggy Oki” by Pat Darrin
PART X
1980s to Present – Girl Power
- Selena Quintanilla Memorial, Corpus Christi, Texas
- Dominique Dawes’s Leotard
- Rookie Yearbook One
- GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine
- Letter by Anna Lee Rain Yellowhammer and Photograph of Mari Copeny
Afterword: The Future of American Girlhood
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Authors