Ruth Wakefield was a dietician who invented the chocolate chip cookie, which makes them healthy and just fine to eat in bunches, right? Born in 1903, Ruth graduated from Framington State Normal School Department of Household Arts in 1924. She taught home economics, gave lectures on food and cooking, and …
It’s a lyrical image: two young children wandering the English countryside with sketchbooks, plopping down suddenly in the tall grass to open their water color cases and start to paint. This was childhood for Helen Beatrix Potter, whose love of art and animals led to the most successful children’s literature …
Happy National Sisters Day! Anyone growing up with a sister knows – it’s complicated. Today, if I said to my sister “I need someone to . . .” she’d already be ringing my doorbell. Our teen years? Between the fighting and hair pulling and the rest of the family sick of …
A few years ago on a trip to Portland, we came across this stunning mural on a walk around town. The artist, known as Faith XLVII or Faith47 (her given name is Liberty Du) is a self-taught street artist from South Africa, whose work can be seen around the world. …
Saima Abbasi is as surprised as anyone that a childhood love of nature has blossomed into a passion for the environment that has her working with local organizations here and in her native Pakistan to create sustainable natural habitats. She explains her work this way: “Where you live is the …
A star in many fields, Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) Mitchell, the first female astronomer in the United States, was also an educator, librarian, naturalist, suffragette and anti-slavery activist. Born in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1818, Maria’s Quaker parents believed all their children should be educated – not a common idea back then. …
The true story of Marie Antionette begins on Nov. 2, 1755 with her birth in Vienna. The eleventh child of the Empress Maria Theresa, ruler of the Habsburg Empire, and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Maria Antonia (her Austrian name) is destined to live a life dictated by others. …
How do I write a poem for a statue? That was the question Emma Lazarus posed in 1882, when she was asked to donate an original work to help raise money for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Her first response was no, despite her own immigrant story: The …
We started mutterhood as a way to celebrate women, both past and present, through stories and photos that represent the ways women of all ages make the world a better place. Our goal has always been to raise women up and let them shine. Recently, we’ve been struggling with how to address …
Yesterday was National Flag Day. I devoured a series of biographies of famous historical women in middle school. Among them was the tale of Betsy Ross and her heroic actions to rally the Revolutionary troops around a flag she created for George Washington. I was swept away by her ingenuity, …