Her Ruby Shoe Moment Mary Golda Ross looked up from her desk at Lockheed Missiles & Space and saw it was nearly 11:00 p.m. She was working late again on the complex calculations required for two spacecraft to successfully meet up in outer space in preparation for Gemini XII, NASA’s last Gemini Project mission. Mary was tired, but happy. She … Read More
Maya Lin
Her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial moves millions of visitors a year with its stark yet beautiful reminder of service and sacrifice. She found out she won the national design contest for the memorial a few days before her college graduation. Head to 1981 to meet 21 year old Maya Lin…
Gertrude Ederle
Imagine swimming so far and for so long that when you finally get out of the water, you have to show officials your passport. And in route, your only company are boats, jellyfish, and the occasional shark! Travel through time to 1926 and across the ocean to Kingsdown Beach, England and meet 19 year old Gertrude Ederle…
Mary Edwards Walker
They called her a “medical monstrosity” simply because she was a doctor who happened to be a woman. Take a trip to the Civil War era to meet Mary Edwards Walker…
Margaret Knight
She spent years developing a machine to mass produce flat bottomed grocery bags, only to have her invention stolen from her at the last minute by a man who claimed that no woman could have the knowledge to build something so sophisticated. She took him to court, won, and started a business that changed the way people shop forever. Step into a 1871 Washington D.C. courtroom and meet Margaret Knight…
Patsy Mink
When she was a kid it was acceptable for high schools to ban girls from playing sports and taking classes in subjects like math and science. When she applied to college it was acceptable for universities to admit only a few women at a time and bar them from majors that were too “masculine.” When she was a Congresswoman, she wrote a law to change all of that. Join us in the halls of the 1971 Congress and meet Patsy Mink…
Maggie Lena Walker
She was born on the estate where her mother had been enslaved and grew up in segregated Richmond as part of the first generation of African Americans born into freedom. She learned quickly that there could be no true freedom without economic independence and became the first woman to charter a bank, while also founding a newspaper and opening a general store. Transport yourself to her 1901 speech announcing these plans and hear the soaring words spoken by Maggie Lena Walker…
Marian Anderson
When this internationally known opera star was barred from performing at Constitution Hall due to its “white performers only” policy, she sang in front of the Lincoln Memorial for thousands and broke racial barriers along the way. Transport yourself to Easter Sunday, 1939 and meet Marian Anderson…