With Juliette Gordon Low’s 150th birthday still on my mind, I thought it would be fun this week to lay out some of the changes that occurred during her lifespan: 31 October 1860 to 17 January 1927.Inventions can make our lives easier, medical breakthroughs can help us live longer, accidents of nature can amaze us, wars and legislation can affect us. Even if she didn’t write about them in her letters or diaries, the events in this very quirky list below would have played a part in shaping the world that Daisy Low knew, and I think it is a biographer’s job to understand not just the person, but her times.
1863: The world’s first underground railway opened in London
Roller skates invented
1865: U.S. Civil War ended
1865: U.S. Civil War ended
1867: Barbed wire invented
1869: Suez canal opened
1870: Germ theory of disease postulated by Louis Pasteur
1871: Great Chicago fire
1873: Levi’s denim jeans patented
Typewriter invented
1876: Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone
1877: First phonograph record, also A.G. Bell
1879: First incandescent light bulb
1880: First hearing aid—better than the ear trumpet–invented
1881: First building lit by electricity opens, in London
1883: Krakatoa erupted
1885: First skyscraper built in Chicago: ten stories tall
1886: Daimler built the first automobile
1889: Jane Addams opened Hull House
Paris Exposition
Paris Exposition
Olave St Clair Soames born
1890: Escalator demonstrated
1893: Zipper invented
1896: Marconi patented the radio
1898: Spanish-American War began and ended
First submarine launched
1899: Third Boer War began
1900: Bayer created aspirin tablets
1900: Bayer created aspirin tablets
1901: Instant coffee and vacuum cleaner developed
Victor Talking Machine company sells Victrolas
Victor Talking Machine company sells Victrolas
Queen Victoria died
Prince of Wales became King Edward VII
1902: Pepsi-cola invented
Teddy bear created
Third Boer War ended
Third Boer War ended
1903: Wright Brothers had their first successful flight
1905: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
1905: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
1907: First Montessori school opened
1908: Robert Baden-Powell published Scouting for Boys
Cellophane, the Model T, and the FBI appeared
1909: NAACP founded
1910: George V became king of England
Agnes Baden-Powell began the Girl Guides
Campfire Girls started
1912: Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts
Robert Baden-Powell married Olave St Clair Soames
Robert Baden-Powell married Olave St Clair Soames
Titanic sank
1913: First crossword puzzle created
1914: World War I began in Europe
1915: Klu Klux Klan re-created
First coast-to-coast long distance telephone service begun in U.S.
First coast-to-coast long distance telephone service begun in U.S.
1916: Margaret Sanger opened America’s first birth control clinic
1917: Great Britain allowed women into auxiliary corps of the Army and Navy
U.S. enacted Prohibition
1918: Flu pandemic killed c. 30 million globally
World War I ended
1920: Women gained the vote in the United States
First radio broadcasts commenced in United States
1921: Marie Stopes opened England’s first birth control clinic
Band-aids invented
1922: Chanel No. 5 introduced
King Tut’s tomb unearthed
King Tut’s tomb unearthed
1923: Talking pictures (movies with recorded sound) began
1925: Scopes Trial occurred
1926: Hitler Youth established
1927: First television demonstrated
Lindbergh makes successful trans-Atlantic flight
Lindbergh makes successful trans-Atlantic flight
That’s a lot of history for a too-short but important life. Seen at a glance like that, it gives a sense of some of the important issues of her day. Of course, the list could be much, much longer. What would you add?
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Because I’m writing fast and furiously, this information comes from the following three sources, with thanks:
What a great list! In the obscure you could have added the introduction of the Oreo in 1912 (or as it was first called, Oreo elegant dinner biscuits)!
Oh, I love it! I didn't know that about the Oreo elegant dinner biscuit. It's hard for me to think of Oreos as elegant…but as you know, cookies are called biscuits in England, and nearly anything in British English sounds more elegant than in American English! :-) Thanks, Katherine!
1886. Atlanta, Georgia. Coca-Cola. Pepsi cannot even compare.
Ah, yes. Now that debate can only end in tears, so I shall pass by without inciting either side. Thanks for the first volley, I mean, thanks for your comment!
I would add that the early 1900s were a time of extraordinary passion to do "good work" for many types of people…Rev. Edgar J. Helms founded Goodwill in 1902.
Yes, that's a great idea. Goodwill is just one very important organization started in the Progressive Era. The reformist impulses of the early twentieth century are certainly part of the context for the success of the Girl Scouts. Thanks for your comment!
Stacy: Your very inclusive list demonstrates the futility of satisfying every "contextualist." There's always something someone else thinks ~just had to~ affect the trajectory of a historical actor. Selection and emphasis necessarily involves annoying other historians, yes? I mean, surely instant coffee and zippers are ~clearly~ the most relevant events. ;) …I suppose I would add "1886: Haymarket Riot"(secure/upper classes fearing the revolt of labor). – TL
Thanks, Prof. Lacy! I do know a labor historian who looked away when I left off Haymarket and other pertinent events! And you know that such a list can only hint at a very few of the larger changes underfoot. Zippers and instant coffee both help to push ladies' maids into extinction and play a tangential role in the broader context that also includes labor conflict like Haymarket.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your comment!