Author Tracey E. Fern climbed the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo in Florence, Italy. She “wondered how such an enormous structure could have been built in the fifteenth century.”
Researching the Duomo, she found Filippo Brunelleschi. She wrote Pippo The Fool, about how Filippo, considered a fool, constructed a masterpiece.
The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore/The Duomo
Filippo, an architect without formal training, entered a competition that changed his life and that of the city of Florence forever. In 1418, the Florence wool merchant’s guild decided to solve a problem. The Duomo’s construction begun in 1296, had never been finished. No one knew how to construct a dome without buttresses and Gothic arches for support. In Florence, both were thought to be undesirable. The existing walls also required an octagonal shape. How could a stable eight-sided dome be built?
Filippo Brunelleschi
The guild held a competition for architects with the winner building the dome. Filippo Brunelleschi’s idea seemed the most promising. He designed an interior and an exterior dome. With this design, expensive wooden scaffolds would not be needed. But Filippo would not tell anyone how he would construct the dome. He thought his idea would be stolen. Filippo seemed both stubborn and foolish — Pippo the Fool.
The people in charge of the project hired Filippo. But they required that well-known architect, Lorenzo Ghiberti, to work on the project with him. Lorenzo had lost to Filippo in the competition. Now Filippo was forced to work with Lorenzo.
It was Filippo, without any help from Lorenzo, who constructed the dome. He invented complex machines that lifted heavy sandstone beams and over four million bricks above the Cathedral. These machines were unique. According to National Geographic, “…they weren’t rivaled until the industrial revolution.”
Filippo designed the dome’s brickwork in a herringbone pattern. This added stability. And his design used a lighter interior and exterior two-dome design. This worked where a heavier single-dome design might have failed.
Completed in sixteen years, the dome is a testament to the genius of Filippo Brunelleschi.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Bessie Coleman, born to Texas sharecroppers in 1892, wanted more out of life than picking cotton. She wanted to “amount to something.” One of thirteen children, Bessie left Texas for Chicago in 1915, to live with her brothers Walter and John.
Bessie attended a beauty school and became a manicurist. She worked at the White Sox Barber Shop during World War I. Bessie listened to the daring stories told by pilots returning from Europe. Her brother, John, who had served in WWI teased her that French women were superior because they could fly planes. Bessie decided she would fly too. But no U.S. aviation schools would accept her. She was an African American woman.
Bessie Coleman
Bessie enjoyed reading the African American newspaper the Chicago Defender. The publisher, Robert S. Abbott, learned about Bessie’s dream to fly. He suggested that she learn French and apply for training at a French flight school. Bessie quickly learned the language and was accepted by a leading aviation school in France.
Bessie Coleman
Learning to fly the Nieuport Type 82 biplane required skill and daring. Although Bessie witnessed the death of a fellow student, she continued to fly determined to succeed. She trained for seven months. On June 15, 1921, Bessie received her pilot’s license. She was the first African American woman to do so. And the first African American to receive an International pilot’s license.
Returning home, Bessie was unable to find employment as an aviator. She traveled again to Europe for advanced training and to learn aerial stunt flying. Bessie was considered by experienced European pilots to be an exceptional flyer.
Returning again to the U.S., Bessie had a new dream. She would open a flight school to train African American women. Bessie needed money to finance this. With her skill and training, she became a barnstormer. In the early days of flying, pilots toured the country performing stunts at exhibitions to earn a living. They were called barnstormers.
Bessie Coleman In Her Uniform
Bessie first appeared at an air show in Garden City, Long Island. She dressed in a military style uniform. She performed loops and spirals over the crowd. The show billed Bessie as “the world’s greatest woman flier.”
Bessie appeared in more air shows. In 1923, she was able to purchase a Curtiss JM4 military surplus biplane known as a Jenny. Bessie flew in her Jenny before a Los Angeles crowd in June that year. Her plane stalled and crashed. Bessie survived the accident, but was left with a broken leg and three broken ribs.
On June 19, 1925, Bessie returned to the air in Texas to celebrate Juneteenth. Texas slaves were effectively freed from slavery by U.S. troops on June 19, 1865. Beginning that day, Bessie refused to perform in the south if African Americans were banned from attendance.
To help raise funds for her flight school, Bessie spoke to audiences about flying. She encouraged African Americans to consider flying too.
Bessie never realized her dream of opening a flight school. She purchased another Jenny biplane in 1926. Many people including her family considered it to be in poor condition. On April 30, 1926, Bessie flew as a passenger in the plane scouting a landing site for a parachute jump. The pilot, William Wills, lost control. Bessie and Wills like many early aviators lost their lives flying.
Bessie Coleman, called “Brave Bess” inspired women to live their dreams as she had lived hers. In 2006, she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
New York Times, April 2, 1931 — Jackie Mitchell, organized baseball’s first girl pitcher struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the first inning today.
Seventeen-year-old Jackie Mitchell, a new pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts, a minor league baseball team, faced the “Sultan of Swat” and the “Iron Horse,” the best of the best New York Yankees batters and stuck them out.
Jackie, one of the first females to sign a baseball contract grew up playing sports. When she was eight, her neighbor Brooklyn Dodger’s pitcher Dazzy Vance taught Jackie how to pitch.
The owner of the Lookouts, Joe Engel watched Jackie pitch at a baseball training camp and offered her a contract. Now he had the only team with a female pitcher. Engel enjoyed using stunts to bring crowds into the ballpark. After signing Jackie, he promoted an exhibition game between the Lookouts and the New York Yankees who were traveling home from spring training.
Jackie Mitchell
On April 2, 1931, starting pitcher Clyde Barfoot faced the first two Yankee batters giving up two hits. Lookout’s manager Bert Niehoff tossed him out and put Jackie in. Next up, Babe Ruth followed by Lou Gehrig.
Jackie Mitchell with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
Babe tipped his hat to Jackie. Her first pitch was ball one. Babe swung and missed the second pitch for a strike. Then he swung and missed again. Strike two. Jackie threw her next pitch and Babe watched it cross the plate for strike three. He threw his bat into the dirt and walked back to the dugout.
Now Lou Gehrig was up. He swung and missed Jackie’s first three pitches and stuck out. With only seven pitches, Jackie struck out two of baseball’s all-time greatest batters. The crowd of 4,000 gave her a standing ovation.
Jackie shows off for Gehrig and Ruth
Jackie walked the next batter, second baseman Tony Lazzeri. Then manager Bert Niehoff pulled her out of the game and returned pitcher Clyde Barfoot. The Yankees beat the Lookouts 14-4.
Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, not known for his kind heartedness, voided Jackie’s contract making her first game with the Lookouts her last.
Landis decided that baseball was “too strenuous” for women. But Jackie continued to play, traveling around the country with a barnstorming team. She retired at age twenty-three never doubting that she had actually struck out Ruth and Gehrig without any help from them.
If you like this article, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Childen’s Author
Vinnie Ream, eighteen-years-old, was the first woman and the youngest person, to receive a commission from the United States government to sculpt a statue. She won the commission over many talented male sculptors. But why?
As a young girl, Vinnie Ream learned to paint and draw from members of the Winnebago tribe, in Madison, Wisconsin where she lived. In 1861, her family moved to Washington, D.C. To help support her family during the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Vinnie worked as a clerk for the U.S. Post Office, the first woman to do so. Vinnie also volunteered in local hospitals helping wounded soldiers to write letters home.
Vinnie Ream
Through a congressman, Vinnie met sculptor Clark Mills, a renowned artist at the time. At his studio, she watched him work and felt that she too could sculpt. Vinnie worked with clay for a few hours and made a medallion of an Indian chief’s head. Impressed by Vinnie’s ability, Mills invited her to be his apprentice.
Soon, she sculpted busts of members of Congress who became her friends. They asked her to produce a marble bust. Vinnie chose President Abraham Lincoln as her subject. The president rejected the idea at first. But after learning that Vinnie was a westerner and was not well-off financially, he agreed. It is said that Vinnie worked on her bust of Lincoln in his office over a five month period.
Vinnie Ream’s Bust of Abraham Lincoln
After Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, Congress decided to pay tribute to him with a full-size statue to be placed in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. Impressed by the life-like appearance of her bust of Lincoln, Vinnie was awarded the $10,000 commission and was provided a studio in the basement of the Capitol. To make the correct measurements, she was given the clothing that Lincoln wore the night he was assassinated.
Unlike other sculptors, Vinnie opened her to studio to the public. Visitors watched tiny Vinnie stand on scaffolding to sculpt the tall clay model. Once it was completed, it was cast in plaster and shipped to Rome. Vinnie and her parents traveled there to select marble for the statue. She choose white Carrara marble the type that Michelangelo had used. The statue was then sculpted by Italian stonecutters and unveiled at the U.S. Capitol in January 1871. Vinnie was only twenty-three-years-old.
Vinnie Ream’s Statue of Abrahma Lincoln
“The one great, lasting, all-dominating impression that I have always carried of Lincoln has been that of unfathomable sorrow, and it was this that I tried to put into my statue.” — Vinnie Ream
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Six-year-old Elinor Smith persuaded her father to let her fly in a Farman pusher biplane near her home on Long Island, New York. “By the time the pilot touched the wheels gently to the earth, I knew my future in airplanes and flying was as inevitable as the freckles on my nose.”
Farman pusher biplane
Elinor took flying lessons at age 10. Sitting on a pillow with her feet resting on blocks tied to the controls, Elinor learned to fly and by age 12, “I could do everything but take off and land.” She soloed a plane at age 15 and became the youngest licensed pilot at 16. Her license was signed by Orville Wright.
Elinor received worldwide attention when she was challenged to fly under one of New York’s East River bridges. Elinor not only met the challenge in 1928 at age 17, she flew the Waco 10 plane under four bridges: the Queensboro, the Manhattan, the Williamsburg and the Brooklyn Bridge. Charles Lindbergh wished her good luck and said, “…keep your nose down in the turns.” Her stunt has never been repeated.
Elinor Smith
Voted “Best Female Pilot” in 1930 by her peers, Elinor set many speed, altitude and endurance records. In 1934, she became the first woman on a Wheaties cereal box. Nicknamed the “Flying Flapper,” Elinor retired from flying for awhile to marry and raise her children, but returned in 1956, flying jets. Her last flight was in 2001, at age 89 when she flew an experimental plane at Langley Air Force Base. Elinor Smith died on March 19, 2010 at age 98.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and/or leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
A Book For Kids:
Soar, Elinor! By Tami Lewis Brown Illustrated by Francois Roca
Michelangelo’s David didn’t happen the way you might think. The marble wasn’t a lovely block recently cut from the quarry. And it wasn’t presented to Michelangelo to sculpt into a masterpiece.
Instead, the giant marble block had been worked on before by two sculptors. Both rejected it. They thought it was too imperfect a piece to sculpt into a stable statue. One or both had also damaged the piece. Even the great Leonardo Da Vinci refused to work on it.
For twenty-five years it lay untouched in the Opera del Duomo’s courtyard in Florence. In 1501, Michelangelo was asked to turn the marble into a statue of the biblical figure David. At 26 years old, he was already a master artist and sculptor.
Michelangelo Bounarroti
Michelangelo agreed, believing that he could sculpt David from the rough marble. He worked on the statue privately at his workshop hiding it from view. He chipped away for over two years, often with little sleep, focusing solely on his work. Michelangelo successfully transformed the enormous marble block into a work of art. It stands 17 feet tall.
Florence, Italy
In January 1504, he presented his statue to the board members of the Cathedral of Florence. They had commissioned the statue to be placed along the Cathedral’s roofline with other statues. But when they saw Michelangelo’s David they knew it belonged in a prominent place in Florence — one where everyone could see it. The Piazza deel Signoria, Florence’s seat of government was chosen as the site.
In May 1504, forty men worked for four days to move David the half mile from Michelangelo’s workshop to its new home. A witness wrote:
“It was midnight, May 14th, and the Giant was taken out of the workshop. They even had to tear down the archway, so huge he was. Forty men were pushing the large wooden cart where David stood protected by ropes, sliding it through town on trunks. The Giant eventually got to Signoria Square on June 8th 1504, where it was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, replacing Donatello’s bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes”. — From the Galleria dell’ Accademia (AccademiaGalley) website at:https://accademia.org
The statue of David became a symbol of freedom for the people of Florence. It warned others that Florence would defend itself just as David had defended the Israelites.
David at the Accademia Gallery
In 1873, David was moved into the Galleria dell’ Accademia, or Accademia Gallery, to protect it from additional weathering and damage. It stands there today, a magnificent testament to the genius and skill of its sculptor, Michelangelo Buonarroti.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
The Little Prince tells the story of a pilot who crash lands his plane in the Sahara Desert. He is awakened his first night there by a little prince fallen to earth from an asteroid. The novella is one of the most popular and endearing books since its publication in 1943. The author, Antoine De Saint-Exupery, a pilot, helped pioneer airmail delivery. And like the pilot in The Little Prince, he crash landed his plane in the Sahara desert, an experience that inspired his writing of The Little Prince.
Antoine, born in Lyon, France in 1900, grew up during the beginning of manned flight. Although the airplane originated in America with the Wright Brothers, it’s popularity took off in France. Antoine was there to see it. When he was twelve, he spent his summer days at an airfield watching pilots fly the early planes. One day, a pilot offered him a ride. And from then on, he dreamed of flying.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Entering military service with the French Army in 1921, Antoine took private flying lessons, and asked to be reassigned as a pilot with the French Air Force. After service, his flying career took off. He heard about an airline that flew mail delivery. Antoine signed up.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
He flew and delivered the mail in Spain and West Africa. He later lived at Cape Juby, Morocco, in the Sahara Desert, working as a manager at the airfield. Antoine was a talented and courageous pilot who helped search and rescue downed pilots. At Cape Juby, he negotiated pilots’ release from captors.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery’s Crashed Plane, Sahara Desert, 1935
Antoine De Saint-Exupery wrote about his flying adventures in his books including, Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars. He will always be remembered for his masterpiece, The Little Prince.
In The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine De Saint-Exupery, master storyteller and illustrator, Peter Sis tells Antoine’s story from his childhood of “sunny days” to the day he went missing while flying for the Free French Air Force in World War II. The Pilot and the Little Prince is an engaging picture book biography for children.
The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine De Saint-Exupery
by Peter Sis
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
In 234 words, Patricia MacLachlan tells the story of how young Henri Matisse became the master painter of color and light and movement.
Growing up in gray northern France, near the border with Belgium, Henri’s mother Anna Heloise brightened his world withcolor. She painted porcelain plates with scenes of nature. The plates hung on the walls of their house along with vivid red rugs that also covered a dirt floor. And Henri watched the colors of his pigeon’s feathers shimmer — “iridescence” his mother told him.
In The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse, Patricia MacLachlan draws a child in by using the second person point of view and asking “ if you” questions, until the child knows, that if you had grown up in Henri Matisse’s world, then you would become a painter, too.
The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse
Back Cover Illustrated by Hadley Hooper
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse attended law school, passed the bar exam, and with his father’s help found a position as a law clerk — although he did not enjoy practicing law. But everything changed when Henri became ill with appendicitis. While recovering, his mother gave him paints and supplies. It was then that Henri knew he would spend the rest of his life as an artist.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and/or leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
In Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell, author Tanya Lee Stone tells how Elizabeth Blackwell’s dream to become a doctor was finally realized. Elizabeth, the first American female to receive a medical degree was rejected by every medical school she applied to, until…
Elizabeth Blackwell
…the students at New York’s Geneva Medical College, thinking their teachers were only joking when they asked if a woman should be admitted, voted to let Elizabeth in. What a surprise when she showed up. Elizabeth outsmarted the entire class graduating with the highest grades in 1849.
Geneva Medical College
After graduation, Elizabeth was unable to find employment. It seemed that no one wanted to hire a female physician. Elizabeth sailed to Europe for additional training and returned to New York City where she opened her own medical practice.
Elizabeth also ran a free clinic teaching hygiene to poor women and children. With her sister Emily, the third American female to receive a medical degree, Elizabeth opened The New York Infirmary for Women and Children. Elizabeth later opened her own medical school at the Infirmary training woman as doctors.
Elizabeth Blackwell persevered and lived her dream, leading the way for American women physicians.
Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors?: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell is a beautifully told picture book biography with engaging illustrations by Marjorie Priceman for children.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Wilma Rudoph overcame polio as a child to become the fastest female sprinter in the world. She was the first woman to win three Olympic gold medals in a single Olympic Games.
Born premature at 4 and 1/2 pounds, Wilma contracted polio at age four. She wore a brace on her left leg and worked with a physical therapist. Through sheer determination, Wilma walked without the brace by age nine. By age eleven, she no longer needed an orthopedic shoe.
Wilma, one of twenty-two children, loved basketball. With two strong legs, she became a star player at her Tennessee high school. Tennessee State University track and field coach Ed Temple watched Wilma in action. He knew at once that she was a gifted athlete. He first invited her to participate in the Tennessee State summer track and field program. From then on she trained with him.
In 1956, at age sixteen, Wilma became the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team competing in the Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia. She won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100 m relay.
Wilma raced again in the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome. She won and set records in the 200 m dash and the 4 x 100 m relay and won the 100 m dash. Nicknamed “The Tornado,” at age twenty, Wilma became the “fastest woman in the world.” She was the first woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games — the first Olympic Games to be televised.
Coach Ed Temple and team, Rome, 1960
“I always had the worst starts in the history of sprinters because of my size [5’11”]. I was the tallest sprinter that ever came from the United States. In my first 35-45 yards, I was never in the race so I was always happy they didn’t have 35-45 yard races. The farther I ran, the faster I became. I could always accelerate at the end and that was the key to the success of Wilma Rudolph, never the start.”
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
