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
Brave Ruby Bridges inspired people across the nation to search their hearts for what is right. The March on Washington was almost three years away and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, almost four years from passing. When…
Ruby Bridges, six years old, was chosen to integrate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Alone. On November 14, 1960, escorted by federal marshals, Ruby passed through an angry crowd yelling insults at her and entered the school. Immediately, furious parents stormed in and removed their children. Only one teacher, Barbara Henry, agreed to teach first grader Ruby.
In the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, “separate but equal” schools were deemed unconstitutional. Yet, schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, and throughout the southern United States did not accept the decision.
In 1960, a federal judge ordered that two schools in New Orleans be integrated. Ruby and five other girls were chosen based on a test they had taken. The parents of four of the six decided that their child would attend an all-white school. But only Ruby would go to school by herself.
The Problem We All Live With
By Norman Rockwell
Her father had been reluctant to send her, but her mother believed that Ruby should go. On the morning of the first day, Ruby and her mother were driven the five blocks from their home to the school. Before leaving the marshal’s car, her mother told her: “Ruby Nell, don’t be afraid. There might be some people upset outside, but I’ll be with you.” Her mother continued to encourage her despite the many hardships endured by the family through their decision to send Ruby to the all-white school.
Every day, during the school year, Ruby entered William Frantz Elementary the same way. But once inside, she spent the day happy with Barbara Henry, her teacher. They read together, played games, enjoyed music, and Ruby learned while the other students in the first grade stayed home. Federal Marshal Charles Banks said later that Ruby never cried. “She just marched along like a little soldier.”
Barbara Henry and Ruby Bridges in 1998
If you like this article, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Young Carl Sagan looked up at the night sky and wondered, “What are stars?” A question he seemed to ask over and over.
His mother took him to the library for the answer. At first, the librarian misunderstood Carl and gave him a book about the stars in Hollywood. But when he finally had the right book in his hands, it was magic. Carl learned that our Sun is a star. And all stars are suns, but they are so far away that they look like little points of light.
Carl searched the night sky for the planets in our solar system. He wished that he could walk on the surface of Mars, like his hero, John Carter, in the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And Carl wondered: did life exist outside our solar system? In our galaxy? In other galaxies?
Mars — The Red Planet
When Carl was four years old, his parents took him to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, not far from his Bensonhurst, Brooklyn home. There Carl saw wonders of the future: a mechanical man, a moving map, and even an early television. The possibilities for science and technology seemed endless to him.
The interior of an early television at the 1939 World’s Fair
When Carl grew up, he never stopped asking questions about space and its mysteries. He became a scientist with a PhD. in astronomy and astrophysics. He participated in the Voyager program that sent two unmanned spacecrafts on a journey to distant parts of our solar system. Voyager I and Voyager II sent back pictures and information to Earth that helped us learn more about the planets in our solar system.
Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan taught us about space with his many books and his PBS television series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. He told us that, “The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.” This vastness inspired Carl’s curiosity as a child about planets and stars and galaxies that he later shared with all of us.
A wonderful book for children: Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and theMysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson tells the story of Carl Sagan full of curiosity and wonder who reached for the stars.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
On an August day in 1963, under the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial gospel singer Mahalia Jackson told Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to “Tell them about the dream Martin. Tell them about the dream.”
Mahalia Jackson Sings At The March On Washington
Mahalia Jackson was a close friend of Dr. King and an important voice for the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King had spoken to Mahalia about his dream that all Americans would someday be judged by their character and not the color of their skin. On August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Mahalia sang the spiritual, “I Been ‘Buked and I Been Scorned,” a favorite of Dr. King. When she had finished, Dr. King spoke.
Dr. King Speaking Before A Crowd
Dr. King read from the speech he had prepared with the help of speech writer Clarence B. Jones. At about eleven minutes into his speech, Mahalia asked him to tell the people about his dream for America, the one she remembered hearing. Dr. King stopped reading, paused for awhile, and then spoke the words we know as his “I Have A Dream” speech — one of the most powerful and influential speeches in American history.
In their book, Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song, Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkey tell the story of how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahalia Jackson’s friendship changed the course of history.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Listen to Dr. King speak at the March on Washington. At about 12:00 minutes into the video, you will hear a long pause and then Dr. King will begin the “I Have A Dream” portion of his speech.
Award winning author, Katherine Applegate, tells the story of Ivan, a western lowland gorilla. Ivan lived alone in a shopping mall’s concrete enclosure for twenty-seven years. Her book, Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla is beautifully written and illustrated.
Ivan was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (known then as the Belgian Congo) in 1962. Poachers captured Ivan when he was about six months old. He and a young female gorilla were sent to the U.S. in 1964. At first, Ivan and the female gorilla, named Burma, lived with a family in Tacoma, Washington. Soon, Burma died of pneumonia.
When Ivan grew too large to handle, he was moved to the shopping mall. He lived in an enclosure at the B&I Circus Store near a few other wild animals. Ivan, the only gorilla, became B&I’s most popular attraction.
Ivan could not interact with other gorillas. He did not have a natural habitat to live and play in. Ivan only had a tire swing, a TV, and a window to watch the visitors staring back at him. Ivan lived this way for twenty-seven years. Until…
…a National Geographic documentary titled The Urban Gorilla showed how Ivan lived. That’s when a change began. People stood up. They protested the conditions that Ivan lived in. They talked to the media. They wrote letters to government officials. And it worked — along with the bankruptcy of the B&I Circus Store.
Finally, Ivan had his freedom. He was moved to Zoo Atlanta in 1994, to a natural habitat with other gorillas. For the first time since he was moved to B&I, Ivan experienced the outdoors. It took him awhile to adjust to his new life. But when he did, Ivan loved to play with the female and younger gorillas there.
Ivan lived at Zoo Atlanta for eighteen years. He died in 2012, at fifty years old, a long life for a gorilla.
Statue in Tacoma, Washington
Images of Ivan, Courtesy of Wiki Commons
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
President Teddy Roosevelt, his wife Edith, and their six children celebrated their second Christmas morning in the White House. They opened stockings filled with presents. But no presents were tucked underneath a big, sparkling Christmas tree. There were no Christmas trees in the White House, or so the president thought.
The president’s eight-year-old son Archie had other ideas. He brought a small tree into the White House. He decorated it with presents and hid it in a closet. Archie revealed his big surprise on Christmas morning.
Archie Roosevelt and his pony Algonquin
The president tells the story in a letter to a friend dated December 26, 1902:
“…Yesterday morning at a quarter of seven all the children were up and dressed and began to hammer at the door of their mother’s and my room, in which their six stockings… were hanging from the fireplace. So their mother and I got up, shut the window, lit the fire taking down the stockings of course, put on our wrappers and prepared to admit the children.
But first there was a surprise for me, also for their good mother, for Archie had a little birthday tree of his own which he had rigged up with the help of one of the carpenters in a big closet; and we all had to look at the tree and each of us got a present off of it. There was also one present each for Jack the dog, Tom Quartz the kitten, and Algonquin the pony, whom Archie would no more think of neglecting that I would neglect his brothers and sisters. Then all the children came into our bed and opened their stockings.”
Author Gary Hines imagines the story in full detail in his book, A Christmas Tree in the White House. Archie enlists his younger brother Quentin’s help and the two raise the tree tied to a bed sheet to the second floor. Does the president know?
Theodore Roosevelt with Archie and Quentin
If you like this article, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
The Teddy Roosevelt Family,https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/the-theodore-roosevelt-family
Paris, France, was full of surprises for Julia Child. She quickly learned that Parisian apartments were not only cold, but came equipped with their own mice. The answer to the mice problem was clear to Julia’s maid. One day, Jeanne appeared with a basket that held the soon-to-be mouse catcher, a mud and cream colored cat. Julia named her Minette and then Mini for short.
At first, Minette was content to stay in the basket. But when she smelled Julia’s soup, curiosity took over. Minette jumped onto the shelf above the stove. She watched Julia work to recreate the mushroom soup she enjoyed at a restaurant. From Julia’s very first meal in France, she was determined to learn to cook the French food she loved. Julia’s soup didn’t turn out to be an exact copy, but Minette seemed happy with it and ate a saucer full.
Another Paris surprise for Julia was how much she adored her French cat. “I had never been much of an animal person,” she said. “She was my first cat ever, and I thought she was marvelous.”
Julia invented Minette’s favorite game, batting at a Brussel sprout tied a string. And Julia enjoyed watching Minette’s tail switching around when she ducked her head under the radiator. Occasionally, Minette showed her appreciation for Julia’s affection and good food by dropping at mouse at Julia’s feet.
Minette found her way into Julia’s heart at the perfect time. In their kitchen, Julia practiced cooking the French food she later became famous for. And lucky Minette tasted it first.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation making Thanksgiving a national holiday. It would be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. Soon after the tradition of pardoning a turkey began.
According to a November 2012 article on Smithsonian.com,a live turkey was delivered to the White House for Abraham Lincoln’s family Christmas dinner in late 1863.
Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad, named the turkey Jack. Tad taught Jack to follow him closely as he wandered around the White House grounds. When the time came to turn Jack into Christmas dinner, Tad protested, saying, “He’s a good turkey, and I don’t want him killed.”
Tad Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln always a kind father and a great animal lover, gave in and pardoned Jack. Lincoln’s pardon was the first for a White House turkey. The tradition continues today.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you!Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Ben Franklin was the first person to invent and test swim fins.
Growing up in Boston, Ben loved to swim. He wanted to find a way to make swimming easier. When he was eleven, he built a set of wooden swim paddles for his hands, similar to the fins of a fish. The paddles worked, but swimming with them eventually hurt his wrists.
Ben went back to work and made a second set for his feet. He then tried out both sets together. Unfortunately, he found that he could swim better without the paddles. He later found that floating in the water could be easily accomplished when holding onto a kite.
Today, we use flexible swim fins based on the same principle Ben used. We can swim faster and easier with them.
Read about his swim fins in:
Ben Franklin’s Big Splash
By Barb Rosenstock, Illustrated by S.D. Schindler
As an adult, Ben continued inventing practical objects. He invented the Franklin Stove, bifocals, the lightning rod, a musical instrument called the Glass Armonica, the Long Arm for reaching books off a high shelf, the library chair, the second hand clock, and the odometer — only the Glass Armonica is rarely used today.
Read about his inventions in:
Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin
By Gene Barretta
And of course — he discovered that electricity is the same as lightning.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
