New Quarter Honors Juliette Gordon Low, Founder of Girl Scouts

The newest quarter in the American Women Quarters Program honors the contributions of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of the USA. Learn about her life and what inspired her to create the organization.

Juliette Gordon Low (1860 – 1927) was born into a family of contradictions and a world in transition. Both hardworking and privileged, both community-minded and accepting of daily injustice, the Gordons raised their children with a strong sense of self. Low was born in Savannah, Georgia, on Halloween in 1860. Within a year, her father left to command a company of Georgia Hussars in the Confederate Army. Her mother’s origins in Chicago put Low’s extended family on different sides of the conflict and created strain in the early years of her parents’ marriage.

The dualities continued in Low’s tendency to be both accepting of tradition and one’s place in society while finding herself venturing outside expectations. She married William Low in 1886 and intended to spend the remainder of her life as a devoted wife and mother. Their relocation to the United Kingdom, where William was deeply entrenched in the aristocratic social sphere, proved jarring. Though her family enjoyed wealth and privilege in the United States, she was not accustomed to the level of frivolity and leisure that defined her married life. Low’s recurring tendency to support the causes she cared about in a way that was hands-on, rather than strictly financial, ran contrary to her husband’s ideas about appropriate activities for women in their station. Eventually, the strain led to the breakdown of their marriage as time apart became more frequent and his infidelity became apparent.

After years of separation and amid an impending divorce, William died in 1905. At 45, when she expected to be a wife and mother, Low found herself a wealthy widow with no children. She was adrift for the next several years as she traveled and explored new places and ideas. She found her calling when she met Robert and Agnes Baden-Powell in 1911. Robert Baden-Powell started the Boy Scouts in the United Kingdom in 1908, and after repeated episodes of girls attempting to join, his sister Agnes started Girl Guides in 1909. Low jumped in wholeheartedly and formed two patrols in London and one near her estate in Scotland. She remained devoted to these groups of girls throughout her life, even after founding Girl Scouts in the United States.

Low discovered the scouting movement during the crucial years of the Progressive Era. Women in the United States and the United Kingdom were beginning to advocate for a better society in a variety of ways and through many types of organizations, both locally and nationally, that supported causes like suffrage, labor reform, public heath, and education. This was not a new idea for Low and her peers. Low’s mother, Nellie Kinzie Gordon, was active in two such organizations, founding the Georgia Chapter of the Colonial Dames in 1894 and organizing the Society of the Red Cross in Georgia in 1906 (1). The women Low ultimately partnered with to develop Girl Scouts were active in the progressive education movement.

Supporting children, particularly girls, was a throughline in Low’s life. When she was a young girl, she and her cousins started the Helpful Hands club. Their first project was sewing clothes for the children of immigrant families living in poverty; however, their age and lack of skill quickly made it apparent that they could not fulfill their mission. When she arrived in England, she volunteered her time with factory girls in a local town. In many ways, Girl Scouts was a natural progression of an already existing passion.

Low returned to Savannah in 1912 and made a call that would change American history. She phoned her cousin Nina Pape and made the legendary declaration, “I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we’re going to start tonight!”(2). Pape owned and operated the Pape School, a school for girls in Savannah, and was an advocate for the kindergarten movement. The movement enthusiastically shared new ideas in education like learning through play, time spent outdoors, group work, games, songs, and folk dancing. Other local members of the progressive education community, including Hortense Orcutt, Jane Judge, and Edith Johnson, quickly committed their time and energy to Low’s new idea. Girl Scouts was born.

It might seem obvious today that having girls spend time outdoors and teaching them to be self-sufficient leaders is a good idea, but it was not apparent to upper-class Savannah families in 1912. Low brilliantly used accepted and treasured social norms to encourage families to endorse a movement that would ultimately contribute to the dissolution of those very customs. She hosted elaborate teas for mothers and daughters in the home of her parents, now the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Museum. Through these tea parties, the epitome of female elite domesticity, Low deftly convinced mothers that Girl Scouts would be a positive influence on their daughters’ lives and futures.

The movement grew at an exponential rate: from 18 girls in March 1912, to 1,000 girls in 1914, to 10,000 girls in 1918, to 90,000 in 1920. Today, there are over 2 million Girl Scouts and 50 million alums in the United States. Low was relentless in her advocacy for Girl Scouts, encouraging and coercing friends and family to support her girls. Low died in 1927 of breast cancer at her home in Savannah. She is buried in her Girl Scout uniform. In her pocket is a telegram she received the week before she died from Girl Scouts’ national board. It reads, “You are the best Girl Scout as well as the first in this country.” Low’s vision and mission have been recognized by U.S. postage stamps, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and now, a new quarter! Her story reminds us that you don’t have to be perfect to make a difference; you just need to find your cause and commit to leaving the world a better place than you found it.

Notes:

1. George Arthur Gordon. “Eleanor Kinzie Gordon: A Sketch.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, vol. 1, no. 3, (1917).
2. Edith D. Johnson. “Juliette Low Brings Girl Scouting to the United States of America.” Juliette Low and the Girl Scouts, (New York: Girl Scouts of the USA, 1928) p. 81–92.

Further Reading:

Helping Hands Club: Gordon Low, Juliette. “When I Was A Girl.” Juliette Low and the Girl Scouts, (New York: Girl Scouts of the USA, 1928) p. 3–8.

Stacey A. Cordery. “Journeys.” Juliette Gordon Low: The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts, (New York: Viking Penguin, 2012) p. 167–80.

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• How Activism and International Women’s Year Fueled U.S. Efforts for Equality

Shannon Browning-Mullis | Read More

Shannon Browning-Mullis is the executive director of the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Museum and oversees Girl Scouts of the USA’s collection and archives.