Women's History Month Pick: Her Story

Reviewed by Kristin

Her Story A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America by Charlotte S. Waisman and Jill S. Tietjen

This book provides a light overview of women who have played a role in American history.  Very well illustrated, this is the kind of  book that you can read cover to cover, or just flip through and pick out interesting facts.  After a brief introduction, a timeline begins with Virginia Dare, who in 1587 was the first child of English parents to be born in the “New World.”  Finishing up the timeline is Drew Gilpin Faust, who became the first female president of Harvard University in 2007.  Along the way, the book includes well known women such as Clara Barton (famous for establishing the American Red Cross) and Lucille Ball (who doesn’t love Lucy?)

Just a few of the featured women….

• Amelia Simmons—in 1796 she published the first American cookbook.  A picture of the title page shows “American Cookery or the Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Pastes, Puffs, Pies, Tarts, Pudding, Custards and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes from the Imperial Plumb to Plain Cake Adapted to this Country and all Grades of Life.”

• Elizabeth Blackwell—she became the first American female doctor.  She was rejected by several well known schools before attending and graduating from Geneva College in New York in 1849.

• Annie Oakley—born Phoebe Ann Mosey, she became a sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1885.

• Anna Julia Cooper—published A Voice from the South: By a Woman from the South in 1892.  She was born a slave but earned a Ph.D. degree and spent her life educating African Americans.

• Dorothea Lange—in 1936 she began traveling and photographing many iconic images of Depression era people in the South.

• Wonder Woman—she may have been fictional, but she made a big splash after her introduction to the comic book world in 1941.

• Carol Burnett—this funny lady started on Broadway in Once Upon a Mattress in 1959.  She went on to her own television show known to generations of Americans.

• Joan Ganz Cooney—in 1969 she started the Children’s Television Workshop, which has brought beloved characters such as Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Elmo to the American (and worldwide) public.

• Pleasant T. Rowland—as an entrepreneur, she started a company in 1986 to produce the historically accurate American Girl dolls.

Celebrate Women’s History Month (or celebrate women at any time of the year) by checking out this interesting book!

(Note:  Kristin is our new part time reference person.  Stop by and say hello if you have a chance!)