Cool Chicks from History

Suffragettes, war workers, factory girls, socialites who got stuff done, ladies who ruled countries, and women who changed the world, even if it was just a little bit. Click on photos for sources. Follow Cool Chicks from History on Facebook

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Ann Bonfoey Taylor in Colorado, 1967.

Ann Bonfoey Taylor learned to fly a plane at age 12, competed at Wimbledon at age 19, and became an alternate on the US Olympic Ski Team at age 29.  During World War II, she trained pilots for the US Army and US Navy.  After the war, Ann briefly designed a successful line of ski wear.  She was also regularly featured in the high fashion magazines of the 1930s through 1970s.  

Ann passed away in 2007 at the age of 96.  Her clothing was donated to the Phoenix Art Museum. In 2011, the Phoenix Art Museum published Fashion Independent: The Original Style of Ann Bonfoey Taylor.

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When hospital trains pulled into the railroad stations of France the American Red Cross was always on hand to meet them. Here is Miss C. Wheeler, of 210 Pearl Street, Burlington, Vt., giving a wounded soldier cigarettes. Miss Wheeler was connected with American Red Cross Evacuation Hospitals #6 & #7, Souilly.

Souilly (Meuse) France, October 14, 1918

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Members of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union marched in Labor Day parades in New York City to promote the efforts of organized labor and encourage people to buy clothing with a “union-made” label.

Founded in 1900, when the garment industry was growing rapidly in New York, the ILGWU reached its peak membership in 1967, with 455,164 members. Membership declined in succeeding decades, and the union was dissolved via merger in 1995.

John Albok. Labor Day Parade. circa 1960s. New-York Historical Society. 

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Four Girl Scouts of Troop 15 in Emporia, Kansas Making Schoolbag with Supplies for "Schoolmates Overseas" in France.

If you would like to donate school supplies to needy children, check out Operation Backpack and Back-to-School Brigade.

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Artist Anna Coleman Ladd (1878-1939) creating a facial prosthetic for a veteran of World War I.

Born in Pennsylvania, Anna trained as an artist in Paris, Rome, and Boston.  In 1917, she moved to France so her physician husband could work with the American Red Cross.  After meeting with British artist and prosthetist Francis Derwent Wood, Anna founded the American Red Cross’s Studio for Portrait-Masks to provide cosmetic masks for men who had been badly disfigured in World War I. 

Anna created clay and plasticine casts of the men’s faces which were used to create thin copper prosthesis. The metal was then painted with hard enamel to match the recipient's skin tone. Real hair was used to create the eyelashes, eyebrows and mustaches. The prosthesis was attached to the face with strings or via eyeglasses

Her services earned her the Légion d'Honneur Croix de Chevalier and the Serbian Order of Saint Sava.

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Interpreter and translator in the Tuberculosis Bureau, who has volunteered her services as a waitress for the day at Canteen Ivry, Paris.  July 1918.

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Long Island Railroad "Victory Special" demonstration car, organized by the women of the Long Island Food Reserve Battalion during World War I.

June 28, 1918

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Still cheerful in spite of being driven from their homes by the German invaders. These two refugees grandmother and grandchild, are cared for by the free canteen maintained at the Gare de Lyons, the Bon Accueil, a French relief organization, with the aid of the American Red Cross.

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Not merely a fairweather friend, this little refugee clings to her dog through thick and thin. Driven from their home by the invaders she and her parents came to the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris where all refugees are received and with the aid from the American Red Cross are fed, cared for and helped on their way. She is waiting for the American Red Cross camion to take her to the station where the journey will be resumed. June 1918.

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American soldier in the American Military Hospital No. 1, at Neuilly, which is supported by the American Red Cross. June 1918.

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Louise du Pierry (1746-1807)

Art by Kunststueck (tumblr)

Louise du Pierry was the first female professor at the Sorbonne.  She taught a class on astronomy for female students.  

Louise also worked with Jerome de Lalande, computing most of the lunar elipses he studied.  Her work was published in 1799.

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Buffalo Bird Woman (circa 1839-1932)

Art by Katie (tumblr)

Buffalo Bird Woman was a Hidatsa woman who lived on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. An accomplished farmer, she passed on Hidatsa traditions and farming through interviews with Gilbert Wilson which were published in 1917.

The full text of Buffalo Bird Woman’s interviews (published as Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation) can be read here.

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Vassar graduation daisy chain, June 1908.

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Marie Crous circa 1641

Art by Mavia Comic (tumblr)

Although the name Marie Crous is largely unknown, Marie’s  work is familiar to  every schoolchild.  She invented the decimal system. Almost nothing is known of Marie’s life, but her work on the decimal system was published by 1641.  

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Golden Eyes with Uncle Sam dog, a World War I liberty bond promotion published as the cover for Seattle Times Magazine, April 18, 1918. The artist, Nell Brinkley (1886–1944), was known as the “Queen of Comics”

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Two United States nurses carry heavy combat packs on a eight-mile hike through the jungle of the India-Burma border area as part of their training before taking up front-line was assignments. Before reporting for duty the American nurses learn how to combat jungle hazards and how to care both for themselves and their patients under all conditions.

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Google Doodle celebrating the birthday of Virginia Apgar (1909-1974).  Virginia was a groundbreaking physician and the inventor of the Apgar score to assess infants immediately after birth.