Women's History Month Recap #3

ICYMI: Here's a recap for you featuring all the amazing women we shared about on our social media this week. 

(In order of the picture below starting from the top left)

Alice Ball became the first woman and the first African American to graduate with a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii in 1915. While working on her thesis, she developed the leading treatment for leprosy but sadly died two years after her discovery and the director of her program took credit for the findings. Historians discovered the truth in the 1970s and worked to ensure that she got the credit for her important discovery. On February 29, 2000, the University of Hawaii recognized her for her work and dedicated a plaque to her on campus. To read more about her, visit: http://womenrockscience.tumblr.com/post/68918185810/meet-alice-ball-the-pharmaceutical-chemist-who

Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) was a documentary photographer best known for her work during the Great Depression, bringing the suffering of the nation's suffering sharecroppers, displaced families, and migrant workers, into the public eye. Her "Migrant Mother" series of photographs are the best-known documentary photographs of the 20th Century and a symbol of resilience in the face of adversity. She continued her intensely personal work after the Depression, creating series on the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II, Irish country life, and postwar suburban California, among many other projects. View more of her work here: http://collections.museumca.org/?q=category/2011-schema/art/dorothea-lange

Rayka Zehtabchi, a 25 year-old Iranian-American Film Director, just won an Oscar for the short documentary “Period. End of Sentence.” The 26-minute movie focuses on a rural village in Northern India where women manufacture sanitary pads in an effort to improve feminine hygiene and fight cultural stigma surrounding menstruation. Rayka also helped co-found the non-profit “The Pad Project” to fight the stigma of menstruation and improve feminine hygiene worldwide. She is the first Iranian-American person to win an Oscar. 

Since 1996, Lek Chailert (b. 1962), founder of the Save Elephant Foundation and the Elephant Nature Park, has rescued over 200 distressed and disabled elephants in Thailand and neighboring countries from the cruelty of the tourism and logging industries. Her foundation provides local community outreach, rescue and rehabilitation programs, and educational ecotourism operations.

Gertrude Ederle (1905-2003) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in five events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel in 14 hours and 31 minutes, beating the record set by the previous male channel swimmers and earning her the nickname "Queen of the Waves."

Marian Anderson (1897-1993) was the first African American to be invited to sing at the White House by President and First Lady Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1935. Despite facing discrimination throughout her career, she stayed in the spotlight for many more years, becoming the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1955. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy and participated in the Civil Rights Movement and sang at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. To hear parts of her performance and to learn more about her, watch this video: https://youtu.be/-VXtjDx3u3Q.

We hope you'll read more about them and be sure to check back next Saturday to see the last set of women we shared about!

Happy Reading,

Jade, Reference Librarian