Juliette Gordon Low

She was named after her grandmother, Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie, and nicknamed Daisy,[1] a common sobriquet at the time,[2] by her uncle.

[10] A few months later, after President Andrew Johnson issued the amnesty proclamation, her father reunited with the family to move back to Savannah.

In 1866, her mother mentioned in a letter that "Daisy fell out of bed – on her head, as usual...."[11] That same year, she broke two of her fingers so severely that her parents considered having them amputated.

[7] While studying at Edgehill, she joined the secret group Theta Tau (based on the sorority of the same name), whose members held meetings and earned badges.

[20] In 1880, after finishing boarding school, she took painting lessons in New York, with teachers including Robert Walter Weir, a prominent landscape painter.

Gordon had traveled to Europe in the interim and learned several new skills, including shorthand,[24] bareback riding, and hunting partridge.

[27] They spent much of their first two years of marriage apart, due to Juliette's medical problems and William's long hunting trips and gambling.

[29] As a host, she held parties and events at the house and also received visits from such illustrious guests as her husband's friend Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, and the writer Rudyard Kipling, whose wife was related to her mother.

[30] Despite her husband's opposition, she devoted time to charity work, including regular visits to a woman with leprosy; she also fed and cared for the poor in a nearby village, and joined the local nursing association.

[32] In 1901, Anna Bridges Bateman, the widow of Sir Hugh Alleyne Sacheverell-Bateman, stayed as a guest at the Lows' home in Scotland.

[41] After her husband's death, Low traveled, took sculpting classes, and did charity work while looking for a project on which focus her time and skills.

[44] With 40,000 members throughout Europe and the United States, at the time,[45] it stressed the importance of both military preparedness and having fun, two values she appreciated.

[44] In August 1911, Low became involved with the Girl Guides, a girl-serving offshoot of the Boy Scouts, headed by Agnes Baden-Powell, Robert's sister.

[42] She formed a Girl Guides patrol near her home in Scotland, where she encouraged the members to become self-sufficient by learning how to spin wool and care for livestock.

[43] She also taught them knot tying, map reading, knitting, cooking, and first aid, while her friends in the military instructed them in drilling, signaling, and camping.

[48] When she arrived, she called her cousin Nina Pape, a local educator, saying, "I've got something for the girls of Savannah, and all America, and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight.

[43] Low established the first headquarters in a remodeled carriage house at 330 Drayton Street in Savannah, behind the home she had inherited from her husband.

[44] The headquarters contained meeting rooms for the local Girl Guide patrols, while the lot outside provided space for marching or signaling drills and sports, including basketball.

[44] Low traveled along the East Coast, spreading Girl Guiding to other communities, before returning to Savannah to speak with President William Taft, who would be visiting her home.

Her biggest competition was the Camp Fire Girls, which was formed in part by James E. West, the chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America and a strong proponent of strict gender roles.

[63] At the start of World War I, Low rented Castle Menzies, in Perthshire, Scotland, and let a family of Belgian refugees move in temporarily.

Low decided to build a stronger central organization for the Girl Scouts by writing a new constitution that formed an executive committee and a National Council.

She held the first National Council meeting under the new name, Girl Scouts, Inc. on June 10, 1915, and was elected the organization's founding president.

[68] The same year, she returned to England to fundraise and open a home for relatives of wounded soldiers, where she volunteered three nights per week.

Herbert Hoover wrote to Low, thanking her for the contributions of the Girl Scouts and expressing hope that others would follow suit.

She responded by organizing Girl Scouts to help the Red Cross by making surgical dressings and knitting clothing for soldiers.

She helped plan and organize the convention by renting an auditorium, arranging for appearances by professional athletes, the mayor, and the school superintendent, and hiring a film company.

[82] She continued to do work for the Girl Scouts, and even sneaked away during her recovery from surgery to make a speech at the organization's regional conference in Richmond, Virginia.

250 Girl Scouts left school early that day to attend her funeral and burial at Laurel Grove Cemetery.

"[86] In 1948, a postage stamp (Scott catalogue number 974) honoring Low was issued by the United States Postal Service.

Juliette Gordon Low in 1887
Juliette Gordon Low (center) standing with two Girl Scouts, Robertine McClendon (left) and Helen Ross (right)
Savannah Belles Ferry in Savannah, Georgia.
The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace in Savannah, Georgia , is open for tours to the public.