March 7th

Born this day in 1869, Abby Lillian Marlatt, Home Economics Professor of University of Wisconsin director of Home Economics. Marlett earned BS in Domestic Science in 1888 Kansas State College and a MS Domestic Economy in 1890. Marlatt organized Utah State Agricultural College's domestic economy department and a home economics department at the Manuel Training High School in Rhode Island. Marlatt's success at these shcools caught the attention of the Dean of UW Harry L. Russell who invited Marlatt to develop a department at UW. In 1909, she began to create a domestic science program that influenced other such educational programs the world over. In 1912, The Practical Cottage, was the corner stone of Marlatt's program. The concept of using an actual home for the studies of domestic arts. The university purchased a house and with some home improvements, and "home schooling" was in session.
Marlatt and her students took the concept of running a household very seriously. The Practical Cottage, was a blank slate ready for the students create functioning household. Marlatt was a strong personality, whose commitment to her program and the students are still remembered. When Marlatt arrived at UW there were 52 students, 12 courses, one major, one faculty member with one assistant. When she retired in 1939the Home Economics Department had 602 students, 67 courses, eight majors, and 25 faculty members, and one research assistant. And that is a good thing.


On this day in 1955, Mary Martin's Peter Pan was televised.

March 6th

Born this day in 1791, Anna Claypoole Perle, portrait artist. Perle was born into inner-generational visual arts family. Trained by her father like her brothers and sisters, it was Anna who stood out. Perle began to sell her work by the age of fourteen. And by the age of twenty in 1811, her work was included in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Portrait painting like her father was Anna's main stay but her talent for painting miniatures made her career. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, New York City, Washington DC, Pearle traveled to paint her clients which included Presidents Andrew Jackson and James Monroe. Perle married late in life, and twice sadly her first husband died just three months after their marriage and it wasn't until Perle was 50 when she married General William Duncan in 1841 and this marriage lasted until Duncan's death in 1864. Perle never had any children of her own but she trained her niece Mary Jane Simes as a miniaturist. Perle's work is collected the world over.

March 5th

Born this day in 1883, Louise Pearce M.D., physician and pathologist. Graduate from John Hopkins. Pearce and pathologist Doctor Wade Brown discovered the cure for trypanosomiasis(African Sleeping sickness) In 1919 published their findings. And in 1920, Dr. Pearce traveled the Belgium Congo to treat an outbreak. 70 patients received the treatments of tryparsamide and over the next several weeks Pearce witnessed the parasites completely eradicated. Many honors were awarded to Pearce for outstanding work. Dr.Pearce and Brown's research at the Rockefeller Institute continued on "the susceptibility or resistance to infection."
Also Pearce continued her syphilis research and "experimented with trypasamide's ability to reach the central nervous system." It is during this research they discovered a rabbit with a cancer tumor known at the Brown-Pearce tumor, studied in laboratories world-wide. This has lead to invaluable research identifying 40 different cancers and treatments for cancer.

March 4th

Born this day in 1773, Frances Slocum or Maconaquah (The Young Bear). Maconaquah's biological family, the Slocum's' were part of the Quaker settlement in Wyoming, Pennsylvania. On November 2,1778, during the Battle of Wyoming, Maconaquah at the age of 5, was captured by the Lenape tribe. It is believed that the first night of capture, Maconaquah escaped and found by the Miami Tribe which became her adopted family. 59 years later, her biological brother found her on an Indian Reservation near Peru, Indiana. Maconaquah refused to leave with them; to leave her family of the last 59 years..., being married twice with four children, this was her home and her life. There are many schools, parks, and even a bank named after Maconaquah.


Born this day in 1815, Myrtilla Miner, educator. Miner began teaching at the age of fifteen in home state of New York. Miner was later hired to teach in Whitesville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi for a planter's daughter. It was there that Miner found her calling. As witness to the evils of slavery, Miner knew she would dedicate her life to improving their lives. With the gift of one hundred dollars, on December 3rd, 1851 Miner and six students opened Normal School For Colored Girls in Washington DC, tution was free. It was an apartment and by the second month, there were 40 students. By 1853, a permanent location was found and with the benefactor Harriet Beecher Stowe, donating the proceeds from Uncle Tom's Cabin, of 81,000, the school's
success was sealed. Today the name is the University of the District of Columbia.

On this day in 1933 Frances Perkins, was the first woman appointed to serve on the president's cabinet as Secretary of Labor.

March 3

On this day in 1913, there was a parade in Washington DC in support of the woman's suffrage 8,000 marched that day. Sadly, mobs formed to harm and stop the parade by using violence, and even though Alice Paul had a permit and supposedly protection from the police. The police did nothing to stop them. 200 were injured and Army troops were brought in to stop the mobs. The outcry from the public in support for the women's suffrage and against the police for allowing such violence. Ended with the chief of police fired. And DC setting up a committee to investigate. And the subject of women's suffrage was back in the public mind with support. And the beginning of the Suffragette's movement in the United States. (do you know there are two different points of view as to how gain women the right to vote. suffragette: uses a more demanding, aggressive actions for right to vote. suffragist: a person who asks for the right to vote.
Reminder: March 8th is the 100 year anniversary of International Woman's Day.