Collection Highlights

This Sun Valley pin was awarded to Denny Henkel by her ski instructor Andy Hennig for skiing from the top of Baldy to the bottom without falling in 1948.

From the Denny Henkel Collection, 2007.13.01

This white porcelain chamber pot dates to between 1945 and 1955 and was used by the Flowers family when the pot’s donor, Jeanne, was a child. The pot was made by a company called “Mildred” and has a green fleur de le stamped across its bottom, indicating that the pot may be French.

From the Jeanne Flowers Collection, 1997.18.03

Gretchen Fraser was the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in skiing and is to many a local icon. This scrapbook is full of pages surrounding her major accomplishment. It has numerous newspaper articles, photographs, telegrams, and letters about her time at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

These polka dotted shoes belonged to Cherie Kessler aka Kitty Litter, a member of the local performing group The Vuarnettes. These heels represent local women who stood up and performed at many local establishments during the 1980s through the 2000s.

by Susan Johnston Taylor

World War II completely disrupted life in the United States and throughout the world, and it was an empowering turning point in U.S. women’s history. Some women joined the armed forces as nurses and pilots. Some went to work outside the home in factories producing munitions, and building ships and airplanes. Some even became spies! But despite all these accomplishments, women were rarely given the recognition they deserved or the same benefits as their male counterparts. This book tells their story.

Women are sometimes called the silent protagonists of history. But since before the founding of our nation until now, women have organized, marched, and inspired. They forced change and created opportunity. With engaging text, fun facts, photography, infographics, and art, this new set of books examines how individual women of differing races and socioeconomic status took a stand, and how groups of women lived and fought throughout the history of this country. It looks at how they celebrated victories that included the right to vote, the right to serve their country, and the right to equal employment. The aim of this much-needed set of five books is to bring herstory to young readers!

Find it in Juvenile Non-Fiction here.

by Catherine Thimmesh

In kitchens and living rooms, in garages and labs and basements, even in converted chicken coops, women and girls have invented ingenious innovations that have made our lives simpler and better. Their creations are some of the most enduring (the windshield wiper) and best loved (the chocolate chip cookie). What inspired these women, and just how did they turn their ideas into realities?

Features women inventors Ruth Wakefield, Mary Anderson, Stephanie Kwolek, Bette Nesmith Graham, Patsy O. Sherman, Ann Moore, Grace Murray Hopper, Margaret E. Knight, Jeanne Lee Crews, and Valerie L. Thomas, as well as young inventors ten-year-old Becky Schroeder and eleven-year-old Alexia Abernathy. Illustrated in vibrant collage by Caldecott Honor artist Melissa Sweet.

Find it in Juvenile Nonfiction here.