Photo credit: Copyright Girl Scouts of the USA. All rights reserved. Used with permission
We love that we’re hearing from many SouthernMamas.com readers who are taking Savannah staycations this summer.
One place to put on your Savannah staycation places to visit: The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace.
New experiences at The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace help visitors get to know Savannah’s own Juliette Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts.
Juliette was not only Girl Scouts’ founder, she was also a writer, adventurer, painter, sculptor – even a metal worker. She thrived on exploring her own capabilities and self-expression, not exactly the norm for women, when she founded the organization in 1912 with the mission to build “girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.” Who could have imagined that she would create a vision so timeless that it is just as applicable today as it was over 100 years ago?
The first space that visitors can participate in the new experience is the library. Previously interpreted as “a southern gentleman’s library,” with artifacts such as a humidor, ashtray, spittoon, and a gentleman’s collection of books, the library was a mix of artifacts and props that held little sense of Juliette’s passion for learning or her inventiveness of mind and spirit.
Recently completed, the new library is now a light, playful, interactive space with historic objects, digital devices, and interpretative art installations, through which girls can connect with Juliette and other female leadership models.
It features an interactive table with audio and video content celebrating women and the spoken word through speeches, poetry, storytelling, and song. Word games on the table allow visitors to write their own inspirational messages using scrabble and word tiles.
There is an artistic installation of a “Poe-tree,” which represents Juliette’s favorite literary genre via an historic symbol of her home town – and where girls can write and read their own poem under the tree.
Another installation has a typewriter on a desk with pages of typed text that flow out and up the wall in a cascade of letters that were written to Juliette Low.
One of the bookcases reveals Juliette’s love of literature and its role in early Girl Scouting with fiction and nonfiction publications for Girl Scouts and writings by Juliette, her mother and grandmother. The collection of 19th century books previously on exhibit in the bookcases is now installed with invisible supports on the chimney breast above the mantle in a dynamic, fresh and engaging display.
Directly seeing and experiencing Juliette’s world helps visitors not only to feel that Juliette’s home is theirs, but that their dreams, just like Juliette’s, are within reach. What a great way for moms and girls to rediscover their own dreams together.
Visit the Birthplace
Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace
10 East Oglethorpe Ave.
Savannah, GA 31401
Walk-in visitors welcome for tours Monday through Saturday, 10:15AM-4:15PM based on availability. On days when Girl Scout troops are visiting, the first tour begins at 12:15PM. Girl Scout programs take place in the morning.
Store Hours: 10AM-5PM (Mon-Sat)
juliettegordonlowbirthplace.org
(912) 233-4501
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