Category: Birth Locations

488) Mary Whiton Calkins

Courtesy of Psychology's Feminist Voices

488: Mary Whiton Calkins

The First Woman Elected President of the American Psychological Association & the American Philosophical Association

Born: 30 March 1863, Hartford, Connecticut, United States of America

Died: 26 February 1930, Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States of America

Mary earned her degree from Harvard but even now they refuse to grant her the degree that she earned because Harvard didn’t technically admit women at the time.

She wrote over one hundred papers concerning philosophy and psychology and ran one of the first psychological laboratories in the United States.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/bio-mary-whiton-calkins

https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/mary-whiton-calkins

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6688166/mary_whiton-calkins

487) Maud Wagner

Courtesy of Wikipedia

487: Maud Wagner

The First Female Tattoo Artist in the United States

Born: 12 February 1877, Lyon County, Kansas, United States of America

Died: 30 January 1961, Lawton, Oklahoma, United States of America

Maud was a circus performer who did aerial tricks and a contortionist act.

She and her husband were both tattoo artists and so was their daughter (however, Maud refused to allow their daughter to actually get any, becoming one of the few artists to never have tattoos). They specialized in the hand poke style even though tattoo machines were readily available.

Her husband Gus was already known as the most tattooed man alive at the time they met, and after, Maud quickly became known as the most tattooed woman.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.tattoolife.com/meet-maud-wagner/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-graves-of-maud-and-gus-wagner

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/05/05/maud-wagner-known-as-the-inked-woman-was-the-first-female-tattoo-artist-in-america/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/144009612/maud-wagner

486) Lauren Holiday

Courtesy of Self

486: Lauren Holiday

Retired Olympic Soccer Player

Born: 30 September 1987, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America

Lauren has two Olympic Gold Medals.

In 2016, she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor while pregnant and had to undergo surgery and induce labor early; luckily Mom and Baby are both fine.

Sources:

https://www.today.com/health/olympic-soccer-star-lauren-holiday-shares-first-photo-herself-after-t111611

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/philadelphia-76ers/jrue-holiday-taking-leave-2-time-olympian-wife-lauren-holidays-brain-surgery

485) Whang-od Oggay

Courtesy of Rappler

485: Whang-od Oggay

The World’s Oldest Tattoo Artist

Born: 17 February 1917, Tinglayan, Philippines

She has long been considered the last of the Mambabatoks (meaning tattoo master in the Kalinga Culture). Her style of tattooing uses thorns, soot, and a bamboo hammer instead of the now more traditional, western, style of electric machine guns and standard inks.

She never married and has no children of her own. During World War II, Whang-od lost her boyfriend during the Japanese Occupation.

As of February 2017, Whang Od’s health began to decline, and she started training other women in her village how to tattoo so the tradition will live on after her death. Tradition dictates that if anyone learns the art of tattoo in the way Whang-od works outside of her bloodline, the tattoos will become infected. For this reason, Whang-od has taught her grand-niece and another girl who is distantly related to her.

In October of 2017, she appeared at a convention in Manila much to the dismay of some online who thought her appearance was exploitative because of her age and the fact she didn’t understand the language most people were speaking at the show, but the organizers ensured ambulances were on standby and she seemed healthy and happy at the time.

Sources:

https://www.thebrokebackpacker.com/tribal-tattoo-with-whang-od/

https://www.tattoolife.com/whang-od-master-traditional-filipino-tattoo-art/

484) Margaret Hamilton

Courtesy of MIT News

484: Margaret Hamilton

NASA Computer Code Writer

Born: 17 August 1936, Paoli, Indiana, United States of America

Margaret was also a systems engineer and business owner.

She popularized the term software engineering.

Margaret worked as Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory which worked to make onboard software for the NASA Apollo Program. In fact, she was the first programmer hired by MIT to work on the Apollo Program.

She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2016.

Margaret was honored alongside other notable women of NASA by the LEGO toy company.

Sources:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/margaret-hamilton-led-nasa-software-team-landed-astronauts-moon-180971575/

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/margaret-hamilton-apollo-software-engineer-awarded-presidential-medal-of-freedom/

https://shop.lego.com/en-US/product/Women-of-NASA-21312

483) Irma Eckler Landmesser

Courtesy of Find a Grave

483: Irma Eckler

The Wife of August Landmesser—the German Man Who Famously Refused to Do the Nazi Salute in a Photograph

Born: 12 May 1913, Hamburg, Germany

Died: 28 April 1942, Bernberg, Germany

When she and August got engaged, they were denied a marriage license because she was technically Jewish. I use the word technically because Irma herself did not identify as so. Her father was half-Jewish, her stepfather was not Jewish, and Irma, her mother, and sisters had all been baptized into the Protestant church in 1931.

Despite not having a legitimate marriage license, Irma and August stayed together, and eventually had two daughters. Ingrid was born in 1935 and Irene in 1937. However, a few days before Irene was born, August was arrested for partaking in an illegal relationship with a Jewish woman. In May of 1938, August was released because of the confusion over Irma’s religious status. However, in July of that same year, August was re-arrested and sentenced to two and a half years hard labor. Soon after, Irma was arrested as well.

Their daughters would go into an orphanage. Irma’s stepfather was able to rescue Ingrid, who would be raised by her grandparents, but Irene was raised in foster care. Ingrid was born before the Nuremburg Laws went into effect, and so she was classified as a half-cast (Mischling) and was able to survive relatively unscathed. However, Irene was born after the laws went into effect, and so was classified as Jewish. Her childhood was therefore much different than her sister’s. She nearly died after the group of orphans she was with were all selected to be sent to the camps. Irene was grabbed by an adult friend who kept her safe for the remainder of the war.

Irma died in the Bernberg Euthenasia Center after being imprisoned in Ravensbruck, Oranienburg, and Lichtenburg Concentration Camps.

In 1951, the Senate of Hamburg retroactively recognized their marriage.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

http://www.fasena.de/courage/english/5b.htm

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/28461/toll-rassenschande-family

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148771846/irma-landmesser

482) Jan Brewer

Courtesy of AZCentral

482: Jan Brewer

Former Governor of Arizona

Born: 26 September 1944, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Jan is the fourth woman to serve in that capacity in the state of Arizona and was actually the third consecutive woman governor when she took over the post in 2009. Jan served as governor until 2015. Her most memorable moment as governor came after then-President Obama visited the state of Arizona. Governor Brewer got right in the president’s face and wagged her finger in it in an attempt to get him to listen to her more closely on issues with the US/Mexico border in Southern Arizona. The moment was divisive to say the least, with those on the left seeing it as disgraceful, but those on the right had never been more proud of Jan.

She is a politician and member of the Republican Party. Before becoming governor, Jan served as the Arizona Secretary of State, a Maricopa County Supervisor, and in both houses of the Arizona State Congress.

Jan is the mother of three sons two of whom have preceded her in death.

Sources:

https://www.nga.org/governor/jan-brewer/

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2018/11/05/ronald-brewer-son-former-arizona-governor-jan-brewer-dies-phoenix/1899536002/

481) Rose Mofford

Courtesy of the Historical League

481: Rose Mofford

The First Female Governor of Arizona

Born: 10 June 1922, Globe, Arizona, United States of America

Died: 15 September 2016, Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America

Rose previously served as the First Female Secretary of the State of Arizona. Her role as “first” in anything started in high school, when she was the first female class president at Globe High School. She was also the class valedictorian and an athlete who played softball in Madison Square Garden in 1939.

Before beginning to work in state government, Rose previously worked for Arizona Highways Magazine. She was also the first woman elected director of the Central Arizona Water Board.

Her career spanned fifty-one years in the state government starting as an office secretary. When she finally achieve the office of governor, it wasn’t through being elected. Rose become the governor of the state after the former governor, Evan Mecham, was impeached and removed from office.

Rose served as governor from 1988 to 1991, declining to run for a full term. She was a member of the Democrat Political Party.

In 2019, The State Board on Geographic and Historic Names for the state of Arizona approved a new measure to name a twenty-five mile stretch of highway between Apache Junction and Globe after Governor Mofford.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://azsos.gov/about-office/secretaries-since-statehood/rose-mofford

https://www.nga.org/governor/rose-mofford/

https://www.arizonahighways.com/blog/part-us-route-60-be-named-rose-mofford

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/169960453/rose-mofford

480) Sharbat Gula

Courtesy of India.com

“I didn’t think the photograph of the girl would be different from anything else I shot that day,” -Steve McCurry, the Photographer

The above photographs were both taken by McCurry, in 1984 and 2002, respectively

480: Sharbat Gula

Subject of The Afghan Girl Photograph

Born: c.1972, Nangarhar, Afghanistan

The photo would also serve as the cover of National Geographic Magazine; for lack of a better term it “went viral” worldwide in 1985 when Sharbat was twelve years old.

Sharbat was uncomfortable having her picture taken. The man who took the photo was a stranger, first of all, and she had never had her picture taken before, or until the photographer met her again in 2002. Taken in 1984 and published in 1985, for seventeen years no one knew the name of the girl in the portrait, or if she was even still alive.

Sharbat had been living in a refugee camp in Pakistan, but by 2002 had returned to her native Afghanistan. She became a refugee after the Soviets invaded her home country and killed her parents in a bombing raid when she was around six years old. Sharbat is descended from the Pashtun tribe, and does not know her own birth date, can only estimate on the year.

Sharbat is now a mother of two living children (a fourth died as a baby and her oldest died in childbirth) and was suffering from Hepatitis C in the early 2010’s (the same disease that killed her husband). According to a 2002 National Geographic article, Sharbat remembers being married at thirteen, but her husband claims she was sixteen. Either way, the match was an arranged marriage.

In 2016, Sharbat was arrested by the Pakistani government for possessing false identifying documents. She faced between seven and fourteen years in prison and a fine between $3,000 and $5,000. After spending two weeks under arrest, Pakistan released her and returned her and her children to Afghanistan.

In 2017—after spending thirty years as a refugee, the Afghanistan government deeded her a three-thousand-foot house and $700 per month stipend to help pay for living expenses.

The deed to her home puts her in the 17% of Afghani Women who own their own homes. Sharbat can sign her name, but as of 2002 was unable to read or write. She had high hopes her daughters would be able to finish school, and now Afghanistan is promising to make that happen. Sharbat’s home also has to have security, as her family are worried her fame from the National Geographic cover could anger more conservative Muslims, who do not approve of women appearing in media.

In 2021, after the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, Sharbat was evacuated from the country and managed to make it to Rome, Italy. Whether or not she plans to stay in Italy is unknown at this time, but because of how well-known Sharbat is, the international community knew she was no longer safe in her native country with the Taliban in charge.

Sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2002/04/afghan-girl-revealed/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/10/afghan-girl-sharbat-gula-arrested/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/12/afghan-girl-home-afghanistan/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/world/europe/afghan-girl-national-geographic.html