Juliette Gordon Low

American educator

• Born: October 31, 1860
• Birthplace: Savannah, Georgia
• Died: January 18, 1927
• Place of death: Savannah, Georgia

The principal founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, Low spent the last fifteen years of her life working for an organization that would be similar to, but independent of, the Boy Scouts of America.

Early Life

Juliette Gordon Low, the second of six children and the second of four daughters, was born in the middle of the secession crisis of 1860. Low’s mother, Eleanor Lytle Kinzie Gordon, a Chicago native, had learned about the frontier experience from her father, who was a government agent to the Indians. Low’s father, William Washington Gordon II, was a cotton broker who served during the Civil War as an officer in the Confederate army and later served as a general and peace negotiator for the United States in the Spanish-American War.

Full of energy, quick of wit, and blessed with an artistic nature, Low displayed much of the wit and charm attributed to her mother. She early exhibited the strong will and organizational abilities of her father, often taking charge of the childhood activities that she, her sisters, and more than a dozen cousins engaged in every summer at the Cliffs, the home of her aunt in northern Georgia. The Gordon girls and their cousins swam, camped, and sometimes hunted, and they often acted in and wrote several plays. Daisy, as Low was called by her family, usually acted several parts in each play.

Low attended private schools in Georgia, Virginia, and New York. The private school in New York City, nicknamed the Charbs by its students, was a finishing school run by the Charbonnier sisters, two extremely circumspect Frenchwomen who had emigrated to the United States following the Franco-Prussian War. While in New York City, Low wrote additional plays, acted in amateur productions, and studied painting. Once her formal education was finished, Low began dividing her time between living in the United States and visiting Britain and the European continent, a pattern she would continue until her death.

While on one of her visits to Britain, Low fell in love with William Mackay Low, the son of a wealthy Englishman with Savannah connections. After a four-year courtship, which she attempted to conceal from a doting and protective father who viewed William as a social playboy, Juliette and William were married in Savannah, Georgia, in December of 1886. Juliette Gordon Low became part of the social elite in Britain, where her multimillionaire husband owned substantial property and was a close friend of the Prince of Wales and his entourage. The Lows hunted at their own estate in Scotland and entertained extensively in England and the United States. In addition, Juliette was presented at Court to Queen Victoria.

Beneath the surface, however, all was not well. Increasingly Low was left alone as her husband went throughout the world on game-hunting expeditions and engaged in other gentlemanly pursuits. Kept even from her favorite pursuit of horseback riding by an injury, Low took up sculpting and oil painting to fill the lonely hours. She also carved a mantlepiece for the smoking room at her Warwickshire estate, forged a pair of iron gates for the entrance to the Wellesbourne property, and often traveled without her husband (but always properly with a female companion). When the Spanish-American War began in 1898, Low helped her mother operate a hospital for soldiers in Miami, Florida.

Meanwhile, Low’s marriage continued to disintegrate. In 1902 she consented to a separation and, after her husband’s affair with an attractive widow became common knowledge to English society, agreed to begin proceedings for a divorce. William died before the divorce was concluded, leaving his estate to his lover. After several months of tense negotiations with estate lawyers, Low was granted a settlement of approximately $500,000, making her financially secure for the remainder of her life. Low resumed her active social life, alternating her time between London and Scotland while wintering in Savannah and other parts of the United States.

Life’s Work

A turning point in Low’s life came in 1911, when she met Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the hero of the defense of Mafeking in the Boer War and the founder of the Boy Scouts. She admitted later that she had disliked Baden-Powell before she met him, believing that he had received public acclaim at the expense of some of her friends who had participated in the rescue of Mafeking during the Boer War. However, she and Baden-Powell soon became close friends and quickly discovered they had much in common. She shared with him a book that her mother had written about the frontier experiences of Juliette’s maternal grandfather; he introduced her to his sister, who had founded the Girl Guides in England.

Low had found the rewarding service she had been seeking throughout her life. She organized a troop of Girl Guides in Scotland and two troops of Girl Guides in London before deciding to expand the movement to include girls in her native country. On her return to the United States, Low established a Girl Guide unit on March 12, 1912, consisting of sixteen young girls in two troops that met in the carriage house in the rear of the garden of her house in Savannah, Georgia. The first Girl Guide was her niece, Margaret Eleanor (Daisy) Gordon. The young girls, dressed in middy blouses, dark blue skirts, light blue ties, and dark cotton stockings, wearing large black ribbons in their hair, engaged in camping and other sports and were soon the envy of the young girls of Savannah. Low rapidly moved to make the Girl Guides a national organization.

William Gordon’s death, although a serious blow to his worshipful daughter, caused only a slight delay in Low’s plans. After a year abroad in England with her mother, Low returned to the United States and resumed her efforts to make the Girl Guides a national organization. At first, she hoped to merge the existing Campfire Girls organization, founded in 1910, with her Girl Guides organization and call the new organization the Girl Scouts, but the merger fell through. Undaunted, Low continued her dream of a national organization. She began organizational efforts in various states, created a national headquarters, and enlisted prominent Americans to serve on the national board. In 1915, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America was incorporated, with Low serving as its first president. By early 1916, more than 7,000 young women in the United States had registered as Girl Scouts.

Although World War I did not appear to affect Low’s travels between the United States and Britain, it did take its toll on her finances. She had been the major financial supporter of the Girl Scouts before the outbreak of the war; with the increasing success of the organization, however, she discovered that even her substantial finances were insufficient to keep pace with the growth of the organization. She adopted little economies to save money for her Girl Scouts. Her famous teas began to feature cakes that were recycled until either they were eaten or ingeniously disposed of by her guests. She refused to permit the electric lights to be turned on in her home until half past five, regardless of how dark the day might be. Her friends and relatives claimed that she was saving pennies while spending hundreds of dollars on the Girl Scouts. Others suspected that her “economies” were a ruse to encourage donors to give more generously to the cause of Girl Scouting.

With the advent of their nation’s entry into World War I, the Girl Scouts performed valuable services for their country, donations increased, and the organization soon grew too large to be staffed by volunteers alone. Low, recognizing that her responsibilities could be handled by a new generation of leaders, resigned as the president of the Girl Scouts in 1920, but remained active in her support and was granted the title The Founder.

Diagnosed with cancer in 1923, Low continued to demonstrate the energy and will she had exhibited throughout her life. She attended the World Camp of the Girl Scouts in England the following year and soon became involved in plans to hold the World Camp of 1926 in New York State. When told by a friend to wait until 1928 to bring the World Camp to the United States, Low responded that she would not be around in 1928.

Although she found it difficult to conceal the increasing pain of her illness, Low summoned the energy to engage in the weeklong meeting of the World Camp in New York State in 1926. Following the World Camp’s closing, she sailed for England, bidding her farewells to friends who were unaware of her condition, and returned to her beloved Savannah, where she died on January 18, 1927.

Significance

Low would not be surprised by the size and importance of the Girl Scout movement today. She had faith in her abilities and the abilities of the young women she attracted to the Girl Scouts. Her indomitable will, boundless energy, and belief that physical challenges, such as her own increasing hearing impairment, only slowed advances, never stopped them, proved to be an inspiration both to the young girls fortunate enough to know her personally and the young women who would follow in their footsteps. The last message that she received from the national headquarters of the Girl Scouts shortly before her death adequately sums up her life: She was, the telegram read, “not only the first Girl Scout,” she was “the best Scout of them all.”

Bibliography

Choate, Anne Hyde, and Helen Ferris, eds. Juliette Low and the Girl Scouts: The Story of an American Woman, 1860-1927. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1928. Rev. ed. New York: Girl Scouts of America, 1960. First published for the Girl Scout organization shortly after Low’s death, this collection of reminiscences by friends and family members is filled with anecdotal information about the eccentricities of the Girl Scout founder. The revised edition, prepared by Ely List, who was the assistant to the director of the public relations department of the Girl Scouts, is an updated and shortened version of the Choate collection.

Degenhardt, Mary, and Judith Kirsch. Girl Scout Collector’s Guide: A History of Uniforms, Insignia, Publications, and Memorabilia. 2d ed. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2005. This guide to Girl Scout uniforms and other collectibles includes several chapters chronicling the organization’s history, including information on Low.

Kludinski, Kathleen. Juliette Gordon Low: America’s First Girl Scout. New York: Viking Children’s Books, 1988. Designed for juveniles, this brief book provides a useful introduction to the life of Low.

Saxton, Martha. “The Best Girl Scout of Them All.” American Heritage 33 (June-July, 1982): 38-47. Although brief, this article could be used as an introduction to an examination of Low’s life.

Schultz, Gladys D., and Daisy Gordon Lawrence. Lady from Savannah: The Life of Juliette Low. New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1958. Although it does not have either a bibliography or an index and nearly half of it concentrates on the Kinzie and Gordon family histories, this book continues to be useful as the most thorough treatment of the life of Low.

Strickland, Charles E. “Juliette Low, The Girl Scouts, and the Role of American Women.” In Women’s Being, Women’s Place: Female Identity and Vocation in American History, edited by Mary Kelley. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1979. Strickland uses Erik Erikson’s life-cycle model to analyze the reasons why Low became the founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States. Although designed for specialists in gender and child development studies, this essay can be read with benefit by the nonspecialist. Contains useful bibliographical references.