Juliette Gordon Low

Juliette Gordon Low was born in Savannah on October 31, 1860, and grew up partly deaf. At her wedding a grain of rice thrown for luck lodged in her ear, and the infection that followed left her deaf in that ear too. After meeting Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, she started a group of Girl Guides in Britain in 1911.

In 1912 she came home and started the first troop in the United States, in Savannah, and in 1915 the movement took the name Girl Scouts, with her as its first leader. Her birthday is still celebrated every year as Founder's Day. On our Savannah walk, her birthplace, an 1821 town house run by the Girl Scouts, has been a National Historic Landmark since 1965. Visits are by guided tour only, so check the tour times before you go.