March 1, 2023

SVSU to host best-selling author for women’s history lecture

In recognition of Women’s History month, Saginaw Valley State University will host best-selling author Stacy Cordery for a lecture on campus and a community talk in Midland. Cordery’s appearances are supported by the Dow Visiting Scholars and Artists series at SVSU.

Cordery will present “Juliette Gordon Low: The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts” Monday, March 13 at 5 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 405 N. Saginaw Rd, Midland. Girl Scout Cookies will be available for sale from 4:45-5 p.m.   

Juliette Gordon Low created the Girl Scouts of the USA, arguably the most important organization for girls and women in the nation’s history. Yet she was a most unlikely founder: Southern born just before the Civil War, ensnared in an unhappy marriage, and battling deafness, Low’s own “failures” as a woman shaped Girl Scouting and its growth into a uniquely competent, inclusive, and public-spirited group dedicated to women’s friendship and giving back. Her extraordinary legacy was permanent. Girl Scouting turns 111 years old this month!  

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register, email office@sjec-midland.org by Sunday, March 5.  

Cordery, a professor of history at Iowa State University, is the author of the New York Times bestseller Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker; the authoritative biography of Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low; two books about Theodore Roosevelt; and a forthcoming biography of cosmetics entrepreneur Elizabeth Arden (Viking/Penguin, 2024). Cordery has received several teaching awards. In 2022, she held the Johnson Endowed Chair in Roosevelt Studies at Dickinson State University. Her many public appearances include the History Channel, CNN, NPR, Smithsonian TV and C-SPAN.

 The Dow Visiting Scholars and Artists Series at SVSU was established through an endowment from the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation to enrich our region’s cultural and intellectual opportunities.