Great Women and Firsts

by Julia Buckley
Have you ever heard of Emma Jentzer? Me, neither. But I recently found out that Emma was the first woman special agent of the Bureau of Investigation (predecessor to the FBI). The Bureau, formed in 1908, accepted Emma as an agent in 1911 after her husband, the first agent, died. At the time, Emma was a translator at Ellis Island. All in all, a highly accomplished woman!

I learned about Emma in THE BOOK OF WOMEN'S FIRSTS (Read and Witlieb, Random House, 1992), a book filled with accomplishments by women many of us have never heard of, but really should know. Here are some examples:

RUTH CLEVELAND was the first and only president's daughter to have a candy bar named after her (1921). The candy company which made Kandy Kakes decided to change their candy bar's name to Baby Ruth after the daughter of Grover Cleveland and Frances Cleveland. Ruth was born between Cleveland's two terms of office and became a national sensation.

Sadly, Ruth was a sickly child, and died from diptheria at age 12.

MARY CLARKE was the first woman to reach the rank of Major General in the U.S. Army (1978). That same year she received a doctorate in military science from Norwich University. Clark retired after 36 years in the Army, "the longest army career of any woman."

EDITH ELEANOR MCLEAN was "the first premature infant to be placed in an incubator" (1888). McLean weighed only two pounds when she was born in New York City.

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry (1923). Millay is one of the more famous women in this book, and her collected works contain some of my personal favorites.

JERRIE MOCK (and not Amelia Earhart) was the first woman to fly solo around the world (1964). She retired in 1969 after setting 21 records in aviation.

MARY ANN PATTION was the first woman to navigate a clipper ship (1856). She learned the skills from her husband, a clipper ship captain, who fell into a tuberculosis-related coma on a long journey; Mary Ann, pregnant with their first child, took over and plotted the four-month course home. Her husband never emerged from his coma and did not see the birth of their child. The insurers of the ship gave Mary 1000 dollars for her feat, which was considered cheap of them.

Four years later Mary, too, died of tuberculosis.

DOREEN WILBER was the first woman to win the Olympic Individual Archery Championship (1972).

ESTER VAN DEMAN was the first Roman field archeologist (1901). Deman spent thirty years in Rome and became an "authority on ancient Roman building construction."

MRS. RALPH HENRY VAN DEMAN was the first woman to be an airplane passenger in the United States. Why? Because she walked up to the plane in which Wilbur Wright sat (he was instructing Signal Corps officers) and got in beside him before a test flight. Wright allowed her to stay, and after her four-minute flight, she said, "Now I know why birds sing. It was wonderful. There is no earthly sensation I can compare with it."

Who are the women you admire for being the "First?" Are they historical, or are they members of your friends and family?