The Access for All: Advancing Girl Scouts' Commitment to Disability Inclusion project has concluded and we’ve learned so much! As we move forward, the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace is committed to the continuation of learning opportunities about inclusion and disability. We'd like to express our gratitude to everyone who supported the success of our grant and public education series, especially our community partners that continue to make a difference in Savannah. 

The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace will hold seven public programs this summer on disability-related topics— ranging from film screenings, discussion panels and walking tours. All events are free and open to the public. Join us in sparking conversation about understanding accessibility, disability, and inclusion.

“We are excited to bring these important events to the Savannah community,” says Shannon Browning-Mullis, the Birthplace’s executive director. “We’ve learned so much during the Access for All project and look forward to continuing the conversation with local citizens and disability rights advocates.”

The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace is excited to welcome visitors to our new retail store, which has a wonderfully large window display and a doorway opening directly on to Bull St., one of the busiest streets in Savannah!

The new store is located in a building that was originally built in 1821 as slave quarters. It has changed usage several times during its history – from a carriage house to optical shop, dentist office to a Girl Scout activity room. It has even been a retail store before!

The new Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace store has a wide range of varying products - from Girl Scout merchandise, to locally made soaps and honey, to fair-trade items from all over the world - it offers a unique selection of gifts and souvenirs for everyone.

We are proud to support women-owned businesses, as well as better trading conditions and sustainability at home and abroad along with girl and women makers worldwide, who produce beautiful, handmade artisan goods, which are widely featured.

We don’t always get the chance to see an artist’s original sketch displayed side by side with the finished work of art—to compare the private sketch with the public artifact. In Juliette Gordon Low’s bedroom at the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace, visitors can see just that: a pencil sketch and oil portrait of Juliette in a quiet, private moment with family, as she sculpts a portrait bust of her grandniece, Connie.  Artist Alice Parker Shurtleff (Juliette's niece and Connie's mother) sketched Juliette while she worked.

The first sketch made toward creating a finished work of art is an intimate thing. Not made for display, it is an artist’s private attempt to catch the essence of a subject or an idea with a few, quick strokes of the pencil. It is a tool, a means to an end, but it is also a work of art in and of itself.

I think about this sketch of Juliette Gordon Low when I think about sketching out a life and legacy in the confines of a guided tour narrative. A compelling tour must capture the essence of a story in a few, well-chosen strokes. It is a means to an end—a sketch to allow visitors to flesh out their own views of the subject—but it is also a work of art in and of itself.

On December 14, 2020, Girl Scouts of the USA welcomed Shannon Browning-Mullis as the new executive director at the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace. Previous director Lisa Junkin-Lopez departed in 2019, leaving the museum in the capable hands of interim director Sherryl Lang.

Browning-Mullis was previously the curator of history and decorative arts at Telfair Museums. She spent the last several years leading the major reinterpretation of the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters, fully incorporating the stories of the people enslaved at the site into the tour and exhibition narrative. The award-winning project picked up national press and created the opportunity for Chatham County residents to visit the site free for a year. Before leaving Telfair Museums, Browning-Mullis launched the Legacy of Slavery in Savannah Initiative with the goal of using art, research, scholarship, and community engagement to investigate the enduring legacies of slavery in the community and to work toward reparative justice.

Located in the heart of downtown Savannah, the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace has been a gathering place for girls for more than 100 years. For the past two years, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) have been working to enhance access to the site by developing a renovation plan to serve all visitors. GSUSA today announced that the Savannah Historic District Board of Review (HDBR) approved Girl Scouts’ landscaping plans for the outdoor space at the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace.

It’s hard to believe that nearly a year has passed since the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace was awarded a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) for our newest initiative, Access for all: Advancing Girl Scouts’ Commitment to Disability Inclusion. The first half of this two-year project has been intensely busy, insightful, and educational for staff at the birthplace, who have conducted research and trainings for the initiative all while serving Girl Scouts and other visitors each day.