Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Audio Tour
Welcome to the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Museum! Use these audio guides to explore our exhibits at your own pace. Just look for the signs indicating each stop along the way, start playback for the related audio presentation in the sections below, and if you like, follow along with the written transcript.
Enjoy your visit!
Stop 1
Welcome to the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace. Maybe you’ve heard the story of how Girl Scouts of the USA began. In 1911, Juliette Gordon Low met Robert Baden Powell, the English founder of Boy Scouts, at a party in London. He told her about a new sister organization for Boy Scouts in England, started by his sister Agnes, called Girl Guides.
Juliette Low started working with the Girl Guides and liked it so much she decided to bring the idea back to her hometown of Savannah, Georgia in 1912. She called up her cousin and said, “Come right over. I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, all of America, and all the world and we’re going to start it tonight!” The group was originally called Girl Guides, but American girls preferred to call themselves “Scouts.” The name was changed to Girl Scouts in 1913.
But the Girl Scout story really starts in this house, with a little girl who was born here in 1860. Like most people, her story is complicated. She had strengths, skills, and advantages that made her just the right person to start Girl Scouts. But she also had limitations and obstacles that stood in her way.
On this tour of her birthplace and family home, you will hear stories and see artifacts from the fascinating life of Juliette Low. We hope you will also gain a deeper understanding of the reach and impact of her legacy.
Stop 2
You are standing in one of the four original bedrooms of the house. Sarah and William Gordon bought this house in 1831. You can see pictures of them from the early 1800s on the side table, both with dark hair and dark eyes. These were Juliette Gordon Low’s grandparents. The Gordons were an influential family with money from land, railroads, cotton, and enslaved labor.
Juliette was born into a close and loving family. Also living in the household were people they enslaved. It is hard for us to understand this today: how people who were kind to their children and neighbors, who were religious and intellectually curious, could enslave other people. But these were the complicated realities of Juliette’s childhood. It is part of her story. Though the Civil War ended slavery here when Juliette was four, African Americans continued to struggle for the rights granted to white citizens.
Above the fireplace is a silhouette, a picture made with cut black paper on a light background. It shows Juliette’s grandfather with other board members of the Central of Georgia Railroad, which was built to carry cotton to the port of Savannah. He served as its first President and oversaw its construction by immigrants and enslaved people.
When Juliette was born here on October 31, 1860, this house belonged to her widowed grandmother Sarah. Sarah made the quilt on the foot of the bed. The pattern is called “Seven Sisters” after the seven-star Pleiades constellation. Sarah was deeply religious and attended the Presbyterian Church across the street. On Sundays she ordered the enslaved children of the household into her room for a bible lesson. These lessons emphasized the role of the enslaved as inferior and indebted to their white enslavers, reminding the enslaved children to obey and not to question their place in society.
Four generations of the Gordon family lived in this house before the Girl Scouts bought it in 1953. On the lower wall to the right of the bed, you can see layers of paint and wallpaper from different eras of the house, including the deep blue-green paint from 1886 that you see reproduced in the room today.
Stop 3
In this gallery space is one of three oil portraits of Juliette Low you will see as you explore the home. The painting above the fireplace is a copy of an 1887 portrait by Edward Hughes. The original is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. Juliette is pictured as the new wife of wealthy William Low, 25 years before she started Girl Scouts. She moved with him to England, into his world of fashionable parties, royal court visits, and high society.
When this portrait was painted, Juliette Low had been living with profound hearing loss for less than a year. On the back wall there is a photo of Juliette’s wedding party in the garden of this house. As the wedding couple were leaving, a grain of wedding rice thrown by guests entered Juliette’s ear. When a doctor removed it, he punctured her ear drum, leaving her deaf in that ear. This accident, combined with damage from ear infections she had suffered since childhood, left Juliette hard of hearing for the rest of her life.
Young Juliette did not know yet that her marriage would become increasingly unhappy, nearly ending in divorce before her husband died in 1905. She was left a widow without children, feeling adrift and wondering if she had wasted her life.
Stop 4
Juliette Low’s parents, Willie and Nellie Gordon, believed in community service and living a purposeful life. In this room, you see portraits of them in their seventies painted by Juliette’s niece, Alice Parker Shurtleff. Above the fireplace is Nellie, dressed in lace, looking alert and amused. To the right of the bed is Willie in his U.S. Brigadier General uniform. He served at Camp Miami during the Spanish-American War in 1898.
Many soldiers at Camp Miami became ill. The hospital was not equipped to care for them. Juliette's parents used their own money to help, and Juliette joined them at the camp to nurse the soldiers. She watched her mother lobby army officials and influential friends to get medicine, beds, and brandy. Nellie Gordon’s work at Camp Miami mirrored the way Juliette Low started Girl Scouts: using her own money, social connections, and privilege, along with her charisma, inventiveness, and refusal to take no for an answer.
Under a glass dome on the fireplace mantle is a clay figurine of two hiking Girl Scouts, sculpted by Juliette Low. Like all the first Girl Scouts, these girls wear military hats and carry camp bedrolls across their shoulders just like soldiers. From the start of the First World War in 1914, Girl Scouts supported the war effort, including raising money and saving food for soldiers. Many girls joined the organization when they saw what Girl Scouts did during the war. In Girl Scouts, girls could find fun AND purpose.
As you head into the next room, take a moment to look into the spare room in the hallway. This room was most often used as a spare bedroom for guests and their servants. When President Taft visited Savannah in 1909, he stayed with the Gordons in an adjoining room, and his valet slept in this space.
Stop 5
Throughout her life, Juliette Low returned to this house for love and support. This was her bedroom when she visited home as an adult, and when she came home from England to start Girl Scouts. Furnished with her belongings, this room shows Juliette as her private self.
As a girl, Juliette painted, sketched, and doodled. Later she studied painting and sculpting in New York, London, and Paris. Inside her dressing table drawer are her sculpting tools: wooden carving sticks, wire loops for trimming clay, brushes for scoring, and big calipers to take measurements.
On the mantel is a small, glazed figurine of a girl threading a needle, sitting with her head bent over her work. Brown hair shining, she wears a yellow dress, and her sturdy feet are bare. Before starting Girl Scouts, Juliette Low worked with Girl Guides in London and Scotland. She made this piece during an art lesson for her Scottish Girl Guides. One of the girls was the model.
Above the fireplace are two portraits of Juliette: a pencil sketch and the portrait painted from that sketch. Both were made by Juliette’s niece, Alice Parker Shurtleff. Alice sketched as Juliette worked on a sculpture of Alice’s daughter. You see Juliette intensely concentrating as she shapes the young girl’s head out of clay. The sleeves of her plain, white shirt are rolled up, her hands are smudged with clay and her hair is slightly messy. This is Juliette in a private moment, with family, doing something she loves.
Next, you will find out more about the founding of Girl Scouts and Juliette Low’s family life. A tour guide will show you the way down the stairs or the elevator to get downstairs.
Stop 6
This is the dining room where the Gordon family ate their meals, hosted friends and influential people, and a space where enslaved and paid domestic staff worked.
Shortly after the end of the Civil War, a newly freed woman named Eliza Henry moved to Savannah with her family. They were one of many families who had been enslaved south of Savannah and moved to the city to seek new opportunities and employment. According to Gordon family stories, Eliza knocked on the door looking for work and Juliette’s mother, Nellie, liked her right away and hired her as a cook on the spot. Eliza worked for the Gordon family for the next 30 years. Although she didn’t know how to cook or manage a kitchen when she started, Eliza Henry was a quick learner and made the Gordon family’s dinner table one of the best invitations a Savannahian could receive.
The dining room and parlors are where the family entertained guests visiting their home. It was common for wealthy families to decorate these rooms extravagantly to impress visitors – including the first Girl Scouts! You’ll hear more about how Girl Scouts came together over tea cups in the next room.
Stop 7
Above the mahogany sideboard is an oil painting of Juliette Low’s cousin, Nina Pape. Nina was the head of a girls’ school in Savannah, with progressive ideas about educating girls. Nina encouraged creativity and play at her school. She sent students on woodland hikes to learn about nature, teaching them "how to think, not what to think." When Juliette decided to start Girl Scouts, Nina was the first person she called. The first official Girl Scouts were students from Pape School.
Shortly after Juliette returned to Savannah after working with the Girl Guides, she called up her cousin, Nina Pape, and said: ““Come right over. I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, all of America, and all the world and we’re going to start it tonight!.” And they immediately got to work recruiting their friends as leaders and their friends’ children as Girl Guides. In the early days, Juliette would host afternoon teas in these parlor rooms for potential Girl Scouts and their mothers. After one of the teas, a little girl told her friends that Juliette has diamonds hanging from her ceiling.
Although Juliette Low did not have children of her own, she enjoyed their company and always listened to what they had to say. What was Juliette’s own childhood like?
Juliette was the second oldest of six siblings, and with cousins who lived next door, there were always playmates available for games and fun. Juliette was often the ringleader.
Behind the piano is a sculpture of Juliette’s father, Willie. Juliette sculpted this bust and painted it to look like bronze. Here he is an older man, upright in military uniform, with a neat mustache. Juliette’s father was a supporter of the Savannah Theater. Juliette arranged for her Girl Scouts to be ushers there so they could see plays for free. Along with his love of theater, Juliette inherited her father’s strong nose and his appreciation for animals and nature. As a girl, she loved to go out riding with him on horseback before breakfast.
Above the fireplace is an oil portrait of Juliette Low’s mother Nellie at age 19. This copy was painted by Juliette from the original. Nellie wears a white, narrow-waisted evening dress, her hair fashionably arranged in wings over her ears. She smiles slightly with a look that some visitors have called “modest” and others “fearless.” Which is it? One family story tells how she liked to slide down bannisters, a skill she passed down to her children. Later, Juliette Low let Girl Scouts slide down the railing on her front steps when they visited her at home.
Juliette Low’s childhood gave her curiosity, creativity, joy in the outdoors, a taste for adventure and a strong sense of duty—qualities that equipped her to start Girl Scouts. But was her upbringing in a wealthy family in 1800s Savannah ever an obstacle to founding a movement for all girls?
Stop 8
On the wall across from the parlor door is Juliette Low's Presidential Medal of Freedom, framed with the official proclamation. The medal is in the shape of a star, white enamel on red, with a blue disc containing 13 gold stars in its center. Gold eagles stand between the star’s points. The proclamation reads:
“An artist, athlete, and trailblazer for America’s daughters, Juliette Gordon Low founded an organization to teach young women self-reliance and resourcefulness... Americans of all backgrounds continue to draw inspiration from Juliette Gordon Low’s remarkable vision, and we celebrate her dedication to empowering girls everywhere.”
On the opposite wall is a portrait of Juliette Low. Juliette hired Alfred Jonniaux to paint this portrait seven years after she founded Girl Scouts at age 51. She wears her sturdy, brown uniform and wide-brimmed Girl Scout hat. On her tie is the Girl Scout trefoil pin, a design she patented. Visitors have described her expression—looking straight ahead, smiling as she leans toward us—as “strong” and “like she wants to take us on an adventure.”
In Juliette’s time, her family’s visitors were welcomed in this front hall. Today, Girl Scouts of the USA welcome every girl to join our Movement. But that was not always true. When Juliette Low called up her cousin to start “something for the girls of Savannah, all of America, and all the world,” what did she mean?
Juliette Low was able to see past the restrictions of her time and place to advocate for an organization that included girls with disabilities and girls from different social classes and religions. But when she started Girl Scouts in 1912, she was not able to overcome her learned prejudices to imagine a movement that welcomed girls of all races.
But Girl Scouts grew beyond Juliette Low’s limitations during her own lifetime. Juliette had a valuable skill as a leader: an ability to collaborate with other women and listen to the girls themselves. Her willingness to share authority meant that new voices and new ideas shaped the Girl Scout Movement as it grew into something truly for all girls.
It is this legacy that President Barack Obama celebrated when he honored Juliette Low with this medal in 2012, the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts of the USA.
We celebrated the reach of Juliette Low’s legacy at our final tour stop at the library.
Stop 9
This room has always been a library. Juliette Low herself came here to read and imagine, and she borrowed books from these very bookcases to share with the first Girl Scouts. Today the library is dedicated to books and stories written by, for, and about women and girls all over the world. Like this library, the story of Girl Scouts has grown beyond the story of one girl, Juliette Low, to include the stories of millions of Girl Scouts making their own paths.
The Girl Scout story belongs to everyone, because everyone’s life has been changed by a Girl Scout: your mother, troop leader, or teacher; or a senator, inventor, or an astronaut. Or you! What is your Girl Scout story?
The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Museum has been a house for all Girl Scouts since it opened its doors to the public in 1956. You can help us keep our doors open, serve girls, and preserve this house and history by becoming a Circle of Friends member. Please consider joining today in our store as an individual or as a troop.
After you have enjoyed the library, your tour guide can show you to the exit.
Thank you for visiting us and hearing our story!
