1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,000 Speaker 1: Hey everyone. Technically you're getting two days in History today 2 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:05,640 Speaker 1: because we were running two episodes from the History Vault. 3 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:08,879 Speaker 1: You'll also here two hosts, me and Tracy V. Wilson. 4 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:13,119 Speaker 1: Hope you enjoy Welcome to this Day in History Class 5 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: from how Stuff Works dot Com and from the desk 6 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:17,799 Speaker 1: of Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the show 7 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:20,120 Speaker 1: where we explore the past one day at a time 8 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:27,280 Speaker 1: with a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello, 9 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,240 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and 10 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:34,240 Speaker 1: it's August off of A. Johnson became the first woman 11 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: known to him enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps 12 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: on this day in n This was steering World War One. 13 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:44,680 Speaker 1: There was a serious shortage of men to fill necessary 14 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:47,839 Speaker 1: military roles. This was all across the military, not just 15 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,879 Speaker 1: in the Marines. Just as an example of some roles 16 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: that women were filling all across the armed services, there 17 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 1: were more than twenty one thousand women working as Army 18 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: nurses who serves stateside and overseas during the war. They 19 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: were also the Hello Girls. These women served in the U. S. 20 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:12,040 Speaker 1: Army Signal Corps doing switchboard operator work and the civilian workforce. 21 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:15,920 Speaker 1: About eighty percent of telephone switchboard operators were women, and 22 00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:18,880 Speaker 1: women were reported to be about five times faster at 23 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 1: this job than their male colleagues. There were also women 24 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:26,760 Speaker 1: ambulance drivers, women's stenographers, on and on. In terms of 25 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: military service, the Navy actually started enlisting women before the 26 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: Marines did. The Naval Act of nineteen sixteen had some 27 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: vague language in it about the Naval reserves, and it 28 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,840 Speaker 1: allowed the reserves to include quote all persons who may 29 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: be capable of performing special useful service for coastal defense. 30 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: You might notice that said persons, it didn't say men. 31 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: Probably whoever wrote it thought that persons met men, but 32 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: that meant that they were not excluding women. By nineteen seventeen, 33 00:01:57,320 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 1: the Navy was actively recruiting women for a lot of 34 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: different roles. Most of them became yeoman. That was the 35 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:05,680 Speaker 1: name for a petty officer who did different types of 36 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:09,079 Speaker 1: clerical work in the navy. Women in the Navy were 37 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: also working as radio operators, as chauffeurs, as mechanics, as cryptographers, 38 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: all kinds of roles. The first of these women in 39 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:19,160 Speaker 1: the U. S. Navy was Loretta Profectus Walsh, who joined 40 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:22,639 Speaker 1: on March seventeenth, nineteen seventeen. She was the first woman 41 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:25,960 Speaker 1: to join any branch of the US military without having 42 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:29,200 Speaker 1: to disguise her sex, first in any role other than nursing. 43 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:32,440 Speaker 1: In nineteen eighteen, though, the Secretary of the Navy began 44 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,760 Speaker 1: allowing women to enlist in the Marines. And that's where 45 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:38,760 Speaker 1: we get to offer me, Johnson. She was forty. She 46 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:41,919 Speaker 1: was the first person in a line of three hundred 47 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,640 Speaker 1: who answered a call for women to enlist in the Marines. 48 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:49,079 Speaker 1: She started out doing clerical work at Marine Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. 49 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 1: In total, during World War One, thirteen thousand women were 50 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: accepted into the Navy and too the Marines. There were 51 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 1: women in the Coast Guard to a smaller extent as well, 52 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:01,639 Speaker 1: and both the Navy and the Marines, these women had 53 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: the letter F after their title to denote their sex. 54 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:09,240 Speaker 1: Often while serving in the military, these women faced sexism. 55 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,800 Speaker 1: They faced suspicion about whether they were qualified or competent 56 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:16,640 Speaker 1: at their jobs, suspicion about their morality, and an overall 57 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: resistance to their being there at all. This included drill 58 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 1: sergeants who seemed to be really angry that they had 59 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:25,080 Speaker 1: been given the task of training women, and so they 60 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: took it out on their female recruits. But these women 61 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,200 Speaker 1: served their country in spite of this, and in spite 62 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,119 Speaker 1: of the fact that for most of them they were 63 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:36,119 Speaker 1: not even allowed to vote. Once World War One was over, 64 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: the military branches that had been accepting women out of 65 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,560 Speaker 1: need started disenrolling them. The Navy stopped enlisting women in 66 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: November of nineteen eighteen, and the Naval Appropriations Act of 67 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen placed women in both the Navy and the 68 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,400 Speaker 1: Marine Corps on inactive duty. All of the women who 69 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: had enlisted for World War One were discharged by the 70 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 1: fall of nineteen twenty. As for off of May Johnson, 71 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: she continued to do use some of the same work, 72 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 1: but as a civil servant working with the War Department 73 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:07,200 Speaker 1: rather than in the military. There was a similar cycle 74 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 1: of recruiting women to do jobs to free up men 75 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: to go to the front in World War Two, with 76 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: programs like the Women Air Force Service Pilots. Similarly, women 77 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:18,360 Speaker 1: joined the WASP thinking that they were going to become 78 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:21,120 Speaker 1: part of the military, only for the military to disband 79 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:25,120 Speaker 1: the program entirely in nine In some cases, though Congress 80 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 1: eventually approved military recognition for these women's service decades after 81 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:32,240 Speaker 1: it was done. Thanks very much to Eve's Jeff Cope 82 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:35,359 Speaker 1: for her research work on today's episode, and Tari Harrison 83 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:38,360 Speaker 1: for her audio skills and all of these episodes. We've 84 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 1: never talked about off of May Johnson on Stuff You 85 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:42,839 Speaker 1: Missed in History Class, but we have talked about a 86 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: lot of other women in the military, including in the 87 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:50,720 Speaker 1: May fifteen seventeen episode six Impossible Episodes Soldiers, Snipers and Spies, 88 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:55,120 Speaker 1: and in our March twenty one sixteen episodes on the 89 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:58,440 Speaker 1: Women Air Force Service pilots, and my favorite, the March 90 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: nine episode on the Night Witches. You can subscribe to 91 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:05,799 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class on Apple podcast, Google Podcasts, 92 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:08,120 Speaker 1: and wherever else you get your podcast, and you can 93 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow for a particularly rare book and a 94 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:24,720 Speaker 1: milestone in printing. Greetings everyone, welcome to this Day in 95 00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:35,280 Speaker 1: History class, where we learn a smidgen of history every day. 96 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: The day was August nineteen o four. TWA potter Maria 97 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: Margherita Tafoya, also known as Margaret Tafoya, was born in 98 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 1: Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico. Margaret was part of 99 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:54,440 Speaker 1: a long line of potters, and her pottery was known 100 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:58,719 Speaker 1: around the world. The people are a group of Pueblo 101 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:03,240 Speaker 1: Native Americans that speak the Tewa language. Santa Clara is 102 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:08,119 Speaker 1: one of several Tawa speaking pueblos. Santa Clara is known 103 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 1: for the pottery it's artists produce, particularly they're red and 104 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:17,240 Speaker 1: black polished pottery. The pottery tradition and Santa Clara began 105 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:20,719 Speaker 1: around five hundred c e. When the Pueblo people turned 106 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: away from hunting and gathering and developed agriculture. Pottery was 107 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:29,599 Speaker 1: valuable in trade for more than a thousand years, but 108 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: once the Santa Fe Trail opened in eight machine made 109 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: products became increasingly popular. Santa Clara utilitarian pottery began to 110 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: be viewed as art by anthropologists, historians, art collectors, and 111 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:50,159 Speaker 1: other outsiders. Margaret Tafoya's family had been artists for generations. 112 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:54,640 Speaker 1: Her mother, Sara Fina, also known as Autumn Leaf, started 113 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:57,400 Speaker 1: teaching her how to make pottery when she was a child. 114 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:02,800 Speaker 1: Her father, Geronimo, also known as White Flower, helped sell 115 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:07,360 Speaker 1: his wife's pottery. Margaret went to the Pueblo elementary school 116 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:11,400 Speaker 1: and went to Santa Fe Indian School but she dropped 117 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:14,080 Speaker 1: out to help her family during the flu epidemic of 118 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen. She left Santa Clara to work as a housekeeper, waitress, 119 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: and cook. In nine she married Alcario Tafoya and soon 120 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:29,320 Speaker 1: moved back to Santa Clara. Margaret and her mother were 121 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: known for making large pots that were thirty inches or 122 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:37,520 Speaker 1: seventy six cimes or higher. She made hand coiled pottery 123 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 1: using clay only from Santa Clara Land. The clay is dried, ground, 124 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: mixed with water and needed. The pottery is coil, built, 125 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:52,400 Speaker 1: coated with slip stone, polished, and fired with wood or 126 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 1: dung or both. Using her fingers, Tafoya put lines in 127 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:03,440 Speaker 1: the clay. Designs she used included mountains, rain clouds, buffalo horns, 128 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:09,360 Speaker 1: water serpents, bear claws, and kiva steps. She preferred impressed 129 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:13,440 Speaker 1: and carved designs to painted designs, which many of her 130 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 1: contemporaries used. She insisted that future generations follow the traditional 131 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:23,760 Speaker 1: process of creating pottery, using natural fuels to fire their 132 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: work and to rub the surfaces of their pottery smooth 133 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:32,440 Speaker 1: with a stone. Margaret helped bring back the use of polychromes, 134 00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:36,920 Speaker 1: or pottery decorated in multiple colors, which had fallen out 135 00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:40,720 Speaker 1: of favor by the late nineteenth century. In the nineteen 136 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 1: thirties and nineteen forties, she experimented with orange outlined designs 137 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:49,440 Speaker 1: and Greek and Roman forms that she adapted to Santa 138 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:54,320 Speaker 1: Clara shapes. Later, she focused on red or black phases, 139 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:59,040 Speaker 1: storage jars, allah's and bowls, and allah is, a vessel 140 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:03,480 Speaker 1: used for story or cooking. At first, Margaret and her 141 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:07,000 Speaker 1: husband al Kario took her pottery to cities and fairs 142 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:11,080 Speaker 1: and sold it. As more people became interested in collecting 143 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:14,760 Speaker 1: Native American art in the nineteen fifties, so Foya's art 144 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:18,960 Speaker 1: became renowned worldwide. At that point, they no longer had 145 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:22,400 Speaker 1: to travel to sell her work directly, as people began 146 00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:26,640 Speaker 1: traveling to the pueblos and placing orders for it. She 147 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:30,240 Speaker 1: had twelve children, two of whom died before they turned one. 148 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:35,520 Speaker 1: She won many awards, including the New Mexico Governors Award 149 00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:38,760 Speaker 1: for Excellence in the Arts, and her works were displayed 150 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:43,640 Speaker 1: in several exhibitions. Margaret died in February of two thousand 151 00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 1: one at her home in Santa Clara, Pueblo. When she died, 152 00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: she was survived by nine children, thirty grandchildren, forty five 153 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: great grandchildren and eleven great great grandchildren. Many of her 154 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:02,240 Speaker 1: descendants have also become accomplished potters in the traditional style. 155 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:06,520 Speaker 1: I'm Eves Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little 156 00:10:06,559 --> 00:10:11,079 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. And if 157 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:15,080 Speaker 1: you're so inclined, you can follow us at T D 158 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:20,640 Speaker 1: i h C Podcasts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We'll 159 00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:28,880 Speaker 1: see you tomorrow. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, 160 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,560 Speaker 1: visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 161 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:32,880 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.