UNHIDDEN HEROINES: An Augmented Reality Experience from the Smithsonian

This interactive program will feature an online Smithsonian Women's History activity about five notable American women. Led by ACPL Reference Clerk Cathy Benedetto, a long-time student of Womens Studies (WMST) and of computer engineering technology, the event will include a short overview of WMST and a screencast presentation of the Augmented Reality Experience associated with the Smithsonian's tour of several national monuments in Washington, DC. The audience will be taught to use the interactive program that is available on public devices until December 31, 2026. Teachers will want to share this fun, interactive program with their students, families and communities!

The five women to be discussed are:

Mary Katherine Goddard (1738-1816)

Publisher who was commissioned by Congress in 1777 to print the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (aka, THE GODDARD BROADSIDE). Her printing of the document was the first to include the names of all its signatories.

Polly Cooper (1778)

An Oneida woman from the New York colony who took part in an expedition to aid the starving Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. She was among 47 Oneida and Seneca people who carried bushels of corn 250 miles (400 km) to Valley Forge from late April into May 1778. She taught the army how to make a soup with the corn, nuts, and fruits to increase its nutritional value.

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)

Author, poet, abolitionist and women's suffrage activist who composed THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC.

Elizebeth Smith Friedman (1892-1980)

The pioneering American cryptanalyst whose work broke enemy codes during both World Wars and dismantled major Prohibition-Era rum-running smuggling rings.

Dr. Dorothy Height (1912-2010)

President of the National Council of Negro Women (1958-1990), considered to be "the Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement."0.