Annie Londonderry, 2026

We just got back from a brand new field trip that we have nicknamed “Helleaux Chateaux!”

Gertrude Jekyll could turn her hand to anything; deeply involved with the Arts and Crafts movement, she mastered dozens of specialties in her quest to explore the relationship between human lives and their environments.

Virginia Hall wanted to be a diplomat, but the State Department kept shutting doors in her face …and then she lost her leg in a hunting accident, which seemed like she’d reached a dead end. Never one to accept defeat, she learned how to walk again on a wooden leg nicknamed “Cuthbert,” and headed straight into the world of espionage.Once she got to France, she ran circles around the Nazi intelligence services during WW2. The Gestapo actually called her “the most dangerous Allied agent in France”; her actions, and those of her compatriots, changed the course of the war.

Rosa Bonheur was a wild, animal‑obsessed kid who drew before she could read, and knew she was meant for the world of art from an extremely young age.

Mercy Otis Warren’s life is one long argument for the idea that political courage isn’t just found on battlefields or in legislatures; it’s found in writing, in conversations, in friendships, and in the willingness to speak plainly (and loudly) when power grows dangerous. She believed deeply that liberty required constant vigilance, and that ordinary people, especially women, have a role to play in creating the nation’s conscience.