Taking the Kids: And celebrating courageous women and girls whenever you travel

The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City showcases how women filled manufacturing and agricultural positions on the home front while others served on the front lines as nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers and volunteers.

When the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park Visitor Center reopens in Richmond, California, you may be able to meet real home-front workers who stepped up to staff defense factories during World War II on “Rosie Fridays.”

Women’s stories can be found in every national park and at national historic sites. (Just check before you visit to make sure the site is open.) You can Travel Where Women Made History, the National Park Service suggests.

The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway includes 45 sites through Maryland, Delaware and Philadelphia. (Download a map and audio guide.) Tubman, born into slavery in Maryland, escaped her enslavement, and then risked her life many times, returning to rescue at least 70 enslaved people, later becoming a scout and spy for the Union Army and an activist for the women’s right to vote.

The Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont, scheduled to reopen in April, has the largest public collection of paintings by Grandma Moses and a collection of artifacts from her life, including her paint-stained apron. Anna Mary Robertson, “Grandma” Moses, famously started painting in her 70s and quickly was celebrated as one of the country’s most famous artists.

For RVers, the Holiday Rambler motorhomes brand has curated women’s history sites complete with a nearby RV park. For example, those touring the west might stop at the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural & Educational Center, Salmon, Idaho, (open by appointment only). She was the skilled translator and guide who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery expedition. Then RVers can spend the night at Elk Bend RV Park.

Those in Texas should stop at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Fort Worth, TX, complete with a hologram that enables visitors to hear from sharpshooter Annie Oakley, test their bronc-riding skills (superimposed into rodeo footage) and then spend the night at Sandy Lake RV Resort.

“My friends and I might still be in elementary school, but we know life isn't equal for everyone and we know what is right and wrong,” Naomi Wadler said at the march, her yellow scarf around our neck. “…So, I am here today to honor the words of Toni Morrison. ‘If there's a book that you want to read but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it.’”

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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kid’s Guide to Philadelphia, the 13th in the kid’s guide series, was published in 2020, with The Kid’s Guide to Camping coming in 2021.)