You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
    --- Eleanor Roosevelt

Marjorie Mary Murtagh
(Class of 1974)

First Woman Graduate from Maritime College
Marjorie Mary Murtagh (Class of 1974) transferred to Maritime College from Rockland Community College in the fall of 1972. A non-regimental student, Murtagh graduated as a Naval Architect from the Marine Engineering Department in May 1974. She was the first woman to graduate from the college and earn a U.S. Coast Guard license. At the time, Murtagh wrote in the college yearbook: "It is not important to me that I am the first woman here, but that I am not also the last. Opportunity should not be restricted!"
Murtagh was Assistant Dean of Students at Maritime College when female cadets first were admitted. She is now the Director of the National Transportation Safety Board's Office of Marine Safety. Her responsibilities are very broad, involving investigation of U.S. flag vessel accidents in U.S. waters and all over the world .

Web Sites Related to Women's History Month
National Women's History Project:  The National Women’s History Project is an educational nonprofit organization whose mission is “to recognize and celebrate the diverse and historic accomplishments of women by providing information and educational materials and programs.” The organization’s theme for Women’s History Month 2005 is “Women Change America,” to honor and recognize the role of American women in transforming our history and culture as leaders, educators, politicians, historians, scientists, writers, artists, and athletes. On the Web site of the NWHP you can read the biographies of honored women and learn how they changed America. Some of the women featured include Congresswoman Bella Abzug, women’s rights advocate Abigail Adams, scientist Chien-Shiung Wu, and educator Alice Yu.

Women's History@Thomson Gale:  Thomson Gale celebrates Women’s History Month by providing on their site biographies of the world’s significant women from ancient times to modern, a timeline of important events in women’s history, and a quiz based on women and their achievements. The site also offers a selection of hyperlinks to other Web pages related to women’s history.

Women's History@About.com: About.com was founded in 1997 and now has a powerful network of 475 guides—people who will share their knowledge and expertise on different subjects, ranging from women’s health to designing Web pages. One of these experts is Jones Johnson Lewis. Ms. Lewis, a Web writer and teacher, has researched women’s history around the world in different eras, with a special interest in 19th century social reforms and religion. She offers her readers information on various aspects of women’s history from the empowerment of women and French women’s history to women in business and women’s networks. The viewer can find articles and resources about feminism, the suffrage movement, and women’s rights, African-American women, women’s biographies, their achievements in science, aviation, space, and math, their roles in family and at work, and much more.You can also find quotations by famous women, and search a picture gallery from Women and the Civil War to Sally Ride and Kathryn Sullivan on the Space Shuttle, October 6, 1984.

Bibliography of Selected Books about Seafaring Women Available in the Library
View complete bibliography (PDF)

GOVE G540 .A44 1997
Allen, Nancy, 1937-
Fair seafarer : a honeymoon adventure with the Merchant Marine. -- Binghamton, N.Y. : Bridge Works Pub, c1997.
   Endurance (Containership).
   Seafaring life.
   Women and the sea.
   Merchant marine -- United States.

G545 .B73 1992
Brewster, Mary, 1822-1878
“She was a sister sailor” : the whaling journals of Mary Brewster, 1845-1851 /
edited by Joan Druett. – Mystic, Conn. : Mystic Seaport Museum, 1992.
   Tiger (Whaling ship)
   Women and the sea.
   Whaling.
   Seafaring life -- 19 th century.
   Hawaii -- Social life and customs.

G540 .D462 1982
De Pauw, Linda Grant.
Seafaring women. -- Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1982.
SUMMARY : Discusses women at sea throughout history in both feminine and masculine roles, including those of pirate, warrior, whaler, trader, and the greatly expanding roles of recent times.
    Women and the sea.

GOVE VK139 .D78 1998
Druett, Joan.
Hen frigates : wives of merchant captains under sail. -- New York : Simon & Schuster, c1998.
   Ship captains’ spouses.
   Women and the sea.

G545 .D784 1991
Druett, Joan.
Petticoat whalers : whaling wives at sea, 1820-1920. -- Auckland : Collins, 1991.
   Whalers' spouses.
   Women and the sea.
   Seafaring life -- History.

VB324.W65 G63 2001
Godson, Susan H.
Serving proudly : a history of women in the U.S. Navy. -- Annapolis, Md. : Naval Institute Press, 2001
   United States. Navy -- Women.

VK140.L88 A3 2003
Lutz, Jeanne.
Changing course: one woman’s true-life adventures as a merchant marine.
-- Far Hills, N.J. : New Horizon Press, c2003.
   Merchant mariners -- United States -- Biography.
   Women sailors -- United States -- Biography.

Women's History Month exhibit will run through March 31 and can be viewed at the Library's entranceway

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