Putting a Name to a Familiar Face

Recently I wrote about the disappointment in having to pass on an overpriced piece of local council history.

But that disappointment was short-lived. Shortly after the elusive eBay auction ended, a new donation arrived in the mail. The enclosed letter from a local estate attorney explained that her client, Betty Chapman, had left behind a scrapbook that she had compiled as a Washington, DC, Girl Scout in the late 1920s. As Chapman had no immediate family, the attorney thought we might like it.

The package contained a three-ring school notebook, with newspaper clippings and other papers pasted on lined notebook paper.

The first clipping, on the first page, I immediately recognized:

This round-faced girl, with the slightly mischevous grin, is Elizabeth Kahler, one of Washington’s first Golden Eaglets. She appears in many of our early photos, including this one of the 1927 White House Easter Egg Roll.

Elizabeth has the same photo in her scrapbook, along with an autograph from the first lady. You can still see the creases from Elizabeth putting it in her uniform pocket for safekeeping.

The book is stuffed with more clippings, invitations, letters, and badge records.

But perhaps the biggest find is nine issues of the Girl Scout Bugle — a publication that I did not even know existed!

These four-page publications from 1927 and 1928 were part of a journalism training program.  The first issue explains its purpose. I don’t know how long the program continued.

Stuffed in the envelope with the Girl Scout materials are other mementos of Elizabeth’s life, such as the programs from her college graduation. She attended the George Washington University, earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees before graduating from medical school, with distinction, in 1940.

Elizabeth married fellow physician Ervin Chapman and maintained a medical practice in Washington, DC. She passed away in 2007.

I guess those Red Cross courses made a significant impression on Miss Kahler.

© 2018 Ann Robertson