Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!

During Women’s History Month, I was invited to a seminar at the Roosevelt Center in New York City with Giovanna Gray Lockhart, Francis Perkins Center Executive Director and Stephanie Dray, author of Becoming Madam Secretary. Dray read an excerpt from her historical fiction novel based on Perkins’ life. Then Lockhart and Dray discussed some of Perkins remarkable achievements and the creation of the new National Monument in Maine.

Francis Perkins was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. She served as the Secretary of Labor under FDR from 1933 to 1945. We owe a lot of workplace protections and social security to her participation in the New Deal. President Joe Biden designated her home in Newcastle, Maine a National Monument in 2024.

I didn’t know anything about Francis Perkins before attending this program. I intend to read the novel and hopefully visit the monument someday. The program is an hour long and available on You Tube (Embedded below). If you have the time, I recommend viewing the talk.