In 1911 the Boy Scouts announced Camp Fire Girls as its sanctioned sister organization, then a Savannah widow gathered eighteen girls the next spring and called them Scouts. Juliette Gordon Low even offered a merger, which Camp Fire refused. The two groups ran a parallel century, fought over the word in court, and both lost roughly half their members regardless of who they admitted.
Who's who
- Juliette Gordon LowFounder of the American Girl Guides, later Girl Scouts
- James E. West+3 more episodesBSA Chief Scout Executive who objected to girls using 'Scouts'
- Luther Halsey GulickCo-developer of the Camp Fire program
- Charlotte GulickCo-developer of the Camp Fire program
- Florence E. NeilPublished the 1922 sugar cookie recipe in The American Girl
- Alvin K. HellersteinFederal judge who granted the Boy Scouts summary judgment in 2022
- Robert Baden-Powell+1 more episodeFounder of Scouting whose program Low brought to America
- Janet Shibley HydeAuthor of a 2014 meta-analysis challenging single-sex schooling
Where it happens
- Savannah, Georgia+1 more episodeWhere Low started the first troop on March 12, 1912
- Sebago Lake, MaineWhere the Gulicks developed the Camp Fire program
- Southern District of New YorkCourt that heard the trademark case
Timeline
- April 1911West announces the Camp Fire Girls as sanctioned sister organization
- March 12, 1912Low gathers eighteen girls in Savannah
- January 1913Camp Fire rejects Low's merger offer
- October 23, 1993Girl Scout delegates vote 1,560 to 375 to allow substitute Promise wording
- November 2018Girl Scouts sue the Boy Scouts over the word Scout
- April 7, 2022Hellerstein grants the Boy Scouts summary judgment
Still debated
Sources disagree on Girl Scout peak membership, either about 3.8 million around 2003 or 3.5 million in the mid-1970s. Recent membership figures are internally inconsistent, and the group's transgender policy is known only through secondary statements.