Great Girls in Michigan History

Great Girls in Michigan History will inspire readers through stories of the impressive achievements of young Michigan women. The girls included in this collection have diverse accomplishments and backgrounds and come from across the state. No other book focuses exclusively on the actions of Michigan’s girls. Young women reading this book will feel both the spark of curiosity to learn more about these historical figures and pride in knowing that Michigan girls achieve great things!

~Emily Fijol, Executive Director of the Michigan Women's Historical Center and Hall of Fame

You don’t have to have lived a long life to have lived a great one. In Patricia Majher’s new book Great Girls in Michigan History, the Michigan historian writes about 20 girls younger than 20 who have made a mark on history.

~Zinta Aistars

'I'm where I want to be. . . I'm who I want to be.' Those words spoken by teenager Fannie Baker ('Girl Diver of the Great Lakes') early in the first chapter of Great Girls in Michigan History alert even the most casual reader to the fact that the young women profiled in this book have a grit and gumption not found in many people of any age or gender. Author Patricia Majher has created concise biographies of some amazing young women: an enslaved seven-year-old girl who escaped to freedom in Michigan, the youngest woman in American history to earn a private pilot's license, and the teenager who became the first known American Indian writer. Thanks to author Majher, the accomplishments of these and other 'great girls' will not fall into obscurity but, rather, ably serve to inspire and encourage.

~Jean Alicia Elster, Author of Who's Jim Hines? (Wayne State University Press, 2008) and the Colored Car (Wayne State University Press, 2013)