In 1922, Lucille Atcherson became the first woman permitted to join the United States diplomatic corps. Eleven years later, Ruth Bryan Owen was appointed the first female chief of mission, minister rank, of the U.S. embassy for Denmark and Iceland. Helen Eugenie Anderson, appointed as the first female chief of mission, ambassador rank, to Denmark in 1949, was the first woman to sign a treaty on behalf of the United States. These women were the female forebears of what had typically been a male-dominated field.

Since Atcherson’s admittance, women have been making their diplomatic mark as part of the U.S. Foreign Service. Several of their stories are highlighted in “The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training” in the Library’s “American Memory” collection. Capturing the post-WWII period, these interviews, conducted by the Association for Diplomatic Studies, feature foreign service officers sharing their experiences on the frontlines of U.S. diplomacy.

Among the 1,301 transcripts are the interviews of Mari-Luci Jaramillo, the first female Hispanic-American ambassador and first female ambassador to a Central American country (Honduras), and Jeane Kirkpatrick, the first female U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Kirkpatrick also was honored as a Library of Congress Living Legend in April 2000.