On International Women’s Day we’d like to celebrate the achievements of Agnes Powell, a well known apiarist and founder of the Girl Scouts in 1910. Agnes was born in 1858, as the 13th of 14 children. One of her brothers, Robert Baden-Powell, founded the Boy Scouts. Agnes learned 11 languages, including Greek and Persian and was a gifted musician and loved nature and the outdoors.

Agnes Powell believed that beekeeping should be an integral part of education; she was passionate about holistic youth development and wrote The Handbook for Girl Guides, or How Girls Can Help Build an Empire. The handbook emphasized outdoor activities and had a section on nursing. In 1904, this article describes how Agnes Powell was the only woman in London who kept bees in her drawing room and harvested honey from the hives in her living room. This article also includes the drawing we show on the right, with the caption that Powell kept bees in her bedroom.