American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial

She served and sacrificed

Close your eyes and think of all the veterans who have served. Picture them in uniforms, saluting the nation. How do these veterans look?

Preconceptions about gender is just one of the struggles that women in the military have to confront, often having to validate their identity while simultaneously resisting stereotypes perpetuated in a patriarchal society. For women veterans with disabilities, the experience is multiplied. Not only are they at risk to suffer physical disabilities during their service but they also report the long-term mental health impact from Military Sexual Trauma (MST). While some wounded women navigate through their hardships in private, others have embraced the public as part of the healing process.

One notable woman is Senator Ladda Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War Veteran and the first woman with a disability elected to Congress. As the daughter of a Marine who struggled to transition into civilian life, she had a desire to serve her country and make change from an early age. After earning her Master of Arts from George Washington University in 1992, she returned to deliver the 2017 commencement speech on the National Mall.

She referred to the day her helicopter was hit as her “Alive Day” and noted how she was grateful to be saved by her crew. “I survived to serve my nation again,” Duckworth said. “Maybe I was done serving in combat, but I could see the next step in my life’s path because it meant that I could serve my fellow veterans. After I got out of Walter Reed, I went to the VA, I ran for Congress and then I won my seat in the Senate.”

The American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial honors all who have sacrificed. Women included in our collective memory are illustrated by silhouettes and images.

Tip Gail Cobb Way is named in memory of the country’s first Black female police officer killed in the line of duty, a Washingtonian whose parents live on this corner (300 block of 14th Place NW, www.mpdc.dc.gov/page/memory-officer-gail-cobb).

Anderson House

Isabel Weld Perkins, a jet-setting art patron

Completed in 1905, Anderson House was once heralded as “a Florentine villa in the midst of American independence.” The mansion was a winter residence for diplomat Larz Anderson and his wife, Isabel Weld Perkins. For more than 30 years, it served as the backdrop for their society galas and massive collection of arts and antiques.

Larz Anderson married up when he joined lives with Isabel Weld Perkins. A Boston heiress, Perkins had ancestral ties all the way back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and an inheritance rumored to be worth at least $5 million. At the age of 19, Perkins met Anderson in Rome, where he was posted as secretary of the US Embassy. They married two years later.

Isabel took advantage of her husband’s diplomatic career to travel extensively and build a stunning collection of art and furniture. Not content to simply luxuriate in a life of leisure, Isabel turned her attention to writing. She wrote about American history and her family’s role in it, travelogues about the countries and cultures she discovered as an ambassador’s wife, poetry, children’s stories, and plays.

During World War I, Perkins volunteered with the Red Cross in DC before heading to France and Belgium to care for the sick and wounded. When she returned to DC in 1918, she cared for those impacted by Spanish flu. She was ultimately awarded the Red Cross Service Medal, the French Croix de Guerre, and the Medal of Elisabeth of Belgium for her nursing contributions.

The Andersons had no children, so when Larz passed away in 1937, Isabel was responsible for preserving their legacy. She personally oversaw the donation of the Anderson House mansion to the Society of the Cincinnati, of which Larz was a member. It now serves as the society’s national headquarters, and it hosts a public museum that documents the American Revolution and showcases the Andersons’ extensive collections.

Address 2118 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, DC 20008, +1 (202) 785-2040, www.societyofthecincinnati.org/visit/info | Getting there Metro to Dupont Circle (Red Line); bus N6 to Massachusetts and Florida Avenues NW | Hours Tue – Sat 10am – 4pm, Sun noon – 4pm | Tip Umber Ahmad grew up traveling the world but always kept her native Pakistani flavors close to her heart. In 2014, she founded Mah Ze Dahr Bakery, where visitors can experience the world through food (1201 Half Street SE, Suite 105, www.mahzedahrbakery.com).