Dressed as their favorite female heroes in history, 34 fourth grade students took to small platforms and stood like human statues in the Laura Thomas Buck '49 Pavilion on Tuesday, January 10, prepared to recite the life story of a famous woman they have studied -- at the drop of a penny, literally.

The annual Women in Wax Museum, in its sixth year, is a hallmark of the fourth grade year at AIS. During this unit, the girls pick a biography of a famous woman to read independently. On the day of the Women in Wax Museum presentation, the girls dress up as their famous characters and present their monologues in the "museum of wax," otherwise known as the LTB '49 Pavilion, to interested visitors.

This year’s “museum of wax” display was more varied, according to 4th grade teacher Pedie Hill, in terms of the famous women the girls chose to portray. Instructed to stray from typical female protagonists in literature, such as Susan B. Anthony and Joan of Arc, many students found interesting, unsung female heroes to emulate, including Mary Breckinridge, a nurse-midwife who founded the Frontier Nursing Service during World War I to help the Appalachian poor; Queen Rania of Jordan and Indian women's rights activist Jyotirmayee Mohapatra.

As visitors, students, faculty and staff trickled into the “museum of wax,” small plastic cups propped next to the girls clinked and clanked with the reverberation of pennies, signaling to the motionless “wax” students that it was time to begin their monologues.

 

Shreya Mathawan, portraying Jyotirmayee Mohapatra, praised her chosen hero for becoming a leader in the fight for the rights of girls and women in India. “I come from a long line of Indians, and Jyotirmayee is my inspiration…she makes me think that women can do anything…that I can do anything…and that women don’t have to listen to men.”

Other students gave impressive imitations of trailblazers like First Lady Michelle Obama, children's book author Beatrix Potter, scientist Jane Goodall, Holocaust victim Anne Frank and fashion designer Coco Chanel, to name but a few. Click here to view photos from this year’s “museum of wax.”