Teen Girl Scouts became history detectives to create this Fort Monmouth exhibit in Wall

Jerry Carino, Asbury Park Press
·3 min read

WALL - Jenny Rosenthal Bramley was a professor at Monmouth College (now University) who helped develop color television and early computer terminals. Before that, she was a physicist with the U.S. Army Signal Corps Laboratories at Fort Monmouth during World War II.

That work would have been important on its own. But Bramley was more than a scientist. She was a pioneer for women in the federal government, taking advantage of the wartime shortage of men on the home front to open doors for generations to follow.

Her story is told as part of a new exhibit — “Women’s History at Fort Monmouth” — that opens Saturday at InfoAge Science & History Museums at Camp Evans in Wall. In a twist Bramley surely would appreciate, the long-term exhibit was developed by three Girl Scouts from Freehold Township. Eighth-graders Giuliana Demma, Mahi Shah and Julia Calamia collaborated with Monmouth University public history professor Melissa Ziobro and exhibit designer Stan Cain to produce the informative one-room tribute.

“People didn’t really give women credit for what they did in the war, even though they did a lot,” Demma said.

Girls Scouts of the Jersey Shore Cadette Troop 177 member Mahi Shah, 13, of Freehold Township, shows off the uniform of a woman who worked at Fort Monmouth, part of an exhibit he helped create at the InfoAge Science and History Museum in Wall, NJ Monday, November 20, 2023.
Girls Scouts of the Jersey Shore Cadette Troop 177 member Mahi Shah, 13, of Freehold Township, shows off the uniform of a woman who worked at Fort Monmouth, part of an exhibit he helped create at the InfoAge Science and History Museum in Wall, NJ Monday, November 20, 2023.

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These Girl Scouts did a lot, too, to get this project off the ground. Over the course of 18 months, they raised close to $5,000 by selling items at back-to-school nights and holiday fairs at Barkalow Middle School. They sat in on one of Ziobro’s historic preservation classes at Monmouth and donned protective gloves while sifting through old photos and documents.

“They played detective,” said Vanessa Demma, leader of Jersey Shore Cadette Troop 177. “This wasn’t something they could Google and a million things came up.”

For their work on the exhibit, the girls earned their Silver Award, the second-highest award offered by Girl Scouts of the USA.

“The girls approached InfoAge saying they wanted to do a project supporting and lifting up women, and we went from there,” Ziobro said. “This was a different project that will have a lasting impact on the public, and that’s really awesome.”

Girls Scouts of the Jersey Shore Cadette Troop 177 members Mahi Shah, Julia Calamia and Giuliana Demma, all 13-years-old of Freehold Twp., talk about earning their Silver Award by curating an exhibit which traces the history of women at Fort Monmouth and Camp Evans at the InfoAge Science and History Museum in Wall, NJ Monday, November 20, 2023.
Girls Scouts of the Jersey Shore Cadette Troop 177 members Mahi Shah, Julia Calamia and Giuliana Demma, all 13-years-old of Freehold Twp., talk about earning their Silver Award by curating an exhibit which traces the history of women at Fort Monmouth and Camp Evans at the InfoAge Science and History Museum in Wall, NJ Monday, November 20, 2023.

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Included in the exhibit are profiles of some of Fort Monmouth’s standout women employees from the war era, a recruitment poster picturing Uncle Sam extending a hand to a prospective female recruit, many photos of women working various jobs at the fort during that period, and a uniform worn by one of the pioneers.

“The hope is that when the public sees this room, they’re going to get the impression that women had these strategic, important roles in filling the work force,” said Cain, the designer.

As the exhibit makes clear, the effectiveness of the women who worked at Fort Monmouth — in roles that ranged from clerical to developing technologies like air-to-ground radio — helped spark the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, which guaranteed women a permanent place in the military services.

“I hope people who come here see that women played a big part in history and they shouldn’t be overlooked,” Calamia said.

Part of a display on the history of women at Fort Monmouth created by Girls Scouts of the Jersey Shore Cadette Troop 177 members Giuliana Demma, Julia Calamia and Mahi Shah, all of Freehold Township, at the InfoAge Science and History Museum in Wall, NJ Monday, November 20, 2023.
Part of a display on the history of women at Fort Monmouth created by Girls Scouts of the Jersey Shore Cadette Troop 177 members Giuliana Demma, Julia Calamia and Mahi Shah, all of Freehold Township, at the InfoAge Science and History Museum in Wall, NJ Monday, November 20, 2023.

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Saturday’s grand opening starts with light refreshments at 10 a.m., followed by a ribbon-cutting at 11 a.m.

“We’re really excited because we worked really hard on this,” Shah said.

Vanessa Demma praised Ziobro’s mentorship of the girls.

“She’s been a great help and is such a role model,” she said. “It’s been an amazing experience and very inspiring for them. (Fort Monmouth) was welcoming women into these jobs when nobody else was doing it. For the girls to see that, and help bring it to light for the public, is an amazing thing.”

For more information about InfoAge Science & History Museums at Camp Evans, visit www.infoage.org.

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Fort Monmouth women's history highlighted in Wall by Girl Scout teens