Remembering The Flower Girl: Jan Rose Kasmir, a Chrysanthemum, and the Vietnam War
"A 17-year-old high school girl named Jan Rose Kasmir walked up to a row of soldiers holding rifles with bayonets...
She held a single chrysanthemum bloom in her hands."
October 21, 1967
On this day, 100,000 demonstrators attended the March on the Pentagon - one of the most massive demonstrations of the Vietnam War.
A 17-year-old high school girl named Jan Rose Kasmir walked up to a row of soldiers holding rifles with bayonets.
Jan courageously stood directly in front of the bayonets.
She held a single chrysanthemum bloom in her hands.
The little daisy-like flower was the only thing between Kasmir's face and the tip of a blade.
This image, The Flower Girl, became one of the most iconic photos of the Vietnam War era.
This post was featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast:
helping gardeners find their roots,
one story at a time
The Flower Girl - Colorized Image
The Flower Girl - Original Image
Related posts:
Jimsonweed or Jamestown Weed: A Plant of Peril Through the Ages
4th Grade Botanists: A Modern Approach to Teaching Botany
Remembering Ernest Thompson Seton: Writer, Artist, Naturalist, and Cofounder of the Boy Scouts of America
A Review of Henry Austin Dobson’s Rose Poem: Beauty, Time, and the Fallacy of the Ephemeral
A Look Back at the Seasonal Cranberry Market of 1843