October 11 - Alaska P Davidson

Image courtesy wikipedia.org

On this day, in 1922, Alaska Packard Davidson became the first female special agent in the 
Bureau of Investigation (the Federal part wouldn't be added for another 13 years). Born on March 1, 1868 in Warren, Ohio, Alaska Packard had two brothers, James and William, who became famous in their own rights as the founder of a car company. Alaska's fame came a little later in life but is no less impressive, especially when you consider that she only had about three years of formal education (she was a girl in the nineteenth century after all). She also suffered quite a bit of personal tragedy, losing her only known child, Esther, in 1902, her first husband, Ephraim McCrumb Jr shortly thereafter and her second husband, James Davidson, sometime after 1920.

In 1910, Congress passed and President Taft signed the Mann Act. It was designed to curtail prostitution and the human trafficking that went along with it. After toiling away at investigating Mann Act cases for over a decade, the Bureau finally decided that maybe it would help if they had female agent to talk to the women being trafficked. We don't know how Alaska got interested in applying for the job (I suspect her second husband had just died and she was looking for some income but there's no proof of that either way). At any rate, she was hired by Bureau director William J. Burns in October 1922 and sent to New York City for training. In spite of her minimal education, she successfully completed her training and was assigned to the Washington DC office.

Image courtesy fbi.gov

Unfortunately, the sexism of the time meant that Alaska wasn't going to be allowed to do much. The Bureau wouldn't let her be part of cases they deemed to graphic because they didn't want to offend her delicate sensibilities. Since they were dealing with sex crimes, that included most of the cases. It didn't help that the one case she definitely did work on was against a fellow agent who was selling classified information to criminals. It's no surprise that the Field Agent in Charge of the DC office didn't care to keep her around.

Image courtesy npr.org

Shortly after Alaska was hired, the Bureau hired two other female agents, Jessie Duckstein and Lenore Houston. After the Teapot Dome Scandal broke in 1924, the entire power structure of the government was shaken up and Director Burns was replaced with J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover almost immediately requested the resignations of Alaska and Jessie (he apparently forgot about Lenore as he didn't get rid of her until 1928). So, on June 10, 1924, Alaska returned to civilian life, less than two years after her experimental tenure began. She remained close to Washington for the rest of her life, passing away in Alexandria, Virginia on July 16, 1934. Incidentally, after those first three ladies, the FBI wouldn't hire another female agent until 1972, coincidentally (or not) happening right after Hoover's own death.

Also on this day, in Disney history: David Dodd Hand