MANCHESTER — To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Lawrence L. Lee Scouting Museum and Max I. Silber Library, which displays one of the largest private collections of Boy Scout memorabilia in the country, has opened an exhibit to commemorate the Girl Scouts' anniversary.

On March 12, 1912, Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low assembled 18 girls from Savannah, Ga., for the first Girl Scout meeting. Today, Girl Scouts of the USA has a membership of more than 3.2 million girls and adults.

The link between the two is based on more than a common goal of building character and real-world skills in youth, according to the museum. It goes back to their common founder, Lt. Gen. Robert Baden-Powell, a British hero of the Boer War, who formally launched the Boy Scouting program in Great Britain in 1908. By 1910, Baden Powell established the Girl Guides as a female counterpart to his Boy Scouting program. Powell's wife, Lady Olave Baden-Powell, began working with the Girl Guides in 1915.

“We have had a small display of Girl Scout artifacts for several years”, said Steve Davis of Nashua, chief docent at the Lee Scouting Museum. “Because both Boy and Girl Scouting are family-based organizations, many moms and dads suggested we include Girl Scouting at the museum, as well. There are so many points of similarity between the two organizations: their founding in England by Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, their goals and purposes and their history. The Boy Scouts of America just celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2010.”

The new exhibit includes a half-dozen Girl Scout uniform styles, as they changed through the years; various Girl Scout books; pieces of camping gear; a special section on the Girl Mariners; and recognition of the annual Girl Scout cookie sales fundraiser.

The museum was founded in 1969 by the late Max I. Silber of Nashua as a tribute to Lawrence L. Lee, the first executive of the Daniel Webster Council, Boy Scouts of America. An extensive library of Boy's Life periodicals, Scouting magazines and other archival and research materials bears Silber's name in tribute, as well.

The museum contains colorful and historic exhibits including Scouts on Stamps from Mafeking to the present, the Joseph Moyer World Jamboree collection, a complete collection of Max Silber commemorative belt buckles, and a flag carried to the moon by New Hampshire Boy Scout, and American astronaut, Alan Shepard. The museum displays sketches, letters and Boer War artifacts of Lord Robert Baden Powell which is said to comprise one of the finest collections of memorabilia of Scouting's Founder assembled anywhere.

The museum, which is owned by the Daniel Webster Council and staffed by volunteers, is at Camp Carpenter on Bodwell Road. It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays from September through June, and select days during the same hours in July and August when Cub Scouts are in camp.

For more information, go to www.scoutingmuseum.org.