Ed. note: This post is part of the Spotlight on Commerce series highlighting the contributions of current and past members of the Department of Commerce during Women's History Month. When Emma Hickerson started volunteering at Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary headquarters in Galveston, Texas, in 1996, it was just a "temporary thing" – or so she thought. But things didn't quite work...

Guest blog post by D. Lawrence Tarazano, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office This originally appeared on Smithsonian.com on March 14, 2017. When it comes to St. Patrick’s Day, people think of many different things: Irish folk music, green beer, corned beef and cabbage. But I have something else in mind. Championed by a leprechaun, they’re magically delicious!™ If you guessed Lucky Charms™ breakfast...

Ed. note: This post is part of the Spotlight on Commerce series highlighting the contributions of current and past members of the Department of Commerce during Women's History Month. The U.S. Census Bureau has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to employing women. Ever since 1880, when it started using professional enumerators rather than U.S. marshals, the Census Office had employed...

Ed. note: This post is part of the Spotlight on Commerce series highlighting the contributions of current and past members of the Department of Commerce during Women's History Month. It's a dark cold night in the early 1830s in Nantucket, Massachusetts. On one house's widow's walk, a father and daughter, bundled against the cold, are studying the night sky, stars, and seas, armed with telescope...

The roots of National Women’s History Month go back to March 8, 1857, when women from various New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909, but it was not until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week to be commemorated annually the second week of March. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month...