Girl Scouts, Inc. was incorporated in New York on March 16, 1915, with Juliette Gordon Low becoming its first national president.
On March 16, 1915, the organization Low had founded three years earlier achieved formal legal status when Girl Scouts, Inc. was incorporated in New York. Juliette Gordon Low was named the organization's first national president, cementing her role as the driving institutional force behind American Girl Scouting.
Incorporation transformed the movement from a loose network of local troops into a unified national organization with standardized programs, governance structures, and legal protections for its name, symbols, and activities. This was a critical step in ensuring the longevity and consistency of the Girl Scouts as it expanded rapidly across the United States during the 1910s.
As founding president, Low traveled tirelessly—despite worsening health and near-total deafness—to promote the organization, recruit volunteer leaders, and secure financial and institutional support. Her leadership during this formative period established many of the organizational hallmarks still recognizable today, including national headquarters operations, standardized badge and uniform systems, and a formal national Promise and Law. Her presidency (1915–1920) coincided with explosive growth in membership, laying the institutional foundation for an organization that would eventually serve tens of millions of American girls across more than a century.