The story of the Limping Lady

 ...why this story is told here: most heroes in history are men but women.  Here it is to be known that there are people, of the women kind, that devote their lives, cuz it is their own lives they put at risk, to work for the benefit in saving million and millions of other people but, and there is a but worth to mention, are not remembered.  Women are mothers, sisters, wives and girlfriends.  What is been done here is locating those and putting them in the web.  There are young girls and people of other ages that would feel honored seeing their kind been people that had been recorded in history, never to be forgotten, ever. 

Over the long history of intelligence operations, there are few individual stories

more compelling than that of Virginia Hall. The Baltimore, Maryland native got her

first taste of clandestine operations in World War II, following the fall of France to

Axis forces in 1940. She spent the war in occupied territory as an operative with

Britain’s Special Operations Executive and later with CIA’s predecessor, the Office

of Strategic Services (OSS). During her time with the OSS, she was essential to

resistance fighters after famously evading capture through the Pyrenees Mountains.

A feat that is made all the more impressive by the fact that she did so on just one

leg.

The story of the Limping Lady, so nicknamed because of a wooden leg she wore

after losing her own leg in a hunting accident, is taking on a new life for new

audiences at CIA. Working with a company that specializes in bringing art and

history to blind and low vision audiences, the CIA Museum staff commissioned a

3D recreation of one of our Intelligence Art Collection’s most famous pieces: Les

Marguerites Fleuriront ce Soir. The painting, completed in 2006 by artist Jeffrey

Bass, features Virginia Hall in the early morning hours, operating a radio powered

by a makeshift generator made from a bicycle frame.

Side-by-side photos of the new exhibit and a close-up of the original painting.

The first of its kind at CIA, this new exhibit is reflective of the Agency’s broad

commitment to accessibility and inclusion. Sitting on a tabletop underneath the

painting, this accessible ‘painting’ is 3D printed with texture and depth, allowing

the blind or visually-impaired to feel the painting. Using their hands, they can run

their fingers over the scene, feeling small details such as hair and floorboard grain

with incredible accuracy. Small tactile sensors interspersed throughout the painting

trigger audio recordings that further explain what is depicted in the image; and

buttons along the base explain Hall’s history as well as how best to experience the

exhibit.

Someone runs their hands over the exhibit. Silver nodules throughout act as touch-activated sensors to play an audio recording which further explains what the user is feeling.

Officers from the CIA Museum took great care to provide historical accuracy and

nuance to the audio recordings, enlisting the help of retired CIA officers to recreate

the exhibit’s Morse code soundbites on an actual WWII-area radio. In true CIA

fashion, those retirees embedded a hidden message in the code, creating somewhat

of a stir among the CIA code-breaking community. The museum also leaned on the

expertise of our officers who are fluent in French and German to include foreign

languages in the exhibit, further contributing to a rich, immersive audio experience.

The museum unveiled the new exhibit on June 2, 2021.  Working with blind and

...note: please go and visit the site.  Am tired and asleep, read the story there cuz I am done.

New Virginia Hall Exhibit Brings Intelligence Art to Our Blind and Low Vision Officers - CIA