The year is 2017, January and the people of San Diego have hit the streets.

According to some estimates, a total of 4.5 million people in cities all over the country

marched in that year's women's march.

After the march in San Diego, marches left some of their protest materials on the steps of San Diego, Marchers left some of their protest materials

on the steps of a large Spanish colonial style building

with arches and big windows.

This is the Women's Museum of California.

And to be honest, there couldn't have been a better place.

One woman took pink boxing gloves to the march and she had every woman that she met

signed the boxing gloves. History is happening every day. It's not just something that happened

100 or 200 years ago.

For decades, the Women's Museum of California, nestled inside San Diego's History Center center had preserved and curated stories of women and it's pushed visitors to

contemplate the ways women have contributed to spaces not often considered and it was all because of a woman who made it her mission to reclaim a place in history.

My name is Baudelaire and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today we go to San Diego to the Women's Museum of California to hear the story of a woman

that set out to document women's history,

unintentionally becoming part of it herself.

More after this. Oh, The Women's Museum of California wouldn't exist if it weren't for an individual woman

named Mary Masco. When she was growing up Mary's family was very involved in their church and as a little girl she dreamed of becoming a pastor.

Her dad was like no you can't you're a girl. This is Melissa Jones. She's the associate director of the Women's Museum of California.

And at first, Mary took what her father said. She grew up, started a family, and eventually moved out to

San Diego in the 1970s at this point Mary was nearing 50 but was becoming more involved in a lot of community groups

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