This Week in Women’s Business History

March 30 – April 5

Mar. 30, 1868
Maud Humphrey is born. She was a renowned artist and illustrator.

Mar. 31, 1925
Henrietta Chamberlain King dies. She operated and expanded King Ranch in southern Texas after the death of her husband, working closely with her son-in-law, Robert Kleberg.

Apr. 1, 1959
Investment firm Ferris & Co. announced that Julia Montgomery (later Walsh) was made a general partner. Within a few years she was named senior vice president, then vice chairman of the Washington, DC firm.

Apr. 2, 1970
Ruth Alexander Nichols dies. Nichols was a writer-photographer who developed a specialty in photographing children. She produced covers for Good Housekeeping and Women’s Day and had numerous advertising clients.

Apr. 3, 1913
Antonia Rago Herbert is born. After graduating from law school in 1938, she went into private practice.

Apr. 4, 2018
Gertrude Hadley Jeannette dies. Jeannette, an actor and producer, started Elks Community Theater in Harlem when the American Negro Theater closed in 1948. One of actor-director-writer Ossie Davis’s earliest plays, Alice in Wonder (later renamed The Big Deal) was produced there in 1952.

Apr. 5, 1908
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey is born. Third daughter of Lillian and Frank Gilbreth, she worked as a buyer for Macy’s department store. With her younger brother, Frank (Jr.), she co-authored Cheaper by the Dozen, and other books about her family.

Last week in women’s business history

Mar. 23, 1897
Victoria Hernandez is born. She ran the first music store in New York City devoted to Puerto Rican music.

Mar. 24, 1940
Kate Sessions dies. A world-renowned horticulturalist, Sessions, in 1939, was the first woman honored by the American Genetic Association for her achievements in introducing foreign plants to the US. She owned and operated commercial garden nurseries throughout the San Diego area. In an inventive commercial venture, she leased 32 acres in San Diego’s City Park in 1892; her rent was 100 trees planted in the park per year and 300 trees and shrubs for planting throughout the city. Trees planted by Sessions still make up the landscaping of this San Diego jewel, now called Balboa Park.

Mar. 25, 1914
Aline B. Saarinen is born. She was a print and television journalist who in 1971 was promoted to head of NBC’s Paris Bureau.

Mar. 26, 1967
Minnie Williams Miller dies. A ranch operator and businesswoman, Miller bred championship Guernsey cows and Hampshire sheep at her Thousand Springs Ranch in Idaho. She was also chairman and president of Miller & Viele, her family’s a real estate and mortgage loan company in Salt Lake City.

Mar. 27, 1997
Mildred Custin dies. Custin was named president of Bonwit Teller Philadelphia in 1958; in 1965 she became president of the twelve store Bonwit chain. After retiring in 1970, she started a consulting business, Mildred Custin, Ltd. She introduced the work of designers Ralph Lauren, Pierre Cardin, and Calvin Klein.

Mar. 28, 1892
Myra Bradwell, whose 1869 application to practice law in Illinois was rejected by the Illinois Supreme Court (and the ruling was upheld by the US Supreme Court), is admitted to US Supreme Court Bar. Bradwell’s legal knowledge and training were instrumental in creating her legal newspaper, the Chicago Legal News, and it became one of the most influential legal publications in the country.

Mar. 29, 1900
Mabel Flanley is born. With partner Sally Woodward she founded one of the earliest female-owned public relations agencies, Flanley and Woodward Public Relations.