This Week in Women’s Business History

July 13 – 19

Jul. 13, 1901
Myrtle “Tillie” Lewis is born. She founded an independent cannery in California, Tillie Lewis Foods, which processed Italian pomodoro tomatoes.

Jul. 14, 1888
Mary Lura Sherrill is born. She earned a PhD in chemistry and chaired the chemistry department at Mount Holyoke College.

Jul. 15, 1954
Louise Stanley dies. When the US Dept of Agriculture created the Bureau of Home Economics in 1923, Louise Stanley was named its first chief. During the 20 years Stanley headed the bureau, it researched and published information about food and nutrition, clothing and textiles, and housing and equipment to help homemakers consume wisely. Stanley earned a PhD in chemistry from Yale University in 1911.

Jul. 16, 1882
Violette N. Anderson is born. An attorney whose career included both public office as an assistant prosecutor and private practice, Anderson was the first Black woman admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court.

Jul. 17, 2001
Katharine Graham dies. Graham took charge of The Washington Post in 1963 when her husband, who had succeeded her father as head of the newspaper and its parent company, committed suicide. She stayed for twenty-eight years, serving as president, publisher, and chairman. Graham was renowned for supporting her editors and reporters as they pursued monumental stories. In 1998, her autobiography, Personal History, won a Pulitzer Prize.

Jul. 18, 1905
Mary Sears is born. An oceanographer, Sears commanded the Oceanographic Unit of the US Navy Hydrographic Office during World War II.

Jul. 19, 2012
Sylvia Woods dies. In 1962 she bought a small diner in Harlem, created Sylvia’s Restaurant, and earned the moniker the Queen of Soul Food. She expanded her business to include prepared foods sold nationwide in grocery stores under the Sylvia’s brand, and a catering company.

Last week in women’s business history

Jul. 6, 1980
Gail Patrick Jackson Velde dies. She formed Paisano Productions with her then husband, Cornwell Jackson, and writer Erle Stanley Gardner to bring Gardner’s “Perry Mason” to television. Gail Patrick Jackson was executive producer of the original series, 1957 – 1966.

Jul. 7, 1886
Clara E. Westropp is born. Together with her sister and several other prominent Cleveland women she co-founded the Women’s Savings and Loan Company in 1922.

Jul. 8, 2000
Jeanne Vestal dies. Vestal was an editor and executive with several major American publishers including Dial Press, J. B. Lippincott, and Franklin Watts.

Jul. 9, 1946
Emme C. Gerhard dies. Gerhard was a photographer and one-half of the Gerhard Sisters studio in St. Louis. She and her sister Mayme operated the studio until 1936.

Jul. 10, 1905
Mildred Wirt Benson is born. She was a freelance journalist best known for her work for the Stratemeyer Syndicate writing Nancy Drew stories from outlines provided by Edward Stratemeyer (the founder) and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams.

Jul. 11, 1902
Luzena Stanley Wilson dies. Wilson went west during the California Gold Rush with her husband and young sons. For nearly 30 years, Wilson operated boarding houses, hotels, and inns in Sacramento, Nevada City, and Vacaville, California.

Jul. 12, 1950
Elsie de Wolfe Mendel dies. Before she started her business in 1905, the work of decorating rooms was typically handled by male architects and upholsterers. De Wolfe created interiors for her wealthy clients that relied on “plenty of optimism and white paint, comfortable chairs with lights beside them, open fires on the hearth and flowers wherever they ‘belong,’ mirrors and sunshine in all rooms” and defined good taste for the era.