Margaret Knight is best remembered as the inventor of the machine that makes flat-bottomed paper bags.  This was a 19th-century innovation that still influences machinery today. However, that single achievement only scratches the surface of her story.  

Knight had a brilliant mind for mechanical problems, and she was confident in her abilities.  Early in her career, a machinist copied her invention and tried to patent it for himself. When Margaret Knight realized what had happened, she did not hesitate. She scraped together her money and hired a patent attorney to right the wrong.

To understand Margaret Knight, people need to recognize her for her creativity and her grit. She was a talented problem-solver who never stepped away from defending her accomplishments.

Growing Up

Margaret Knight (1838–1914) was born in York, Maine, the youngest of three children. Perhaps influenced by her two older brothers, she never played with dolls and loved crafting toys for herself and her brothers. She became known in the area for her superior kites and sleds.

The family was torn by the death of her father when Margaret was still a child. Margaret’s mother heard there was work in New Hampshire in the cotton mills, so the family moved there. Mrs. Knight and her boys took jobs at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. When Margaret was 12, she joined them.

Mill Work

Margaret was at work on the line one day when a shuttle flew off its moorings. Shuttles are very sharp, and one flying loose was  dangerous. This one injured a woman working near Margaret.

Because Margaret witnessed the accident first hand, she was able to puzzle through what happened and why. She came up with two solutions—one that would keep the shuttle from flying off the loom; the other was a way to cover the tip of the shuttle to reduce the danger.

Knight approached management with her solutions on how to prevent another accident. The supervisor put Margaret’s idea into practice, and it made for a safer workplace. Margaret Knight was too young to know about patents then, so she did not profit financially from her extra work. However, the experience offered her an excellent education for the future.

Illness

While working at the cotton mill, Knight became ill and had to leave her job. There is no documentation as to what caused her illness, but many mill workers suffered from “brown lung” from the cotton dust and lint that blew around the factory. This caused workers to be prone to suffer chronic coughing, asthma, and severe respiratory failure.

Once she was feeling better, she looked for other employment. For a time, she worked at an upholstery shop and then moved on to a company specializing in photography.

Paper Bag Company

In 1867, Margaret Knight was living in Springfield, Massachusetts, and working at the Columbia Paper Bag Company.  Women were paid one-third of what male coworkers received, but she was glad for the work.

The factories at that time had simple machines that made V-bottom bags. Flat bottom bags were also made by the factory, but they had to be put together by hand.

Knight’s first job was as a bag bundler, tying up the machine-made envelope-style bags for shipping. From her vantage point at the end of the production line, she could see the workers guiding the simpler bags along from machine to machine. She also watched as another group—mainly women— painstakingly cut, folded, and glued what would be each flat-bottom bag. Because this labor-intensive process was so slow, flat-bottom bags were an expensive luxury item for merchants.

As Knight worked at her job each day, she also thought about how these processes could be automated.

Crafting Her Ideas

At the end of each day, she returned to her boarding house to test out what she felt would work. Her first invention was for a machine that improved on the V-bottom paper bag. For the patent, she called it a “paper feeding machine.” In 1870, she received a patent on that invention. She then applied her efforts to figuring out how a machine could be used to make a flat-bottom bag.

Working Model for Flat-Bottom Bag Machine

A few months later, she had a working wooden model that she was pleased with. Some who saw the device said it was “rickety,” but it cut, folded, and glued over 1,000 bags during her testing phase.

Just as she had done with her application for the “paper feeding machine,” Knight needed to find a mechanic’s shop where they could make her a working model in iron. She chose a machinist in Boston to help her.

The machine was extraordinarily complex, so in addition to leaving all her paperwork for the machinist, she checked in regularly to oversee what was being done.

Here’s How It Worked

The process starts with a roll of brown paper. A feeding mechanism draws the paper into the machine, where the paper is cut to size and then rolled into a tube.

Folding arms guide the edges of the paper inward to make a seam, along which a paste wheel applies adhesive. The paper is then pressed flat.

To create the flat bottom, special blades fold the sides of the paper inward. The top is left open and then the machine folds the two remaining flaps down over each other to create the flat bottom. As the folding arms move the flaps into place, glue applicators (timed by the machine’s gears) stamp onto the flaps the exact amount of adhesive to hold them shut. Finally, the completed bag is pushed through a set of heavy pressing rollers to firmly seal the glued bottom.

Ultimately, the finished bag is then ejected from the machine.

Margaret Knight clearly knew what she was doing. Her machines worked.

Knight’s Idea Stolen and Copied

During the time the machinist in Boston was working on Knight’s iron model, Charles Annan, another machinist, stopped in to visit. He noted what his friend was working on for Knight.

Annan saw the brilliance of what she developed, and he felt there was money to be made. He copied as many of the materials as he could and raced back to his own shop to make his own working model. He then submitted a patent application under his own name.  

When Margaret Knight received a message that her prototype was completed, she stopped by and picked it up. She brought with her the detailed paperwork she had prepared and took everything to the Patent Office.

Only then did she learn that someone had filed for the same device days ahead of her. 

But Charles Annan underestimated her. Knight was resolute, knowing full well who had put in the thousands of hours of sketching, problem-solving, and building to make the machine a reality. She was fully prepared to prove it though it would be costly. She scraped together what money she had and hired a patent attorney. She then sued Charles Annan for patent interference.   

Annan’s Defense

Annan claimed his device was somewhat different, and therefore, he deserved the patent. However, other sources noted that he told some people that he didn’t believe a woman possessed the mechanical ability to conceptualize such a complex machine.

Knight was a meticulous worker and had complete documentation of all the steps she took in creating her invention. She gathered her early journal entries and detailed mechanical drawings. She also gathered testimonies from everyone from the people in her rooming house to the machinists who built her prototypes.

The court case took 16 days, proving very costly for Knight, but she was determined. Ultimately, the judge for the patent office ruled in her favor. Charles Annan’s patent was thrown out, and Margaret Knight was rightfully granted the flat-bottom paper bag machine.

Knight’s machine was an important invention. It turned the flat-bottom paper bag from an expensive, hand-crafted luxury into the cheap, disposable basic bags we use today.

Knight’s Company Already Making Bags

In 1870—before her patent was granted–Margaret Knight and a business partner set up Eastern Paper Bag Company to make the bags. Knight overcame resistance as a factory boss because workers saw that she had complete command of the machinery and the factory process.

Once she received her patent, Knight made a new arrangement with her business partner. She asked for a royalty on the profits (capping her take at $25,000). The business partner was left to run the factory, and Knight was free to focus on inventing.

More Work Ahead for Margaret Knight

Her 1871 patent victory was just the beginning of a long, prolific, and highly unusual career for a woman in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She spent the rest of her life as a full-time, professional inventor.

She rented space in Framingham, Massachusetts. This gave her a place to experiment with what she was working on. Most of her devices had to do with manufacturing. One was a machine for boring holes, another was for a numbering machine, and yet another pertained to making windows and sashes. These were the types of challenges that interested her.

But Framingham was the seat of shoe manufacturing, so she heard new stories and wondered about ways to improve shoemaking. Between 1883 and 1894, she received six patents for massive, complex shoe-manufacturing machines. These included devices for cutting shoe soles and stitching different parts of the shoe together, which helped further automate another major American industry.

Automotive Industry

The automotive industry was making progress in the early 20^th century, and though Knight was in her 60s by this time, she paid attention to what was happening there.  Between 1902 and 1914, she designed and patented several components for internal combustion engines and rotary motors. She also patented a sleeve-valve automobile engine, a motor drive, and a compound rotary engine.

It was virtually unheard of for a woman of her generation—let alone one in her 70s—to be designing heavy automotive engines.

Fame Much Later

Margaret Knight passed away in Framingham in 1914. She was 76 At her death, she held patents for 22 inventions and had assigned patents for an estimated 60 more to her employers or financial backers.

Margaret Knight never cared about being interviewed or photographed for her inventions. She was always thinking about her next challenge, so the lack of recognition probably didn’t bother her.

But she was too talented to ignore. In 2006, she was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Halls of Fame for her flat-bottom paper bag machine (Patent No. 116,842).

And the Smithsonian Institution has permanently preserved her working model of the paper bag machine. This is an honor afforded to only a few inventions of the 19^th century.

Margaret Knight is often remembered for one particular invention, but the true acclaim she deserves lies in her brilliant, problem-solving mind, her tenacity, and her indomitable spirit. She was far more than the creator of a single machine; she was a visionary who never backed down from a challenge. The work she did resulted in automating many businesses.

“The road to success is always under construction,” says Cheryl McKissack Daniel, President, CEO and now Chair of the Board of McKissack & McKissack, a New York construction company involved in many major infrastructure projects.

In her position as company head, Cheryl Daniel represents the fifth generation of the oldest family-run minority and woman-owned design and construction firm in the country. For more than a century, McKissack family members have stood on the shoulders of the previous generation to build what is now a multimillion-dollar company with almost 200 employees.

The company was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1905 by Cheryl’s grandfather, Moses III (1879-1952). Cheryl McKissack Daniel’s father, William DeBerry McKissack (1925-1988), took over in 1968 and ran the company until 1983 when he suffered a heart attack. Next, his wife and Cheryl’s mother, Leatrice Buchanan McKissack, stepped in to manage and grow the business. She was succeeded by her daughter, Cheryl McKissack Daniel, who still runs the business.

Today their clients include infrastructure projects ranging from transit hubs to data centers.  As of 2026, the firm is currently a key player in several “generational” projects that will define NYC for the next decade. This includes the $9.5 billion New Terminal One at JFK Airport and the ongoing LaGuardia Airport redevelopment. Their involvement in these massive, multi-year contracts provides a stable financial “floor” for the business through the late 2020s.

About 15 years ago, I had the good fortune to write a story about McKissack & McKissack. I’m updating it and reprinting it here because Cheryl McKissack Daniel’s story is now in book form. The Black Family Who Built America: The McKissacks, Two Centuries of Daring Pioneers by Cheryl McKissack Daniel and Nick Chiles, published by Atria (Aug 2025). 

The Family Story in the U.S. Began with Slavery

For the family, working in the building trades to the first family member to arrive in this country. Their ancestor, Moses, was kidnapped from his home in West Africa; he was only 12 at the time. He arrived in the U.S. in 1790 and was purchased by a Scotsman named John McKissack. McKissack provided him with a surname and put the slave to work in the brick-building and construction business McKissack ran with his son, William.

The story expands when William McKissack’s daughter, Susan, caught the eye of a French Huguenot, but the young man’s father opposed the marriage. All the other men in the family lineage had married a “Sarah.” Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV’s father wanted his son to hold out for a woman with the correct first name. However, William McKissack felt the two young people belonged together so he offered an incentive: free bricks for a new home for the couple and slave labor to build it.  The slave, Moses McKissack, would be part of the deal.

Susan and Nathaniel were married in 1841. Construction on the house was delayed and was finally finished in 1855. The mansion now known as Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill, Tennessee, still stands and is open to the public as a museum and an educational site. (Leatrice McKissack is on their Board of Directors.)

Moses McKissack Freed

At some point, William McKissack granted Moses his freedom. Moses married a Cherokee woman. Together, they had 14 children, 12 of whom survived. His ninth son, Gabriel Moses II, was the one who followed his father into the building trades. Gabriel worked out of Pulaski, Tennessee, and became well-known as a craftsman and builder. He was highly sought-after for his intricate work building spiral staircases and adding beautiful finishing touches to buildings.

Two sons of Gabriel’s were interested in construction — Moses III (born in 1879) and Calvin (born in 1890). This is the generation that started the family business that exists today. Moses III began work in Pulaski but started getting jobs in other locations. He soon moved to Nashville where he formally began the business in 1905.

McKissack’s first big commission occurred in 1908 when he was hired to build the Carnegie Library at Fisk University. He obtained other plum assignments, building the home of Governor A.H. Roberts, dormitories at Roger Williams University, the AME Sunday School Union Building, and many residences and other churches. Four of the Nashville buildings built by the McKissacks are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Younger brother Calvin started his own company in Dallas, Texas. After building in both Texas and Oklahoma, he accepted a teaching position and came to Nashville where he devoted part of his time to helping his brother with the business.

New Requirement for Licenses in Architecture

The McKissacks were very much in demand, but in 1922. But Tennessee — along with some other states — began requiring building designers to be licensed. Up until this date, builders developed designs and executed what they planned.

Moses and Calvin began taking a correspondence course to learn the technicalities they would need to pass the exam. When they appeared before the state licensing board, the administrators did not want to permit the two Black men to take the test. This was unheard of.

“After discussing it among themselves, the board supervisors reluctantly decided it wouldn’t do any harm,” explains Cheryl McKissack Daniel. “It was unlikely that the men would pass the test anyway, so why not let them take it and fail?”

Both men passed, sending the administrators back into a huddle. Now what could they do to keep the men from getting their licenses?

By that time, the national press heard the story and was writing about the discriminatory practice. Negative publicity about Tennessee was increasing, so the board of administrators decided to award the licenses.

Then the board itself pushed for the men to be given licenses in 22 additional states.

Company Continues to Grow

Moses and Calvin were getting work throughout the South. As black businessmen, they knew the only safe time to travel was during the day, and they could not stop along the way because of Jim Crow laws. They had to carefully plan their travel and eating so that they could be at a friend’s or relative’s home by nightfall.

Both men were community leaders. Moses was director of the National Negro Business League of America and was a major stockholder in Penny Savings Bank of Nashville and the Universal Life Insurance Company of Memphis. Calvin was president of the Negro Board of Trade and was also a trustee at Fisk University.

In 1942, the men received national recognition when they secured the contract to build the 99th Pursuit Squadron Air Base at Tuskegee, Alabama. The job grew to be an almost $8 million dollar deal. At the time, it was the largest government contract ever awarded to African Americans. In 1942, Moses and Calvin were awarded a Spaulding Medal for operating the outstanding Negro business for that year.

During the Roosevelt administration, Their College Hill housing development in Nashville had come to national attention. The McKissack plans were for a master-planned community that directly challenged the discriminatory housing practices of the mid-20th century.  The plans included over 400 families living in a mix of single-family homes, duplexes, and apartment units. (Some of it is still standing.) As a result of this work, Moses McKissack was invited to the White House to confer on housing issues.

Succession

At Moses’ death in 1952, Calvin stepped in. Calvin had no children, so when he passed away in 1968, Moses’ son, William, succeeded him.

William had three daughters, Andrea, and twins, Cheryl and Deryl. Given the era, his initial dream was that the girls would marry and sons-in-law would join the business. But perhaps from the beginning, his parenting style went against this plan. On many nights and weekends when William returned to work, he took the girls with him. They were kept busy tracing documents or working with T-squares and rulers.

Clearly, the underlying family message was one of equal opportunity.

Graduation

In 1983, Leatrice traveled to Washington, D.C. The twins were graduating from Howard University. Leatrice would attend the ceremony, while William remained at home to organize a big graduation party. 

Unfortunately for the family, William McKissack suffered a heart attack. He never fully recovered, so other plans needed to be made for the business. After some thought, Leatrice knew she was best suited to step in. Lea had been a homemaker, but she was well-educated and aware of the issues her husband dealt with. She frequently accompanied him on trips to various jobs, so she heard him talk about the various client issues.

Telling the Extended Family

Many relatives worked in the business or had money invested, and they were all concerned. When Lea and the girls returned to Nashville, a meeting was scheduled, and over some objections, Lea announced her plan. “My husband ran a wonderful business, and I often said, “The good Lord let me rest for 15 years and then put me to work.”

“I found it more trouble being a woman than being an African American,” Lea said recently in a phone interview. “I had four brothers; I was the only daughter. We were all given the same education, and my parents always told me I could be anything.”

She took the company in hand and ran with it. In 1990, Leatrice B. McKissack was honored by President George Bush with the award for National Female Entrepreneur of the Year.

McKissack & McKissack Today

Cheryl McKissack Daniel grew up knowing she would work in the building industry in some way. She trained as a civil engineer, and an early job involved working as part of the team building missile silos. After a couple of years at Weidlinger Associates, she moved on to the “estimate” division at Turner Construction, a job she describes as excellent training for anyone.

Cheryl was not the only family member to follow the family passion; older sister Andrea was trained as a civil engineer and spent many years as an interior designer for Stickley, only recently retiring. Cheryl’s twin sister Deryl became an architect and runs McKissack & McKissack of D.C. The company provides architecture, engineering, program and construction management services in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles, and Deryl was the chief architect for the Martin Luther King Memorial, established on the Mall in Washington in 2011.)

Moved to Nashville

Shortly thereafter, Cheryl, then living in New York City, decided she could ease the burden on her mother by commuting to Nashville to help out for a couple of days each week. After a couple of years of commuting, Cheryl Daniel set up a New York office. She began specializing in design and planning, but she soon found that she preferred construction. “The jobs span a longer time, and for that reason, they can be more profitable,” she says.

In 1999, her mother was ready to get out of the business, so Cheryl bought the company from her. Now her mother sits on her board of advisors, and the New York office is the hub of all activity.

Other Jobs

Cheryl McKissack Daniel’s first big job was the Germantown High School in Philadelphia, and while the company still does some work in Philadelphia, the firm mainly works in the New York area. The company was also hired to relocate the Atlantic rail yards in Brooklyn so the Barclay Center could be built. During that time, the company also had to move Carlton Street Bridge.

McKissack & McKissack also worked to build the World Trade Center Transportation Hub as well as the construction of the more recent Tappan Zee Bridge.

Being a minority and woman-owned business helped McKissack& McKissack get a foothold on certain jobs. “The challenge — and a place where we have succeeded — is converting that client contact into a long-term relationship,” says Daniel.

In 2005 McKissack & McKissack was hired to demolish Harlem Hospital in preparation for its re-building. They were kept on as a subcontractor for the construction phase. One of the issues Daniel felt strongly about was hiring workers from the community. As they began accepting resumés, Daniel saw that they had so many applicants that they could funnel workers to other businesses looking to hire. McKissack now has a Harlem office on 125th Street and still helps companies who are looking for qualified applicants.

Success Continues

Today McKissack & McKissack manages a portfolio of projects valued at over $50 billion (including the $9.5 billion JFK New Terminal One and the massive LaGuardia redevelopment).

This is quite an accomplishment for any business owner, but particularly notable because their success tells a particularly great American story.

***

During the time the McKissacks were building their business, another Black architect was finding a way for himself as well. Read Paul Revere Williams,Prominent L.A. Architect.

• Performed with many circuses as a tiger trainer and had the center ring with Ringling Brothers in the early 1920s
• Worked with the big cats for 57 years despite 18 separate maulings and multiple minor injuries

Mabel Stark (name at birth, Mary Haynie) was one of seven children born to a farming couple in Tennessee; the family may have moved to Kentucky during her childhood but Stark’s early years are hard to verify.

At age 17 she began training to be a nurse and got a job at a hospital in Kentucky. To pick up additional money, she became a carnival dancer (known as a “hoochie coochie” dancer).

The Lure of the Menagerie

After a failed marriage, she returned to the carnival. When not working, Stark spent time with the menagerie overseen by Al G. Barnes. Barnes eventually decided to start his own show, and he invited Mabel Stark to come with him.

Al Barnes hired Louis Roth, a famous Hungarian animal trainer, who was first to use food and positive reinforcement to train the animals instead of violence. Stark worked as Roth’s assistant, and they married for a time, but Roth was a drinker and his act and his marriage suffered from it. Barnes fired him, and Mabel, whose own popularity was growing, divorced him.

In 1913, she opened her own act for the Barnes circus, working with 10 tigers in the ring. It was the biggest act being done in the U.S. at that time. Her trademark look was a white bodysuit.

Adopted Tiger Cub

At about this time, Stark adopted a sickly tiger cub and nursed him back to health. She found that Rajah, as she called him, was very affectionate, so she developed a way to encourage his behaviors to create a wrestling act. In Stark’s autobiography, Hold That Tiger (1938), she writes: “Rajah would run straight toward me. Up he went on his hind legs, his forefeet around my neck. We turned around once or twice, I threw him to the ground and we rolled three or four times. I opened his mouth and put my face inside, then jumped to my feet.”

For audiences, the act was thrilling, even frightening. Word-of-mouth grew, and this brought the press. The reporters wrote about the act and that sold tickets. Mabel had made it to the big time.

Mabel Stark had a simple theory about her success with animals. She saw each as having its own personality and temperament that a trainer needed to understand. She also emphasized that there was no such thing as a “tamed wild animal.” “They can be subdued, but never conquered,” she said, and she liked nothing better than matching wits with them.

Ringling Takes Notice

In 1920 Ringling Brothers hired her away from Barnes and gave her the center ring. She gained all the status of a star. She had top billing and her own train car. At her peak, she performed with 18 tigers and a black panther.

She also married the circus accountant, but that did not work out well. The accountant was embezzling from the Ringlings. He was let go, and Mabel’s career took a hit as well. In 1925 Ringling decided to terminate the cat acts.

The circus press agent stated that the reason for the change was that the cats were dangerous,, and parents disliked the cat acts because they were too frightening. The steel cage was also difficult to set up and take down during the run of the show.

Stark suspected differently—that she was being punished for her connection to the embezzler. The Ringlings maintained cat acts in two of their stadium locations, but they brought in newcomer Clyde Beatty.

Stark was still under contract, and she was placed in a horse act. She hated it.

New Love Interest

One more love interest entered her life during the Ringling years. The menagerie boss, Art Rooney, was a fellow who had never dated and wore makeup and nail polish, but the two married and were very happy. Rooney died shortly after, so Stark’s one true romance came to a quick end.

In 1926 she was traded by Ringling to a medium-sized circus, the John Robinson Circus, and it was with this group that she suffered one of her worst maulings.

Danger in the Ring

In the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries, trainers were sometimes injured seriously, even killed, in the ring. The cats were known to lash out with their paws, and while the cuts were not usually fatal it could leave nasty gashes. Other accidents could and did happen.

Each trainer took into the ring their own choice of training tools; Stark always used a whip and a stick, and sometimes a gun loaded with blanks.

In 1928 the Robinson circus train was fighting bad weather to get to Bangor, Maine, for a performance, and the train pulled into town late. This generally would have meant cancellation of some of the animal acts since the animals wouldn’t have been fed or given time to calm down after the trip. Stark, however, decided to continue with her act.

As the cats entered the ring, one of the quiet ones took the wrong stool, angering one of the meaner cats, Sheik. Sheik responded by taking a severe swipe at Stark’s left leg, almost severing her lower limb. Her assistant, working outside the ring, started rattling the door, the signal for the animals to return to the entry tunnel. In the chaos, two cats arrived at the tunnel entrance at the same time. Sheik turned back and charged Stark who reacted by jamming the training stick into the back of the tiger’s throat. Another cat, Zoo, picked up on the disruption and also attacked.

Somehow Stark got her right hand free and pulled out her pistol, loaded with blanks, and fired directly into Zoo’s face. This permitted her to break free, though she passed out soon after and was dragged from the performance ring unconscious. She was hospitalized. She was also told her injuries would require about two years of treatment. However, within a matter of weeks, Stark returned to perform, now sporting bandages and using a cane.

Stunt Performer for Mae West

In 1932, I’m No Angel, starring In Mae West was being filmed. The character must perform in a lion-taming act. Of course, Mabel Stark was the perfect stunt double for Mae West. This job brought Stark to Southern California where in 1938 she was hired full-time by Jungleland in Thousand Oaks, California.

When World War II began, Stark took time away from the cats to work at Lockheed Aircraft for two years.

More Injuries

In 1950 she suffered another particularly terrible accident; her right arm was severely mangled, meriting 175 stitches.

When injuries happened, Stark never blamed the cats: “I always blame myself—not the tiger…Maybe it is an ulcerated tooth, a sore paw, a grudge against the world for no good reason at all that has upset the cat.”

While injections to prevent tetanus were not available during Stark’s early years of performing, it is notable that Mabel Stark lived through so many incidents. The wounds were often deep, and penicillin was not commonly available until the late 1930s.

Jungleland Sold

In late 1967 Jungleland was sold, and the new owner disliked Stark, age 79, and fired her. The animals had to remain at Jungleland. After her departure, one of the tigers escaped and was killed as the men tried to re-capture it. Stark was angry and felt if she had been called, she could have gotten the tiger safely back to the compound.

Three months later she took an overdose of barbiturates and died. The ending of her autobiography, written in 1938, brings us as close as we will come to understanding why:

“Out slink the striped cats, snarling and roaring, leaping at each other or at me. It’s a matchless thrill, and life without it is not worthwhile to me. I hope each new season until my number is up will find me shouting, ‘Let them come!'”

***

For a story of another circus performer, read “How Jumbo Joined the Circus.”

In the early 19th century, the American medical field was almost exclusively a men’s club. However, a few resilient women refused to accept the status quo, stepping forward as pioneers to carve out a new path.

Today, that landscape is shifting dramatically. While men currently account for 61% of active physicians in the U.S., women now make up the majority of medical students and residents. We are standing on the brink of a major demographic shift.

Below are the stories of six unsung women who challenged the establishment and moved the field of medicine forward.

Women Medical Leaders: Lydia Pinkham

Lydia Estes Pinkham (1819-1883) was one of the first people to take women’s health issues seriously.  She opened a closed door on the health matters that are unique to women. To help friends and neighbors, she created a vegetable tonic that helped with “women’s ills.” The family decided to package the product, and her sons soon took to the road to help place the tonic in stores.

Up until this time, women had no resources for health advice. Because Pinkham’s product became so popular, women wrote her for advice. Her responses were mostly common sense (eat well, exercise, and avoid the tight, restrictive clothing that was popular in the 19^th century). Eventually some of the advice was collected in pamphlets.

Though the compound has evolved to meet modern FDA standards, Lydia Pinkham’s Compound (now owned by Numark Brands) can still be found online and in major drug stores.

Clara Barton

Clara Barton (1821-1912) is well-known as the “Angel of the Battlefield”for her work during the Civil War. Later she brought the Red Cross to the U.S. and formed the American Red Cross.

Barton is less well-known for running the Office of Missing Soldiers. During the Civil War, the military had no official identification system. Sometimes soldiers caried a note in their pocket or wallet. Other times, their buddies buried them with something saying who they were.

Clara Barton set up an office in Washington, D.C. that operated from 1865-1867. She received 63,000 letters from families whose loved ones were missing, and she or her staff answered them all. They also managed to identify 22,000 soldiers.

Dr. Rebecca Crumpler

Dr. Rebecca Crumpler (1831-1895) was a Black woman who worked as a nurse for several white doctors in Massachusetts in the 1860s. She was so well-regarded by the men that they recommended her for admission the New England Female Medical College; she became the first African American to be admitted.  

Once she became a physician, she cared for Black patients in the Massachusetts area at a time when white doctors refused to treat people of color. At the end of her career, she wrote a home health guide for women about everything from nursing a newborn to managing cuts and wounds.  For the first time, households had a reliable reference as to how to manage various health issues.

Dorothy Harrison Eustis

Dorothy Harrison Eustis (1886-1946) was a dog breeder who became interested in training guide dogs for the blind.  While she was not a medical professional, her service to humanity was important to the health of people with impaired vision.

Eustis trained the first seeing eye dog brought to this country (1928). She went on to dedicate the rest of her life to breeding and training guide dogs. She and Morris Frank, the fellow who received the first dog she trained, created the school, The Seeing Eye. The school still operates today and continues to train and place dogs.

Dr. Virginia Apgar

Dr. Virginia Apgar (1909-1974) hoped to be a surgeon but she graduated from medical school during the Depression when men were taking all the available jobs.  She went into the relatively new field of anesthesiology. This placed her in delivery rooms where she had the opportunity to observe what happened with mothers and babies shortly after birth.

Apgar was alarmed that babies were only cursorily evaluated before being sent off to the hospital nursery. To solve the problem, she developed a method for assessing newborn health.  She originally called it the Newborn Scoring System, and it greatly changed the mortality rate for infants. The system is still used today but it is now referred to as the Apgar Score.  She then went on to run the March of Dimes.

Dr. Antonia Novello

Dr. Antonia Novello (1944–  ) grew up in Puerto Rico and became a physician. She is the first Latino to ever serve as U.S. Surgeon General. Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, she made many contributions to public health, among them working to improve medical care for women and minorities. 

Dr. Novello also targeted underage drinking and smoking, which involved a focus on cigarette advertising.  The cartoon image of Joe Camel was a particular target that she felt made smoking attractive to the young.

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This information is based on my six-volume history of medicine as well as a speech I gave at Arizona State University for their Barrett Honors Program. If you’d like to see the full presentation given at ASU, click here:

Little-Known Women in Medicine Presentation with Kate Kelly.

Edmonia Lewis was a groundbreaking sculptor who achieved international fame during the 19th century. She was born to a Black Haitian father and a mother of Native American (Ojibwe) and African descent.

Sculpture was not a common art form in America at that time. The fact that Lewis achieved what she did is nothing short of remarkable.

Working almost entirely in white Carrara marble, Lewis’s style was neoclassical, but her subject matter often related to her upbringing. She created art forms that expressed her interest in social justice, racial identity, and gender. 

The artwork she left behind is extraordinary. Eight of her pieces are part of the Smithsonian collection.

Early Life

Edmonia Lewis (1844?-1907) and her family lived near Albany, New York, in what is now Rensselaer.  Her mother was a gifted craftsperson and weaver and may have inspired Edmonia’s love of beauty.

When Edmonia was a child, both parents died within a year of each other. She and her older half-brother were sent to live with her mother’s sisters. The women supported themselves by selling their hand-woven baskets to tourists visiting Niagara Falls and Buffalo.

Education

When her brother was old enough to leave home, he traveled West and had success as a gold prospector. Edmonia must have shown academic promise as he made an extraordinary offer for the era. He arranged to send Edmonia to college. 

She started at New York Central College, but it did not go well. Her brother suggested that she try Oberlin, a school that included women and people of color. 

Despite the school’s intended inclusiveness, Edmonia Lewis struggled. Other students mocked and shunned her. She was forced to leave before her last semester.

Learning from Abolitionists

She left the school with contacts that led her to a town just outside Boston (Woburn, Massachusetts) where many abolitionists lived. Self-taught sculptor Edward Augustus Brackett (1818-1908) was among the inhabitants, and she asked permission to study with him.

Written reports of her time there talked of how Brackett handed a lump of clay with an assignment: Make a foot (or a hand) and return for a critique. When she returned with what she crafted, he sometimes crushed it for her try again; other times, he offered advice and correction.

Edmonia Lewis came to the attention of journalist and social reformer William Lloyd Gararison who introduced Edmonia to people he thought might be future customers for her work. Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the white lawyer who commanded the all-Black 54^th Infantry during the Civil War, was a revered member of the community. Shaw commissioned her to create a bust of him.

When the sculpture was completed, other people offered to buy it as well. Lewis created 100 plaster copies and sold them all. This brought her commissions for other projects. She did medallion portraits of John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison.

She longed to study in Rome where many sculptors had gathered. With the success of her recent sales, she was able to afford to become part of that community.

Moves to Rome

Lewis was intrigued by the neoclassical artwork being produced in Rome. The availability of her favored marble –Carrara marble—and the influence of the artists made a rich environment for her. 

She was also heartened to find a small group of women who were also working in marble. (American sculptor Harriet Hosmer was among them.)

Though the subjects of her art were still often American, they were likely to be dressed in classical robes and posed as if they were from the ancient world. She also sculpted mythical figures such as those of Hiawatha from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem.

Challenges for Women

Being a female sculptor was not easy. Most men hired laborers to shape a large piece of stone so that it’s more manageable for artistic development.  But both Lewis and sculptor Hosmer saw that wouldn’t work for them. The moment men were let in to the women’s studios, rumors would circulate.

Even when the marble mass weighted several tons, the women did all the work themselves.

Work Chosen for Centennial Exposition

One of Edmonia Lewis’s big successes was having her work accepted for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. The work chosen for the exhibition was The Death of Cleopatra.

In art at that time, the Egyptian queen was usually portrayed as a sleeping beauty.  Lewis rejected that scenario. She saw Cleopatra’s death—said to have come about from the bite of the asp (snake)– as much different scene.

As she worked, she developed a more realistic portrayal. Cleopatra’s head tilts back at an odd angle. One arm hangs down as if in sleep (or death). The other hand is in her lap, holding the asp that brought about her death. It is an intriguing depiction, particularly when compared with the views of a sleeping woman.

Once The Death of Cleopatra was delivered to Philadelphia, it became a “must-see” attraction. When the Centennial Exhibition ended, the sculpture was sent to be exhibited at an industrial show in Chicago.  

After that, the two-ton sculpture that stood about five feet tall was put into storage and disappeared from view.

Strange but True

While the exact sequence of what happened to the sculpture is not easy to trace, the next time The Death of Cleopatra is thought to have been on display was at a saloon near Chicago. (The price of the sculpture must have fallen to next to nothing.)

At the saloon, The Death of Cleopatra was purchased by a racetrack owner. The man had owned a beloved racehorse named Cleopatra. He saw the sculpture as the perfect way to commemorate his beloved horse. He had it transported to his racetrack in Forest Park, Illinois.   

For decades, the statue sat by the entrance to the racetrack. Thousands of people must have passed by it, never knowing what the sculpture was or who the artist was who made it.

When the racetrack went belly up, the property was turned into a golf course. Still Edmonia Lewis’s masterpiece sat there—unidentified and unappreciated. Eventually vandals came along who hacked away at it. It was also painted over several times.

By the 1970s, it was largely forgotten, sitting in a storage yard under a tarp.

Re-Found

In the 1980s, a Forest Park resident who was active with the local historical society was shown the sculpture. The man must have known something about art, as he sent a photograph of the piece to someone at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. What did they make of it?

Good fortune prevailed. Despite the damage and the added paint, a curator at the Met thought of contacting Marilyn Richardson, an Edmonia Lewis scholar. Robinson had spent decades unearthing more information about Edmonia Lewis. Robinson called in other experts, and they definitively identify it as the lost masterpiece.

In 1994, it was donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Restoration experts began their work. Between the many years of exposure to Illinois winters and the destruction created by vandals, there was much to do.

Career Slows

Long before the disappearance of The Death of Cleopatra, Edmonia Lewis was struggling to get by, By the time the Centennial Exposition concluded, interest in the neoclassical style of art was fading. She wasn’t certain how to develop her work so that she could continue to sell what she crafted.  

She remained in Rome for a time, but then departed, intending to return to the United States.

No one seemed to keep track of her.  Later it was clear that she stopped off in London and never left. Years later, a researcher found a death certificate for her, noting her death in London in 1907.

This was a tragic conclusion for a remarkable artist who expanded the possibilities for artists from all backgrounds.  It is significant that eight of her works are owned by the Smithsonian. She will no longer be lost to time.

Journalist and activist Jovita Idar (1885-1946) lived and worked in Laredo, Texas, along the Mexican border. She is the equal of social activists and reporters like Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochran), Ida B. Wells, and California newspaper owner Charlotta Spears Bass. Idar deserves for more people to know her story.

In the early 1900s, Mexicans and Mexican Americans moved freely between the U.S. and Mexico, but as more Anglos moved into the region the fluid lifestyle became problematic. White families wanted possession of the towns and the countryside, and Texas Rangers were there to help reduce the presence of the Mexican Americans.

Jovita Idar’s father published a Spanish-language newspaper that stood up for the rights of the Mexican Americans who lived in the region.  In her mid 20s, Jovita Idar joined the paper and wrote about the injustices she saw. She brought attention to the unequal education delivered to Mexican American children because of segregation, and frequently had to write about lynchings of Mexicans. They occurred often—many times carried out by Texas Rangers.

Recognition of Idar arrived long after her death in 1946. In 2023, Jovita Idar’s face appeared on a newly minted quarter as part of the American Women Quarters Program.

Correcting the Record

Most biographies of Jovita Idar tell a story of her standing down violence at a newspaper office. The story goes that the Texas Rangers were sent to destroy the presses of the newspaper where she worked. Jovita was said to have held them off by standing in the doorway.  In 2025, historian and researcher Daniel Buck provided LMTOnline (an online Laredo news site) with his research findings. After combing through many stories published in newspapers of the era, he found no documentation of the incident. He determined that the story was apocryphal. 

However, there was definitely violence against Mexican American newspapers. In 1916, the district attorney of Webb County directed the Texas Rangers to arrest the editor of El Progreso where Jovita worked. The D.A. was incensed because the newspaper published editorials supporting the revolutionaries in Mexico.

After his arrest, the editor was released on bail but that was not the end of it.  A month later, a vigilante group kidnapped him and sent him over the border. Shortly after that, the vigilantes returned and destroyed the printing presses. Though there was plenty of violence in Laredo during those years, Jovita Idar’s story does not hold up after Daniel Buck’s research.

Early Life

Jovita Idar (1885-1946) was born in Laredo, Texas, the second of eight children. Her parents were of Mexican descent. Her father owned and published a Spanish language newspaper, called La Crónica.

The newspaper ownership gave the family status and knowledge. Her father was a strong advocate for civil rights and social justice. The Idar children knew that getting an education was a privilege not open to all people in Laredo. At home, they heard of many of the issues affecting Mexican Americans of Laredo, and many of them took it to heart.

The children attended Methodist schools. Jovita did well. At the age of 18, she graduated with a teaching certificate from the Laredo Seminary (also called the Holding Institute). She saw teaching as a logical way to improve the lives of those in her community.

In that era, schools in many parts of the country were segregated by race. The better-funded community school was for white children. Two other schools were designated for “other.” One building was for Black students; another was for Chicana (Mexican) children. Idar was hired to work with the Mexican students in Los Ojuelos, Texas, not far from Laredo.

When Jovita Idar arrived at her school, she found that the simplest needs—paper and pencils as well as books and desks—were not available for her students. What’s more, all classes were to be conducted in English. She saw a need—and the importance of—communicating in Spanish as well.

She remained at the school for a time, but she cast about for ways she could do more to help Mexican Americans.

Worried About Culture

In southwest Texas in the early part of the twentieth century, the era was sometimes called Juan Crow (like Jim Crow in the South). Signs at restaurants and bus stations often specified, “No Negroes, Mexicans or dogs allowed.” Law enforcement officers saw nothing wrong with intimidating Mexican Americans.

While all the discriminatory issues were important, Jovita Idar was particularly passionate about matters concerning children, gender equity (including suffrage for women), and the loss of the area’s cultural identify.

Her experience in the school caused her to worry about how the children would learn about the history and culture of Mexican Americans. The few books she was given for the classroom taught about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  She knew that to Tejanos (Mexicans who lived along the border before the modern border was established in 1840), there were people of Hispanic heritage who mattered, too. Her class needed role models from their own background.

Among the heroes she shared with her classes were Miguel Hidalgo (1753-1811) and Benito Juarez (1806-1872). Hidalgo was a Catholic priest who is considered a founding father of Mexico. Juarez was the first democratically elected president (1858) and the first indigenous president to govern Mexico.

Tensions

As more Anglos moved to Laredo, they wanted to take over more land. Tejanos had long lived in the area, but protests were met with force. Lynchings were common. Between 1914-1919, Texas Rangers were responsible for at least 5000 deaths of Tejanos—many of them by lynching. It wasn’t just a Southern thing.

Needed New Path

She finally decided that returning to the family newspaper, La Crónica, made the most sense.Perhaps if she wrote about the issues affecting Mexican Americans, she could help bring about change.

Often writing under a pseudonym, Jovita Idar wrote about everything from the poor living condition of Mexican American workers to discrimination in schools and society in general. She often had to document stories about lynchings of Mexicans along the border.

Organized for Fair Treatment

In 1911, Jovita and her family organized El Primer Congreso Mexicanista (the First Mexican Congress).  The intent was to pull together men and woman who advocated for fair and equal treatment for people of Mexican heritage. Those who attended were government leaders, activists, and journalists from the area.

She also advocated for women and the vote. This was a cause her father also supported, and as time went on, Jovita was able to form an organization to push for the cause.

As a result of this first Congress, Jovita Idar pulled together a logical outgrowth that helped put forward women’s causes: La Liga Femenil Mexicanista (League of Mexican Women). She became the first president.  Most of the members were working-class women. Because people from both sides of the border continued to freely interact, the League worked to serve populations in both Laredo and its sister city, Nuevo Laredo.

The league fought for the rights of all Mexican Americans but with a particular emphasis on issues pertaining women and girls. They did everything from run clothing drives to help the community to hosting cultural events to celebrate Mexican heritage. When they could, they established free education for Mexican children. Idar was quoted as saying, “When you educate a woman, you educate a family,”

The Mexican Revolution

In 1910, the Mexican Revolution to overthrow the government of President Porfirio Diaz started.

Economic inequality and political repression were ongoing in Mexico, but when Diaz imprisoned his main opponent so that Diaz could declare himself the winner of the latest election, outright rebellion ensued. Many residents of Nueva Laredo (in Mexico) moved to Laredo (U.S.) and citizens of the area couldn’t help but be involved.

Some of Jovita Idar’s friends began crossing the Southern border to help care for the wounded. They declared themselves La Cruz Blanca (the White Cross). Jovita Idar left the newspaper and joined the group. She helped with recruitment of more people, but she also stepped in to help care for the injured.

In 1914, Jovita returned to Laredo and accepted a job writing for El Progreso. The newspaper took a strong stand in favor of the revolutionaries in Mexico. It was here that the editor was kidnapped and the printing presses were destroyed.

In November 1916, Jovita Idar founded a weekly newspaper, Evolución, which operated until 1920.

Marriage

In 1917, Jovita married Bartolo Juárez, a plumber and tinsmith. They moved to San Antonio in 1921. Her activism continued there. The married couple founded a Democratic Club and became political leaders. She also helped establish a free kindergarten and volunteered as a Spanish translator at the county hospital.  Much of her work involved helping new immigrants become naturalized citizens.

By the 1940s, Jovita Idar was sick with advanced tuberculosis—a disease for which there was no cure. In 1946, she died of a pulmonary hemorrhage.