Alice Stebbins Wells (1873-1957) was among the first women in the United States to work in law enforcement.

Alice Wells spent her early career working as a pastor. During that time she saw that communities would be safer places if women, too, were on the local police forces. She urged passage of a law in Los Angeles that would permit women to be officers. Finally, in 1910, she was hired as a policewoman and given a regular beat, which was almost unheard of for a woman.

As Wells’s police career progressed, she founded the International Policewomen’s Association. This led to her traveling all over the country to promote the concept of hiring more women for law enforcement.

Early Life

Alice Stebbins Wells was born in Manhattan, Kansas. She was the daughter of well-educated parents, both of whom attended Oberlin College. After her birth, the family moved to Hiawatha, Kansas (about 70 miles north of Topeka), where her father started a local newspaper.

Alice attended high school in Atchison, which would have been about about 40 miles away from their home in Hiawatha. The family must have moved, or she stayed with someone in Atchison. After she graduated from high school, she studied at Oberlin College.

By 1900 she was a pastor’s assistant to Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. She was intrigued by religion and wanted to learn more about the philosophy behind it. She enrolled at the Hartford (Connecticut) Theological Seminary where she studied Old Testament history for two years. During this time, she filled in for vacationing pastors at churches in and around Maine, becoming the first woman to hold church services in that state.

On a trip to Perry, Oklahoma, she was offered and accepted a full-time position as a pastor of one of the local churches. During that time, she met and married Frank Wells, a pioneer who made his way to Oklahoma after leaving Wisconsin. The couple had three children.

At some point, the Wells family moved to Los Angeles.

Wells Believed Women Belonged in Law Enforcement

While working as a pastor, she developed the belief that there were situations where women could be more effective at policing than male officers were. This was what led to her campaign for women to be hired by police forces. If women police officers went into dance halls, skating rinks, and “picture houses,” children and women in trouble might find it easier to ask for help.

Wells began talking to anyone she could about her new cause. Slowly she gained support from community members. By the time her legislative proposal reached the Los Angeles City Council, she had popular opinion on her side. The City Council had little choice but to enact the law, which went into effect in 1910.

On August 13, 1910, Alice Stebbins Wells was hired as the first policewoman in L.A. Some sources identify her as the first in the nation, but as more and more local papers are digitized and used for research, historians see that she was among the first, but others preceded her. (See the end of the article for a few other names.)

Alice S. Wells: On the Beat in L.A.

Once hired, Alice Stebbins Wells was not issued a gun or a baton, however, she was issued a badge to show her authority. She also was provided with a telephone rule book, a first aid chart, and a telephone call box key so that she could report crimes and call for reinforcements.

Because it was so unusual for a woman to be on the police force, the badge did not always gain her the respect it should have. One of the perks of the position was that police could ride on trolley cars at no charge. One conductor ejected her from his trolley, accusing her of using her husband’s badge.

When she brought this problem back to headquarters, it was remedied. She was given a new badge: “Policewoman Badge No. 1.”

Initially, the police department did not intend for her to be in uniform. Early photographs show her in a lace blouse with a jacket. But Alice Stebbins Wells wanted recognition, so she took the matters into her own hands. She sewed a khaki-colored jacket and long skirt that became her uniform and the model for future uniforms for women of the day. (A copy of her uniform is on display at the Los Angeles Police Museum.)

News Coverage of Wells

News reporters were eager to write about the new female member of the Los Angeles police department. However, the reporters got off to a bumpy start. They didn’t know what to call her. Early references in the press describe her as the “first woman policeman,” “Officeress” or “Officerette Wells” Clearly, these were not titles Wells favored. Eventually women on the force became known as policewomen.

Alice Stebbins Wells wanted acceptance. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she said: “This is serious work and I do hope the newspapers will not try to make fun of it.”

The Los Angeles Herald reported: “Her salary is not as large as a policeman for she will receive but $75 a month, while a policeman receives $102. But she will have to conform to the regulations of the department just like any other member of the force.”

Starting to Patrol

After learning the patrol process under Juvenile Officer Leo W. Marden, Wells developed her own systematic method for visiting penny arcades, skating rinks, “picture theaters,” and any place where women and children might be in trouble.  She also became part of the “purity squad.” Sometimes she would report back to headquarters with information on theatrical shows or billboards that were not wholesome.

L.A. soon added a law that women in custody needed to be questioned by a woman investigator. After this, Wells was often called in to conduct these investigations.

Wells Saw Need for Special Services for Women

As Wells worked, she saw that women needed special services in order to feel comfortable in approaching the police. Wells helped found a bureau for women who needed help. She also founded a missing person’s bureau for women and children.

A third need was covered by the “Minnie Barton Home.” Minnie Barton was the first female probation officer in Los Angeles. When her family moved to Los Angeles, she was shocked by the lack of services for indigent women. She began working with the Los Angeles Police Courts as a volunteer in 1906 and established the Big Sister League in 1917. (Her initial connection with the police department predated Alice Wells.) The Big Sister League undertook many projects, but one of them was to create a safe place for women just released from jail.

Minnie Barton eventually received a salary (1916). She remained fully committed to her work as a probation officer throughout her lifetime. Over time, the house was used as a halfway house where some young offenders lived instead of being sent to jail.  Today this home is part of the Children’s Institute of Los Angeles.

Serious Work

Alice Wells also represented the police department by speaking at schools and women’s organizations.  In 1913, Los Angeles experienced a rash of robberies. Some were done by a group called the boy automobile bandits.  Women’s groups began inviting Wells to speak to them about crime and safety.

On August 14, 1913, Wells addressed a group of Los Angeles clubwomen to give them tips: “If she has the pluck, when she meets an annoyer or a hold-up man, scream first. Then use the first weapon at hand. Don’t forget the trusty hat pin. That or a few well-chosen jiu-jitsu tricks will help women when sneak thieves appear or burglars invade the home.

“Remember that a burglar is under greater nervous strain that you are.”

She concluded by reminding audiences that “The weapon nature gave a woman was a scream. But she notes, In more rural communities where someone might not hear you, “It would not be bad to know a few bone-breaking tricks.”

Wells also brought groups information about female hygiene which included sex education. This was a new but badly needed topic for that day.

Requests from Elsewhere

Because Alice Stebbins Wells advocated publicly for the need for women on police forces, her office received many inquiries.  By 1914, the LAPD permitted Wells to undertake a speaking tour promoting women in law enforcement.  She traveled widely conveying her message.

Reaction from the citizens and the press in the locations she visited was very positive. Toronto’s City Controller J.A. McCarthy wrote: “Not in many years of social work and interest in social problems have I heard an address so comprehensive, so intelligent and so full of 1913 common sense as that to which we listened last night…

“There is in this day no lack of speakers who criticize, but there is a dearth of speakers who are able to suggest as you did, the preventive and educational measures which are practical.” (Jan 14, 1913)

In Albany in 1914, she addressed the New York Assembly, urging passage of a bill for policewomen. And just as women today find that reporters can’t resist commenting on their clothing or their looks, Wells faced the same thing. A reporter for The Albany Times wrote: “She wore a khaki uniform and a large shield. Her brown hat, with an attractive plume, was distinctly feminine.”

Wells Tireless On Behalf of Her Cause

In May of 1915, she scheduled a conference to organize an international association of policewomen, to work with the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. Policewomen from 14 states came that first year and elected Alice Wells president, a position she held for five years.

At the second conference, 22 states were represented. The organization took an official stand on what the women should be called: “Policewoman” was to be used for regularly appointed police officers with the power of arrest.

Urged Other Changes

As she advocated for more policewomen, she realized that women would be better served by specific training since they were not given all the equipment that their male counterparts had. Here, Wells approached the University of California Southern Division (now UCLA) and urged them to offer a course to train women in law enforcement. That class became a reality in the summer of 1918. It was run by the School’s Criminology Department.

Wells was active in many other causes. She founded the Pan-Pacific Association for Mutual Understanding in 1924 and this group met regularly. She was also chairman and first present of the Women’s Peace Officers Association. (1928)

She stayed with the Los Angeles Police Department until retirement in 1940. In 1934, she requested what became her final position: to establish and curate a police museum. The Los Angeles Police Museum still exists today in Highland Park section of Los Angeles.

Wells died in 1957. Her funeral was well attended by all the senior officers in the police department. Her casket was accompanied by a 10-woman honor guard—something that would have made Alice Wells proud.

Alice Stebbins Wells deserves to long be remembered for introducing the concept of women in police work.

***

Other Women in Law Enforcement

The first women employed in any form of law enforcement jobs were hired as matrons in the jails. As early as the 1840s, they were used to help with women and children who were arrested or brought into the police station for protection. The matrons played a vital role in the system, but they did not patrol, nor could they arrest anyone.

Besides Alice Wells, a few other women worked as police officers long before women were commonly hired:

Marie Owens was hired by the Chicago Police Department in 1891. She had the power to arrest, but her duties were limited to child labor law violations.

Lola Baldwin joined the Portland (Oregon) Police Department in 1908. Prior to that, she headed a team of social workers who helped with moral issues and challenges that arose as a result of the Lewis and Clark Exposition being held in Portland in 1905. Afterward, the police were respectful of the work the group had done and installed Baldwin as the “Superintendent of the Women’s Auxiliary to the Police Department for the Protection of Girls.” She, too, had a badge and the power of arrest but her office was in the local YWCA.

I am indebted to Mike Callahan for the additional informaiton about Minnie Barton, LA’s first probation officer. For more information, see Mike’s helpful comments below.

Read, too, about the Invention of the Polygraph.

Election results have yet to come in as I write this. We are all wondering whether the election will be resolved in a day or two or if something will occur that drags this out.

Participatory Democracy

I write to remind you that no matter what the results, we live in a participatory democracy. If your candidate(s) don’t win, there will be the temptation to curl up in a ball and try to shut the world out. But that won’t help.

No matter how the election turns out, the new president is not sworn in until January 20, 2025. There may be lots of talk about what the winning candidate wants to do when he or she takes office, but nothing official can happen until that time. What’s more, the founding father established a system of “checks and balances” so that no one section of the government has too much power. A divided Congress will indeed make it more difficult for the winning candidate to accomplish goals, but it also assures us that both parties are represented to decide our way forward.

We will need to address issues like these:  How can we manage immigration? What’s to be done about prices? Climate change means sacrifice. Are we ready to make changes so we can give a healthier world to our children?

Do women truly deserve to have their medical decisions made by others. For fifty years, women showed that they could be good mothers and contributing members of society. Why don’t we give them back that power?

Deeply Unsettling Election

This election will long be remembered for its chaos, its change of candidate for the Democratic Party, and of course, its acrimony and unacceptable name-calling of people who have put aside their lives in order to run for different positions in local, state, and national government.

Americans on both sides stepped forward to participate in the campaign process from attending events to making phone calls, knocking on doors, and sending postcards. Not since women worked long and hard for the right to vote has there been so much organized, [mostly] non-violent energy invested in our election process.

Voter turn-out may be record-setting as well.

Treasure What We Have Though it is Imperfect

We all must remember to treasure what we have— a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” We do not want it to “perish from this earth.”

Once this election is settled, there is still so much to do. This is our country. No matter who becomes president, violence or shutting out the world is not the answer. Our energy needs to go into work that makes us better. Whether it’s ladling out soup at a homeless shelter, cleaning up a local park or working through government channels to address local, state, or national issues, we can all find a place to invest our energy.

Don’t waste it on anger or regret. No matter who wins, our communities still need us.

And if your candidate wins, reach out to others in the community who might have voted differently. Wait a few weeks, so tensions may ease, but our country needs all of us to move forward together. If you’re packing lunches for the homeless at your church or synagogue or community center, it doesn’t matter how you cast your ballot. There are plenty of things we can all do together.

The election on November 5 provides a “chance for change.” It’s up to us to help bring about the change we want. This is the very essence of a participatory democracy. Americans have died in wars and on our own streets fighting for the rights that should be a “given” in a country like America.

We cannot let them down.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first Black woman to earn a medical degree and was a true trailblazer in several ways. In her medical practice, she saw that women needed health information about themselves and about their children, so she decided to write the book that was needed. In 1883, A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts was published. It was the first book for laypeople to address female health and that of their children.

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Early Life

Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler (1831-1895) was born in Christiana, Delaware, in 1831 to parents (Absolum and Matilda Davis) who were free. For personal reasons, they could not raise Rebecca, so they placed her with an aunt in a small town in Pennsylvania.

The aunt proved to be inspirational to Rebecca. She was the person in town to whom everyone turned for medical help. Healers at that time had no opportunity to attend medical or nursing school, but each woman learned from previous generations how to deliver babies, what to do about burns, cuts, and bad coughs, and what the possibilities were if someone broke a bone.

Rebecca accompanied her aunt on many of her calls. What she oberved gave her the determination to work in a field where she could relieve the suffering of others.

Becoming a Nurse

In 1852, Rebecca Davis (her maiden name) moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she became a nurse. There were no nursing schools at that time, but she had absorbed a great deal of knowledge from her aunt. She was also a quick-learner from the doctors with whom she worked.

Several of the men were so impressed by her skill and instinct that they submitted letters to the New England Female Medical College.(The school was founded in 1848 by Samuel Gregory who saw a need to train women to assist with childbirth.) The letters written on Rebecca’s behalf stated that she was fully qualified to be admitted to the medical school. Up until that time, only white women had attended the Medical College, but the letters about Rebecca Davis were so glowing that she was admitted, making her the first Black woman accepted to a medical school.

Rebecca Davis began classes in 1860. With the start of the Civil War, the school soon shut down temporarily to permit students and faculty to travel to help take care of the sick and wounded from the war.

Rebecca helped with the war effort, but she had married in the 1850s to a man named Wyatt Lee. Lee became ill with tuberculosis. The disease was rampant in Boston during the war. For many it was a death sentence. Rebecca nursed him through many months of illness, but he died within the year.

The medical college started offering classes again during the war, and Rebecca returned to school, graduating in 1864. She is the first Black woman to become a doctor.

During and After the War

Shortly after the war, Rebecca Davis Lee met Arthur Crumpler, a man who escaped slavery in Virginia. He moved north and worked as a blacksmith in Newton, Massachusetts. It is not know how the two met, but they married in 1865. For a time, they lived in Boston. Arthur may have been a porter or superintendent of a building on Tremont Street. Rebecca Crumpler opened a medical practice in the Black section of Beacon Hill.

As she began to hear stories from the South, she decided she had to help her people. White doctors were not willing to treat Black patients, so the newly freed slaves had no medical care. She described to friends that it would be a “proper field for real missionary work.” She stayed in Virginia for two years, and then returned to Boston to re-open her practice in the city she felt was home.

Arthur did not seem to accompany her on this mission. Though she was gone for almost two years, they were happily reunited when she returned.

Starting a Family

When she returned from Richmond, city directories place Arthur and Rebecca as living on Joy Street. Rebecca Crumpler saw patients from her home, and they paid only what they could.

When she became pregnant, the Crumplers moved to Garden Street. Their daughter, Lizzie Sinclair Crumpler, was born in late 1870. At that time, one in every five infants did not survive the first five years of life, and Lizzie must have been among them. Other than the record of her birth, there is no other mention of her.

Perhaps as a result of Lizzie’s death, Arthur Crumpler decided that he and Rebecca needed to buy land so they could eventually move out of what was an unhealthy, crowded city. Slowly they began buying parcels, and by the late 1870s, they had the property they needed to build a house. Rebecca was delighted as there was space for a garden. The soil was fertile, so she was able to grow many of the herbs that she used in her medicines.

By 1880, the Crumplers moved to Hyde Park, Massachusetts. The brief descriptions of their life there sounded happy. Arthur Crumpler could not read, but Rebecca enjoyed reading the newspapers to him.

During this time, Dr. Crumpler also began to think about writing down what she knew. Rebecca knew there were no books about women’s health that were written for laypeople. After settling into their new home in Hyde Park, she began work on the book she felt women should have. She based her stories and advice on journals she kept during her years of active practice.

In 1883, Book of Medical Discourses was published. At last, women had a book that provided them with health information about their own bodies as well as their children’s.

Dr. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler continued to practice medicine for as long she lived. She died in 1895 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and was buried in Fairview Cemetery.

Arthur Crumper eventually moved back to Boston and attended night school to learn to read and write. He died in 1910, and his story is told here: “Escaped Slave Arthur Crumpler Took Pride in Learning.”

Rebecca Crumpler’s Accomplishments

Though her story was not known for many years, today she is recognized for her groundbreaking achievements.

In 1989, two women physicians founded the Rebecca Lee Society, an organization which supports and promotes black women physicians. Today there is an official Association of Black Women Physicians, and a scholarship is still given in the name of Rebecca Lee.

In addition, the community of Hyde Park realized the Crumplers should be better recognized. Rebecca and her husband Arthur were buried in Fairview Cemetery, but the graves were unmarked. The Friends of the Hyde Park Library and the Hyde Park Historical Society worked together to raise funds for tombstones for both Crumplers.

Donations Big and Small

Many of the donations caome from individuals, but when the dean of Harvard Medcal School heard about the project, he contacted the other medical schools in the area (Boston University, the University of Massachusetts,, and Tufts University), they all contriuted funds so that the Hyde Park project could be completed. They knew it was a fitting tribute to a woman who was a trailblazer in medicine.

In 2020, the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine honored Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler by naming one of their student modules after her. Incoming students are assigned to modules when they start medical school, and part of their education involves learning about the namesakes of their modules. This is another fitting tribute to Rebecca Crumpler.

Discovering Rebecca Crumpler’s Story

Locating information about Crumpler’s life has not been easy for anyone writing about her. She tells something about herself in the introduction to her book, but the rest of the information has come through the dogged research of Anthony W. Neal, an attorney who also writes for the newspaper, the Bay State Banner in Boston, and historian Victoria Gall, with the Hyde Park Friends Society.

Both Neal and Gall separately dug through census records, town directories, school information, and maps, to piece together her story.

Also please note that there are no verified pictures or illustrations of Rebecca Crumpler. On the Internet, a search of her name may reveal of photo, but experts know that these are cases of mistaken identity.

About Arthur Crumpler

Anthony Neal contacted me with some of this new information about Rebecca Crumpler. His story in the Bay State Banner, adds to the understanding of life of African Americans in the northeast in the late 1800s.  I recommend that you read it.

Arthur Crumpler‘s story was brought to my attention by H. Lee Price, a mathematician who became interested in the Crumplers. Thank you, Lee!

In addition, please check out the Lost Women of Science podcast episode featuring Rebecca Crumpler. Victoria Gall with the Hyde Park Friends group was an important part of this production.

Rose Knox started the Knox Gelatine Company with her husband, Charles, in Johnstown, New York, in 1890. (Gelatine was the preferred spelling at that time.)

When Charles died unexpectedly in 1908, Rose stepped in as president and CEO. She made numerous changes that established Knox Gelatine as a company ahead of its time.

She knew women made the grocery decisions, so she re-targeted the company’s marketing to reach that audience. She also made many changes for her employees. Some staff members were expected to come in the back door, and she pronounce that this practice would end. Rose explained it by saying: “We are all ladies and gentlemen working together here, and we will all come through the front door.”

In 1913, she instituted the five-day work week, along with two weeks of paid vacation for all staff members. She also offered sick leave. All these benefits were unheard of at the time.

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Rose Knox: Early Years

Rose Markward (1857-1950) was born and raised in Mansfield, Ohio, where her father was a druggist. In the late 1870s, the family moved to Gloversville, New York.  When she was old enough, Rose found a job working in a glove factory. She also met one of the company’s salesmen, Charles Knox. They married in 1883.

Soon Charles Knox took a job as a knitwear salesman. This took them to New York City and then Newark, New Jersey. They eventually relocated to Johnstown, New York.

Rose and Charles Knox believed marriage was a partnership. Charles took a portion of the money he made each week and gave it to Rose to manage the household. Charles was one of the top knitwear salesmen in the country, and as his income increased so did her weekly allotment.

During this time, they became parents of three children.

Rose as Homemaker

Rose was busy with the household and took care of meal preparation herself. One of the delicacies that the upper classes enjoyed were fancy gelatin desserts. (Gelatin was also used to create meals for the sick.)

There were no instant or easy ways to buy gelatin, so it had to be made at home. The process involves extracting collagen from animal bones. The bones are boiled for most of the day. Then the mixture is strained so the bones can be discarded. The liquid is then left out for about a day to settle.

After skimming the fat off the top, flavoring is added. The result can be a flavorful, protein-rich gelatin dessert.

As Charles Knox observed Rose making gelatin in their kitchen, he wondered why it couldn’t be simplified. A few companies were beginning to sell a powdered gelatin, but the Knoxes did not find them satisfactory.

Charles took on the challenge and experimented with ways to make pre-granulated gelatin. Rose and Charles tested and tasted everything. Eventually, they had a product that pleased them both.

Starting the Business

Rose Knox was always frugal with the money that she received for the household. Many weeks she was able to set aside something for savings.

By 1890, she had saved $5000. When Charles and Rose heard that a gelatin business was for sale in Johnstown, they decided to buy it. Johnstown was a city with many tanneries so animal parts were easily available. And now that they were pleased with their manufacturing system, they felt they could make a go of the business.

Using the method Charles created, the factory went into production to create sheets of pre-granulated gelatin. Charles hired salesmen who traveled to introduce and sell the product outside of the Johnstown area.

To expand the market, Rose created recipes that showed all the ways the product could be used.  Some of the recipes appeared in newspapers. Rose also completed a recipe book (click here to read a copy), Dainty Desserts for Dainty People. Printed as pamphlets, the books were given away in grocery stores.

The manufactured gelatin could be sold at a reasonable price, and the use of gelatin grew in popularity.

Promoting Gelatin

Charles Knox loved finding ways to promote the product. He was one of the first to use an airship (hot air balloon) for advertising. The “Gelataine” airship first flew in 1905 in Portland, Oregon, for the Lewis and Clark Exposition. It was piloted by George C. Tomlinson, an aeronaut from Syracuse, New York.

It’s first launch was on September 4, 1905. The ascent was successful, but unfortunately, the motor failed, and Tomlinson had to land out of the Exposition grounds.

Knox also owned race horses and publicized them as the Gelatine String (gelatine was the preferred spelling at that time). His best horse, one that raced in all the major races, he renamed Gelatine King.

As the business grew, Knox acquired more companies, including a hardware store and a factory that manufactured soap, ointment, and tonic.

Untimely Death

In 1908 he took his two sons to Canada on a fishing trip. On the return home, Charles did not feel well. In Montreal, he booked the boys on a through-train home, and he went to the hospital. He was diagnosed with a heart ailment and did not survive.

Rose was devastated.

Rose Knox Takes Over the Business

Friends urged her to sell Knox Gelatine Company. Women just didn’t run major businesses in that day.  But Rose Knox was there from the beginning. She knew she was well-suited to take over. At first, she announced that her position was temporary, “until her sons could run the company.” Of course, she stayed well beyond that.

One employee resigned immediately, saying he was incapable of working for a woman. Everyone else stayed and were glad they did.

She took two steps immediately. She sold off the tangential businesses, and she redirected the marketing to women, the customers who made the family food choices. The company grew and expanded as a result.

Rose Knox: New Plan

Rose Knox also changed the marketing plan for Knox Gelatin. The advertising emphasized the product’s low cost and high nutritional value (almost 100 percent protein). 

She inspected her factory regularly and improved the production plant to assure sanitary conditions—something she knew women would care about.  She also undertook new cookbooks. By 1917 she issued a book called Food Economy, and many of the company advertisements featured her recipes under the heading: “Mrs. Knox says…”

She also paid immediate attention to the employees. She announced that from that time forward, no employee would be expected to enter by the back door. They were all considered team members and were to enter through the same front door.In 1913, she instituted the five-day-workweek and gave employees sick leave. She also provided for two weeks of paid vacation for all staff members.

By 1915 the value of the company had tripled, and the Knox company built a bigger plant. In 1916, Rose Knox also negotiated to buy a half interest in Kind and Landesmann, one of their major suppliers of gelatin.

Happiness Headquarters

During the Depression, she was determined not to fire employees. She cut business costs where she could and still managed to grow the business 5 percent per year.

In November of 1937, Rose Knox’s staff policies made news. Time magazine (11/29/1937), noted that 85 percent of their employees had been with the company for 25 years or more.  The writer mentioned that there was a sign in the Johnstown company lobby that deemed it  “Happiness Headquarters.”

Rose Knox: Town Benefactor

Rose Knox also believed in giving back to the town where the family had achieved so much.  She donated money to everything from the YMCA to a fund to build an athletic field, and she purchased a church so the town could convert it to a home for aged women. She also served on many local boards.

She remained president of the company until 1947 when her only still-living son, James, took the helm. Even then, Mrs. Knox continued to remain active as chairman of the board.

Achieved Many Honors

In 1929, Rose Knox was the first woman to be elected director of the American Grocery Manufacturers Association, and in 1949 Collier’s magazine referred to her as “America’s foremost woman industrialist.”

Company Continues

The Knox family maintained control of the company for many more years. The grandson of Charles and Rose took over when his father died, and John Knox added new products including Knox Drink for Nails and Knox Eat and Reduce Plan.

In the early 1970s, the T.J. Lipton unit of Unilever bought the company. Then in 1994 Nabisco acquired the American rights to Knox gelatin to add to its Royal Desserts Line (Nabisco is now part of Kraft).  Kind & Knox became a wholly owned subsidiary of a German-based gelatin producer, DGF Stoess AG (stet), which now operates largest gelatin company in the world, providing gelatin for industrial applications, pharmaceuticals, and photography.

Rose Knox died in Johnstown at the age of 92.

To read the story of another strong woman business leader, read about Ida Rosenthal and how she pioneered the bra industry with Maidenform.

Dorothy Dandridge (1922-1965) could sing and dance with the best of them. Though her marriage to Harold Nicholas was brief, she could more than hold her own on stage with the famed tap duo, The Nicholas Brothers.

Dandridge started performing as a child in local variety shows, and then eventually made a career for herself in films. Her portrayal of the lead role in Carmen Jones brought her positive acclaim, including the honor of being the first Black woman nominated for an Academy Award as best actress.

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Dorothy Dandridge: Childhood

Dorothy was born in Cleveland in 1922 to parents who separated shortly before Dorothy’s birth. Her mother, Ruby, was an entertainer who had appeared in nightclubs, radio, film and early television. (She was best known for her role on the radio show, “Amos ‘n’ Andy.”)

When Dorothy’s mother and father split, her mother took the two children, Vivian and Dorothy, to live with a woman who became Ruby’s partner, Geneva Williams. Ruby and Williams saw performance potential in the girls and started working with them on an act. Billing them as the “Wonder Children,” Ruby and Geneva soon put them to work in vaudeville.

A few years later, Ruby spotted another child, Etta Jones, in the girls’ dance classes. She felt Jones would complement the act. When Ruby and Geneva moved to Los Angeles in the early 1930s, they took with them Vivian and Dorothy and the other little girl. (This is not the Etta Jones who went on to be a jazz singer.)

The three children began performing as the Dandridge Sisters. In 1934 they won a radio contest over stiff competition (including “white” competition), and their bookings grew.  Eventually they toured Europe and performed at New York’s Cotton Club as well as the Apollo Theater. They also traveled to perform in the South where the girls were permitted to appear on stage but had difficulty finding a restaurant to serve them a meal or a lodging house where they could stay. (See The Green Book: A Travel Guide for African Americans.)

Dorothy Dandrige: On Her Own

In 1940, Dorothy wanted to go out on her own, and this broke up the group. She and sister Vivian began getting small non-credited roles in several films. In 1941 she appeared in the filmed musical, Sun Valley Serenade, and danced with Harold Nicholas of the famed tap duo, the Nicholas Brothers.

Here is their scene, Chattanooga Choo Choo with Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers:

The musical number is spectacular, but at that time, the Motion Picture Production Code reviewed all films. Those sent to southern states usually had scenes with Black actors edited out. Some theaters removed the entire tap number from the film because the performers were Black.

First Marriage

Harold Nicholas and Dorothy Dandridge married in 1942.  Dandridge cut back on performing, but rumors filtered back to her that Harold was cheating on her.

Dorothy was expecting their first child, but when she went into labor Harold had a golf game so he dropped her off at her sister’s instead of taking her to the hospital. With the delay, Dorothy did not have medical help. After Harolyn Suzanne Nicholas was born, it became clear that the baby suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen during the birth.

Dorothy cared for the baby at home for a time, until she realized institutional care was necessary. Dandridge placed her daughter in a private hospital that could guarantee round-the-clock care.

In 1951, she divorced Harold Nicholas and returned to performing in night clubs. She was a sensation at the Mocambo nightclub on the Sunset Strip when she opened with Desi Arnaz’s band. For the next several years, she was booked at all the best clubs in L.A., New York, London, and Rio de Janeiro.

Continued Career Success

In 1953, she was cast in her first starring dramatic film role, Bright Road, appearing opposite Harry Belafonte. She played the part of a teacher in the South helping a troubled boy. Belafonte was the principal.

After Bright Road, she auditioned for the role of Carmen Jones in a film of the same name. It was to be a remake of a stage musical adapted from the opera, Carmen. Otto Preminger was casting the film, and the story goes that when Dandridge first auditioned for the role, Preminger pronounced her wrong for the part. He wanted a more “earthy” character.

Dandridge did not take no for an answer, so she went home, chose clothing that seemed more down to earth, and re-did her hairstyle. Preminger loved it. She again played opposite Harry Belafonte. Though both had wonderful voices, the operatic nature of the film meant that all the songs were dubbed by professional opera singers.

For this role, Dorothy Dandridge was nominated by the Academy for Best Actress in 1955.

Many believed that Dandrige should have won, but the competition was stiff. Also nominated were Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, and Jane Wyman. Grace Kelly won for The Country Girl. However, the nomination catapulted Dandridge into a new public arena. She graced the covers of many magazines including Ebony and Look. She was the first Black woman to be featured on the cover of Life (11-1-1954).

Dandridge also began a four-year affair with Preminger which caused a lot of whispering. Interracial dating raised eyebrows, and affairs needed to be well hidden.

Challenges After Nomination

After Carmen Jones, Dandridge expected great roles to come her way, but film producers were not comfortable casting a Black woman opposite a white man. In addition, the films with Black stars generally did not do as well at the box office so fewer films were made.  

When the first big part came to her, that of Tuptim in The King and I, Dandridge was inclined to take it.  But Preminger insisted she turn it down, telling her she shouldn’t accept a role as a slave.

Rita Moreno took the part, however, and went on to stardom.

Finally in 1959, she was offered the part of Bess in Porgy and Bess, playing opposite Sidney Poitier. The film encountered many delays, which led to Preminger coming in to direct. He and Dorothy had broken off before this, and the work did not go well. Porgy and Bess was a bust.

New Try at Marriage

In 1959, she married Jack Denison, a restaurateur, who took over her life. He started managing her money and had her perform in his restaurant in an effort to save it. When that didn’t work, he drained her bank accounts. 

Dandridge finally divorced him in 1962, but by this time she was bankrupt. After years of her daughter being cared for in a private institution, there was no longer money to pay for it. Harolyn (1943-2003) had to be moved to a state institution.

After the divorce from Denison, she tried to revive her nightclub career, but she was drinking heavily. One morning she was to leave Los Angeles for a booking in New York. When she did not come down to the car, someone went up to check on her. She was found dead in her apartment from a likely barbiturate overdose. She was 42.

Dorothy Dandridge once said, “If I were white, I could have captured the world.”

Dandridge’s Legacy

By the 1990s, people were beginning to realize that Dorothy Dandridge deserved to be remembered for her pioneering work in entertainment.  In 1997, a biography of Dandridge was published, and that year the New York City Film Forum sponsored a two-week retrospective of her films.

Today she has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and her image is part of a sculpture by Catherine Hardwicke that is located at the corner of Hollywood and La Brea. The sculpture was built to honor multi-ethnic ladies in the cinema, and in includes Mae West, Dolores del Rio, Anna May Wong, and Dorothy Dandridge.

In 1999 Halle Berry won Golden Globe and Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Dandridge in HBO’s Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.

For the story of the first African American to win an Academy Award, read about Hattie McDaniel who won for her portrayal as Mammy in Gone with the Wind.

Ida Rosenthal emigrated from Russia in the early 1900s and supported her family as a dressmaker. As she responded to the marketplace, she and a partner soon crafted dresses with built-in bras—freeing women from corsets.

Because the dress designs were so popular, women returned to the dress store with a request: “Could I buy the bra without the dress so that I can wear it under other garments?”

With that, the Maidenform Bra Company was born.

Early Life

Ida Rosenthal (1886-1973) was born in Rakov, Russia, in 1886 and was the oldest of seven children. Her father was a Jewish Talmudic scholar; her mother supported the family by running a local grocery store.

Growing up, the children often worked in the store, and Ida’ mother impressed upon them the importance of being self-sufficient. When Ida and one of her sisters were in their early teens, their mother placed them in an apprenticeship with a seamstress in Warsaw, Poland.

While in Poland, Ida picked up the anti-Russian politics of many of the local people. She also met and fell in love with William Rosenthal. Rosenthal, too, was from Russia and feared the Russian military draft, so he made arrangements to leave for the United States before that happened.

Ida and her sister returned to the family in Rakov, but Ida made plans to follow William. With her parents blessing, she contacted  an aunt and uncle in Hoboken, New Jersey, and arranged to stay with them.

But life with her very conservative relatives proved difficult. William and Ida decided to marry right away, and they did so in 1906.

Family and Early Business

William, however, contracted a lingering illness—perhaps tuberculosis—so during the first dozen years of their marriage, he was in and out of sanitoriums.

While William tried to get well, Ida settled into their home in Hoboken, New Jersey, and established her dressmaking business. Her first dresses were sewn on a Singer sewing machine she purchased on the installment plan. Though she was not yet conversant in English, she studied the photos of fashionable people in American magazines to be certain that her dresses were up-to-date.

During this time, Ida and William also started a family. Their son Lewis was born in 1907, a year after they married. Daughter Beatrice was born in 1916. Ida also worked toward citizenship, becoming an American citizen in 1912.

Outside Influences

As the U.S. prepared to enter World War I, small businesses struggled to survive. When the war ended, Ida was relieved to have made it and was eager to expand her dressmaking business.

Their home was four stories, so she devoted the bottom two floors to her business. She was soon employing 15 workers.

The weather in 1918 proved challenging for a young woman raising two children and running a business from her suburban home, and William was still in a hospital in New York City. When a heavy snow blanketed New Jersey that winter, Ida was surprised when a policeman knocked on her door. He informed her that it was her legal responsibility to clear the sidewalks on the front and side of her corner property.

Ida Rosenthal was 4’ 10”, mother of two little ones, with her husband in a hospital in New York. She later reported that the policeman ended the visit by saying, “I’d do it for you if I had the time.”

Somehow Ida got the walks cleared, doing some of the work herself, but it spurred her plan to move out of the suburbs. She found a location in a building at 141^st Street and Broadway. By 1920, she moved the business to the city. There, the weather was less likely to disrupt production and sales.

Enid Frocks

Enid Bissett was a successful shop owner who maintained a store on West 57^th Street. She and her husband were a vaudeville dance team so they had many friends in the theater who dressed well. One day she was in her shop when a customer came in wearing a fashionable dress that was new to Enid.  She spoke to the woman and learned about Ida Rosenthal.

Enid got in touch with Ida, and the two women met. The original plan was for Ida to supply Enid’s shop with some of her dresses, but the more they talked, the more excited Enid became. Enid proposed a business partnership.

Though it was a struggle for the Rosenthals to come up with the money to buy into the partnership, Ida made an initial investment of $4500. It turned out to be one of the best steps she ever took. The midtown location and the show business clientele meant that her dresses commanded much higher prices; some selling for as much as $300.

Undergarments and A Time of Social Change

In 1913, a young society woman named Caresse Crosby, applied for and received a patent on a design she created for a bra.  She was dressing for an evening out, and saw that her corset (what well-to-do women wore as undergarments at that time) was going to show beneath her frothy evening dress.

This wouldn’t do. She sent her maid off to find several handkerchiefs and ribbon. Soon, Crosby put together a garment that covered both breasts, had thin shoulder straps, and could be tied behind the wearer’s back. Crosby’s design was best-suited for young, small-chested women like herself. Her social circle was wowed by it, and she patented the invention and started production of the Crosby bras.

Bissett and Rosenthal Address Reality

As Enid Bissett and Ida Rosenthal listened to their customers, they heard that women with larger breasts were also eager to do away with corsets.  (Bernard Baruch, chairman of the War Industries Board during World War I aided in this cause. Because corsets contained steel stays, Baruch pointed out that steel was needed for weapons, and therefore, women should give up their corsets.) Enid and Ida came up with a way to build a supportive bra into the dresses, which meant women didn’t need corsets.

As the newly designed dresses with built-in support went home in shopping bags, an interesting phenomenon occurred. Customers returned to the store with a request: “May I buy the support part of the dress without the dress?”

And that was the beginning of their bra manufacturing company.

At first the women included one extra bra with each dress sold, but as demand grew, they began selling the bras separately for $1 each.

Initially, the company was called  Enid Brassiere Manufacturing Company.

William’s Health Improves

After a dozen bad years, William Rosenthal was finally well enough to return to his family and participate in their lives. The company was growing nicely, so both Enid and Ida were glad for the extra help.  Enid’s focus was the retail side of things. Ida loved the business end—training the sales representatives, visiting the trade shows and department stores, and keeping track of the finances. William was drawn to design. They were a well-suited trio.

Some sources give William “co-founding credit” and indicate that Ida was the lesser business partner in the marriage. These accounts were written when men were assumed to dominate. William does play an important role in Maidenform, but my research indicates that Ida was the partner with business acumen. She provided the drive that made Maidenform the largest bra company in the country.

In 1926, the business partners opened a large manufacturing space in Bayonne, New Jersey, and business was humming along. But the stock market crash of 1929 meant re-grouping. Enid and Ida and their husbands all agreed that the bra business was the one in which to invest. They closed the dress company and went full-time into bras.

Shortly after that time, Enid Bissett chose to retire. Ida and William Rosenthal bought her share of the business. The name of the manufacturing company was changed to Maiden Form Brassiere Company.

Bra Designs

The Rosenthals firmly believed that the uplift style took weight off the midsection of the body and thereby, relieved women from fatigue. In designing the bras, William knew women rejected the steel stays in corsets, so he puzzled with seamstresses as to how to piece together and stitch fabric in such a way that there was support and uplift from the fabric alone.

Many innovations came out of the factory in Bayonne, New Jersey. William held the patents for the company, and he patented new closure designs, better methods of uplift, bra designs for different needs (maternity and nursing, particularly), and eventually, what we now consider standard: bras that come in various cup sizes.

William Rosenthal also addressed what he saw as inefficiency in manufacturing. After studying how machines and cars were made using an assembly line, he investigated how to bring this process might help Maidenform. He and the seamstresses experimented with how to make a bra in parts—putting all the pieces together at the end. Ultimately, Rosenthal’s methodology changed the entire garment industry.

Second World War

Having struggled through World War I to keep her business afloat, Ida Rosenthal was thoughtful as to how Maidenform should approach the coming of World War II. She’d seen that the key to keeping a business running during tough times had to do with maintaining a good supply chain. If she converted part of her factory to make items for the military, her company would be a high priority for incoming material and supplies.

After a trip to Washington, she picked up the commission to make pants, coats, and shirts for soldiers as well as oversized fabric items like parachutes.

She also emphasized to the government that with more women in the workforce, Maidenform Bras continued to be needed.  As a result of her strategy, Maidenform was among the factories that maintained production throughout the war, continually receiving the shipments they needed to continue to make garments for the government.

War’s End

When the war ended, Americans longed for a normal life. Women became more interested in fashion again, and they turned to models and movie stars for their inspiration. Mae West, of course, had been popular in the 1930s and ‘40s. She was followed by full-figured Jane Russell. With curvy women making headlines, the Rosenthals were in a good position for selling bras that defined the female figure.

Soon they were producing the Chansonette Bra, a design that accentuated the bust. (It is also known as the “bullet bra.”) In the first year, they sold more than a million of the style. In the mid-seventies, the company was still selling millions of various versions of that style.

Family Business

With the death of their beloved son Lewis in 1930, the Rosenthal dream of a family member taking over the business relied solely on their daughter Beatrice. Fortunately, Beatrice was interested, and so was her husband, John Coleman. Both of them were folded into Maidenform.

Daring Advertising

Ida Rosenthal saw that Maidenform’s success would lie in selling to the masses. While some products benefit from exclusivity, Rosenthal had the instinct to know that Maidenform should be sold as a mass market item. She knew the importance of getting wide distribution, but creating demand for the bra was also necessary.

Son-in-law John Coleman felt that women would more readily buy what they could see. Selling a bra based on a photograph of a bra display just didn’t work. But no one had yet come up with an advertisement that showed undergarments on people. It was viewed as too suggestive.

He took his problem to the William Weintraub Advertising Agency where he worked with account manager Mary Fillius.

Fillius and her team went to work on the project and came up with the precedent-setting ad campaign that we now know as the “I dreamed I went ____ in my Maidenform bra.”

Ads Broke New Ground

The first ad appeared in August of 1949 and featured a satin bra in the “Allo-Ette” style. The company purchased a one-third page black-and-white ad featuring a beautiful model wearing a skirt, a bra, and carrying a shopping bag. She looked delighted to be out shopping and the ad read: “I dreamed I went shopping in my Maidenform bra.”

After raising eyebrows for a time, the campaign became a staple in newspapers, magazines, and eventually even on television, lasting for twenty years. The themes changed regularly:
“I dreamed I painted the town red in my Maidenform bra.”

“I dreamed I went whistle-stopping in my Maidenform bra.”

“I dreamed I was a toreador in my Maidenform bra.

To see more of these ads, click here.

Company Continues

William Rosenthal died in 1958, but Ida remained active in the business until 1966 wen she had a stroke. At that point, Beatrice took over many of the responsibilities overseen by Ida, and John Coleman retained his position as company president until his death in 1968.

Beatrice became president after he died, and this prepared the way for the company management to pass to Elizabeth Coleman, daughter of John and Beatrice.

In the late 1990s, the company faced hard times. Management restructured it and made it a publicly traded company. In 2013, Maidenform was acquired by Hanesbrands.

Company Success

While the Maidenform Company went on to make the Rosenthals wealthy, they were very philanthropic and had many interests. In sadness over the 1930 death of their son, they established Camp Lewis for the Boy Scouts in 1943. Throughout many years, they also contributed to the Anti-Defamation League, B’Nai B’rith and the United Jewish Appeal.