Students Examine Enterprising Women

(Back) Professor Paul Lambert; Edith Mayo; Domenic Cornacchioli '09 (History Club President); Professor Edward Warren (Front) Professor Emily Thomas; Kristin Coffey '08 (History Club Vice President); Nichols Associate Vice President Patricia Hertzfeld

As part of Nichols women's history celebration, on April 9^th the curator emeritus in political history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Edith Mayo, gave highlights from a traveling exhibition on women in business called "Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business." Mayo's presentation was sponsored by the Fischer Institute, Nichols History Club and the Organization of American Historians' Distinguished Lectureship Program.

Mayo focused on eight women (of 47 dating from 1750 to present) featured in an evocative exhibit sponsored by the Schlesinger Library of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. The exhibit was organized as a way to encourage American women business owners to donate their papers for archiving. The exhibit toured from 2002-2005.

Mayo found several important themes as she investigated women in business and their contributions to mainstream American economics:

• There was an impact of family for good or ill
• Women had legal disabilities (throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries women were prohibited from owning property, accumulating capital, and doing business outside what was considered a woman's "proper sphere")
• Women created a separate "female" economy (businesses that catered to other women, to families in general, or supplied products for children)
• Women who succeeded in "male" businesses inherited them from fathers, brothers, or husbands
• Women linked their businesses to some major social or economic trend in American society

Mayo noted that investigation also showed a link between economic independence and political freedom. The seven women discussed included: Mary Katherine Goddard (printing); Rebecca Lukins (ironwork); Wanna Brionez (ranching); Martha Caustin (navy signals); Madame C.J. Walker (cosmetics); Maggie Lena Walker (banking); Julia Morgan (architect); Mary Pickford (artist/producer).

Edith Mayo
Mayo completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at George Washington University, where she earned a master's degree in American Studies.  For 35 years she served as curator in political history at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Mayo is a serious scholar with a commitment to using museums as a tool to teach history more effectively to the public. As she wrote in The Public Historian, a professional journal, in 1983:  "It seems natural to use museums as a conduit to channel women's historical scholarship to a popular audience, to broaden public understanding of, and support for, the study of women's history."