Rebecca Harding Davis: Making Things Real

One of the joys of writing this blog is that when things are going well one post leads to another idea, another story, another question. It feels like my list of possible topics bubbles and fizzes* and I can hardly decide which story to tell you next.** This is one of the times when the…

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Corsets for Victory?

  And speaking of lady’s undergarments, as I believe we were, I can’t resist sharing this tidbit: When America entered World War I in 1917, chairman of the War Industries board Bernard Baruch asked women to stop buying corsets to conserve steel, part of the wider program of rationing, conserving and allocating materials important to…

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Ida Rosenthal: Dressmaker Turned Underwear Tycoon

As I mentioned recently, I’ve been thinking about women entrepreneurs and their stories in an on-again off-again way for the last few months. As I stumble across them, I’ll share them with you. Because that’s what I do. Next up, Ida Rosenthal (1886-1973), whom I mentioned in passing several posts ago. I first stumbled across…

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