HAUSMAN, KATHRYN: Design Pioneer, ADSNY (c) By Polly Guerin

Kathryn Hausman (Photo: Zenith Richards)

There are women born with many gifts and then there is Kathryn Hausman, a woman determined to succeed beyond any obstacles in her path, a woman who went past the glass ceiling and scaled to the heights of success in every field she endeavored.  How shall we define a woman of such diverse talents: mother, designer, entrepreneur of Medusa’S Heirlooms, collector and philanthropist, president of the Art Deco Society of  New York and glamour icon!!!  Hausman manages to toss all her responsibilities in the air and produce a legacy of achievement that is befitting a modern woman.  No, not one who came into her success through marriage or inheritance but through personal perseverance and persistence. Hausman was determined to succeed and to make the world a better place. She pursued her dreams and leaves a legacy to inspire other women to pursue their dreams as she did.     

MEDUSA’S HEIRLOOMS I remember meeting Kathryn many years ago when I was an accessories editor and found the starling creator introducing her hair ornaments and delightful accessories someplace on Third Avenue. And then I followed her to Bloomingdale's where sales were booming and another story was in the works. Striving and surviving throughout the decades and gaining momentum she built a thriving business and still has a big following nationwide, and Bendel’s is her best New York Customer. In her showroom at 385 Fifth Avenue baskets of hair ornaments, barrettes and jeweled accessories spill out from floor to ceiling and sparkle like diamonds, in a treasure trove display where buyers stepping into the magic kingdom descend to place orders of hair accessories for their boutiques and stores. 

SOUND INVESTMENT Hausman, a single divorced and devoted mother of two sons, invested in her family with unwavering devotion and to this end she said, "With the financial success of Medusa's Heirlooms I did something smart and bought a brownstone on East 89th street for $155,000 in 1978. If one is invited to this amazing home/museum there you will find Hausman's Goldscheider collection of ceramics made in Vienna from 1885 to 1938--gaily painted female figures from the 1920s that depict Hollywood actresses and exotic dancers. So rare and wonderful is the collection that its celebrity was presented  in an exhibition “Goldscheider Ceramics---A World Brand from Vienna” at the Leo Baeck Institute, part of the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16 Street in 2009. In the future Hausman plans to document her Goldscheider collection in a book that no doubt will have profound collectible value.     

A COLLECTOR'S DEN That’s not all that is housed at Hausman’ s brownstone, in her personal collection drawers spill forth with Bakelite jewelry and with so many other treasures in her Art Deco-inspired interior it is like visiting a petite museum. She is as decorative as her collections. “I always dress a little costomey,” says the iconic designer.  “I like vintage clothes or a bit of eccentricity.”  A loyal friend with unwavering faithfulness, Kathryn seems to have the ability to put other people’s interests and needs before her own, and to this end she has also mentored young students from the Fashion Institute of Technology who have the opportunity to learn the accessories business first hand in her Medusa's Heirlooms' showroom.         

ART DECO SOCIETY PRESIDENT Kathy Hausman has been involved in the Art Deco Society of New York for over thirty years. She says, “I joined the Board as a shy, young Deco advocate and served as a Board member for many years and later was elected to be the Social Director producing great parties and balls at prestigious private clubs and venues. When Bill Weber, who was president for years and my inspiration became ill I was elected vice president and in the following year, 1999 I was voted in as president.”  Hausman’s role became even more demanding and in 1997 she represented and attended the ICAD’s Congress in Los Angeles. She was so inspired that she proposed at the ICAD’s 2001 Congress in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an official offer to host ICAD’s Congress in New York City. The vote was unanimous!!! 

ICADS NEW YORK CONGRESS In 2005 drew 250 attendees from all over the world to experience New York’s Art Deco treasures.  Scholarly lectures, parties and historical New York venues were orchestrated by Hausman in places of extraordinary historical reverence. I remember the Australian contingent and never met friendlier and more enthusiastic attendees but there were many other Deco international friends and this congress set the stage that recognized Hausman as a born leader on the world stage.                                                                                       

DECO GOALS FULFILLED Dawning on the heels of her success and after serving as President of ADSNY, Art Deco Society of New York for over 15 years, Kathryn Hausman leaves a legacy of achievement that cannot be matched by many other women.  As she said, “I am not leaving! I will sail perpetually on the ADSNY ship, but will no longer be at the helm.” Hausman’s Medusa’s Heirlooms continues to be one of New York’s eminent accessories firms. The Art Deco Society of New York, on the other hand, will never be the same, for under Hausman’s administration the organization was imbued with heightened awareness of the Art Deco significance of New York’s treasures and the events were always a sensation, a rare opportunity of expand one’s appreciation of Art Deco.

THANK YOU KATHRYN HAUSMAN, A MODERN WOMAN DETERMINED TO SUCCEED WHO RAISED THE LEVEL OF ART DECO APPRECIATION. SHE LEAVES A LEGACY OF CONSIDERABLE ACHIEVEMENT THAT HAS INSPIRED AND ENRICHED THE LIVES OF SO MAY DECO ENTHUSIASTS.

AUSTEN, ALICE: Legendary Photographer (c) By Polly Guerin

Alice Austen’s white cottage still stands at the water’s edge in the neighborhood of Clifton on Staten Island--- a testament to Alice’s long and remarkable life as a photographer. Born into comfortable circumstances Alice had no need to pursue a career, but photography, that started out as perhaps a hobby, became her passion. A young woman determined to succeed; Alice deserves her due recognition as a pioneer in this genre. 
FIRST LADY OF THE LENS She was one of America’s earliest and most prolific female photographers and over the course of her life created 8000 images. For one thing in the late nineteenth century, cameras were a cumbersome affair, but Alice surpassed any restraints and managed to carve a niche in the photography world with images that preserve a myriad of subjects. She captured the great transatlantic ships that still pass in front of her house, the coming of the automobile to the beginning of tennis, the countryside and world beyond. The Alice Austen House Museum, Clear Comfort, is located at 2 Hylan Blvd., Staten Island, New York.

FROM SOCIETY BELLE TO PHOTOGRAPHER It was her Danish Uncle Oswald who brought home a camera in 1876 and her Uncle Peter who showed her how to develop the negative images on the dry plates she exposed. Alice was captivated by the new art form and advanced forward with alacrity. However, Alice always insisted, that except for these initial demonstrations, she simply “learned by doing.” By the time she was eighteen, Alice was a professional photographer and her family was sufficiently comfortable to indulge Alice in the best of the cumbersome equipment she required. A closet on the second floor was converted into Alice’s darkroom. Ships sailing the Narrows were her favorite photographic subject---over the years she saw and recorded them all---racing yachts, schooners, tugs, warships, luxury liners and immigrant ships from the vantage point of Clear Comfort, a Victorian Gothic cottage on the shores of the Verrazano Narrows.
LAUNCHING A NEW CAREER Most belles during Alice’s time would not have taken on such a demanding task as photography was not a lighthearted affair. Wearing her Sunday best, a bustle fashion gown with striped over skirt one can only imagine how difficult it may have been to photograph the fine old houses and historic buildings on the island. It was not an easy adventure--at the same time lugging around fifty pounds of photographic equipment. She hauled her camera and tripod along to picnics, masquerades and chronicled the social life of musical evenings in her friends’ parlors as well as family gatherings and weddings. She even climbed a fence post, not caring if she exposed her ankles, in pursuit of the picture she wanted of local auto speed trials.

POSING HER SUBJECTS Alice would go to almost any length of get the picture she wanted. She was rather a perfectionist and she did not care how impatient her complaining subjects became. The expression of her subjects and the overall composition had to be just right and the exposure in the right light. She enjoyed recording Americans at work, boat races, amusement parks, country fairs in Vermont and the great world fairs in Chicago and Buffalo. She may have spent more than twenty summers aboard and always traveled off the beaten path to capture the activities in some tiny town and she felt equally free to visit places considered unseemly for a lady. Alice usually traveled with two cameras capable of producing images of different proportions, which filled a large steamer trunk. It was a cumbersome affair but Alice was a strong woman capable of carrying her heavy equipment creating in her lifetime images with lasting beauty that chronicle a legacy from America’s past.
     Alice Austen used her camera in a very personal way to record people, places and interesting travels. Her photographs show us real people and places as they actually appeared and we are made luckier by the fact that she captured these images of a wonderful time in America’s history. I suggest that you also read:: ALICE’S WORLD, The Life and Photography of an American Original: Alice Austen, 1866-1952 by Ann Novotny, Chatham Press, Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
   Polly loves to hear from her readers, please send your comments to pollytalknyc@gmail.com.

GREEN, HETTY: THE EMPRESS OF FINANCE (c) By Polly Guerin

Henrietta Howland Robinson, known as Hetty Green, beat the robber barons at their own game; invested her dowry in bonds rather than in a husband and was the first woman to make a substantial impact on Wall Street. Why should we be interested in Hetty? Because this feisty Victorian , despite stiff competition of the mostly male business environment, paved the way for women to think differently about their circumstances. Hetty was known for her financial prowess and ability to parlay her wealth through shrewdly investing in the stock market and made a fortune on wall street. Hetty Geeen was an American woman determined to succeed and this in itself is a remarkable feat that she achieved in the Gilded Age.
MARRIAGE AND INVESTING Hetty wasn’t expected to do anything particular but to marry and bring in capital that would then be managed by a male, family member. It was the era when women did not have control of their finances or inheritance. Hetty would shun such an idea and set her path of independence from the start. As was the custom when time came for marriage, her parents handed Hetty $l,200 for gowns and carriages and sent her off to the nation’s financial capital to attract a spouse. Nothing doing, Hetty invested $l, 000 of that money in bonds and from then on she was on a roll, caught up in the web of investing.
GREEN’S HERITAGE Hetty was born, Henrietta Howland Robinson in 1834-1916, and her family was wealthy merchants owning vast fleets of whaling ships in New Bedford, MA. Early on Henrietta (Hetty) cleaved to her father and from the age of six she was reading financial newspapers to him and this is how she learned about stocks and bonds; by thirteen Hetty became the family bookkeeper. At the age of 33, Hetty married Edward Henry Green, a member of a wealthy Vermont family. Ahead of her time, she made him renounce all rights to her money before the wedding on July 11, 1867. The young couple moved to London and there raised a son, Edward Howland Robinson ‘Ned’ Green and daughter Hetty Sylvia Ann Howland Green. When her father died in 1864, Hetty inherited $7.5 million and started a legal campaign to get access to the money she inherited. Against the objections of most of her family , she invested in Civil War bonds.

A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS WOMAN When the family returned to New York City Hetty began parlaying her inheritances into her own astonishing fortune. She conducted much of her business at the offices of the Seaboard National Bank in order to avoid paying rent elsewhere and this begins a routine of stinginess and denial when she could easily have afforded all the luxuries that her wealth could afford.. She could be seen in the financial arenas of business wearing her unusually dour dress, which was mostly black and which she rarely cleaned as it being too expensive to do so, and this formidable appearance she was nicknamed, “The Witch of Wall Street.” Surrounded by her trunks and papers she ate frugally. Yet she was a successful business woman who dealt mainly in real estate, invested in railroads, and lent money. It is legendary that on several occasions the city o f New York came to Hetty in need of loans, particularly during the Panic of 1907 when she wrote a check for $l.l million.

DENIAL TO THE END Sadly, Hetty’s stinginess carried over to the welfare of her children. When her son Ned broke his leg she denied him immediate professional medical attention deeming it too expensive and held back her daughter from marriage because she disapproved of all over Sylvia’s suitors because she suspected they wanted to get their hands on her money. When her children left home Hetty moved repeatedly to small apartments in different boroughs, mainly to avoid tax officials in any state. She failed in the great arena of philanthropy as parting with money was at the hallmark of her stinginess. So fearful was she of parting with money that she did not underwrite the great institutions, libraries or hospitals of the era. When it came to finance Hetty was a genius; yet she led a life of extreme thrift.

In Janet Wallach’s book, The Richest Woman in America, Doubleday she says that Hetty was a talented investor who had the bad luck to be born in an era when the guild of Victorian men, shut out a whole class of minds---women’s. Fortunately, not so today, women have scaled the heights of management and proving their mettle and breaking new ground in the financial world.

GILBRETH, LILLIAN: Mother of Modern Management (c) By Polly Guerin

One would hardly have expected Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972), an American psychologist and industrial engineer to be one of the first superwomen who combined career and home life. Despite the fact that her father was not an advocate of higher education for women, she was determined to succeed and managed to graduate from the University of California in 1900 and pursued her master’s degree at Columbia University, but illness forced a return to California; she went back to Berkeley and received a master’s degree in literature in 1902. She seemingly ‘had it all’ and was one of the first females working in the fields of engineering and industrial psychology. Lillian considered herself plain and never expected to get married but is perhaps best remembered as the mother of twelve children. The books Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes (written by their children Ernestine and Frank Jr.) were subsequently made into movies. Lillian Moller Gilbreth was a remarkable woman for her time and her work paved the way for other women to pursue similar industrial engineering careers.   
A SUMMER ROMANCE After graduating she celebrated by taking a trip to Europe and on a stopover in Boston the group’s chaperon Minnie Bunker introduced Lillian to her cousin Frank Bunker Gilbreth, a well-off construction company owner. It must have been love at first sight because they had an instant connection and upon her return from Europe Frank travelled to California to meet her family. They became engaged and married in 1904. Frank, who never went to college, was interested in efficiency in the workplace and together they began their study of scientific management principles and Lillian worked by his side in his consulting business. They began their family and moved to Rhode Island in 1910, where Lillian took her doctorate in psychology at Brown University in 1915 with four young children in tow at the ceremony.
TRUE PARTNERS Lillian and Frank were true partners at home and in business and applied their scientific management principles to the running of their household and the businesses to whom they consulted. Where Frank was concerned with the technical aspects of worker efficiency, Lillian was concerned with the human aspects of time management. Her work with Frank helped create job standardization, incentive wage-plans, and job simplification, and she was the first to recognize the effects of fatigue and stress on time management. Over seventeen years, the couple had twelve children all the while collaborating together. The story of their family life with their dozen children, in the fore-mentioned books, chronicles how they applied their interest in time and motion study to the organization and daily activities of such a large family.
LILLIAN’s RECOGNITION Lillian and Frank wrote several books together, but Lillian was never recognized as co-author because the publishers were concerned about the credibility of the books if it were known that a woman was one of its authors. Yet Lillian had a doctorate and Frank had not even attended a university, but Lillian was already gaining recognition as a pioneer of what is now known as organizational psychology. When Frank died of a heart attack in 1924, Lillian was faced was the enormous task of raising the children alone and finding a way to continue their consulting business. She returned to holding workshops in their home. She became the first woman member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and in 1935 she went to Purdue as a professor of management and the first professor in the engineering school. In her consulting business, she worked with GE and other firms to improve design of kitchens and household appliances. During the Great Depression she was asked by President Hoover to address unemployment and launched the successful “Share the Work” program.
THE RECIPIENT OF MORE THAN A DOZEN HONORARY DEGREES, LILLIAN MOLLER GILBRETH’S ABILITY TO COMBINE A CAREER AND FAMILY LED TO HER BEING CALLED, BY THE CALIFORNIA MONTHLY IN1944, “A Genius in the Art of Living.”

BATH, PATRICIA DOCTOR, BLACK INVENTOR

Imagine being born in the 1940s with the stresses associated with Harlem and World War II pending. One would not likely expect that a beautiful Black woman would emerge out of this chaos to become a renowned scientist. Notwithstanding obstacles the famous African-American inventor, Dr. Patricia Bath was a woman determined to succeed in an area of medicine where few women would have cared or been able to infiltrate. One of Dr. Bath’s finest achievements is the Laserphaco Probe which through cataract surgery gave people new vision. Kudos to you Dr. Bath, your brilliant mind inspires all women today to pursue their dream. OVERCOMING OBSTACLES Dr. Bath remembers, “Sexism, racism, and relative poverty were the obstacles which I faced as a young girl growing up in Harlem. There were no women physicians I knew of and surgery was a male-dominated profession, no high schools existed in Harlem, a predominately Black community; additionally Blacks were excluded from numerous medical schools and medical societies; and, my family did not possess the funds to send me to medical school.” However, her mother encouraged Patricia to read constantly and broadened her interest in science by buying her a chemistry set.
DEVELOPING LASERPHACO PROBE Image living in a world of hazy, cloudy vision that would result in total darkness? Before 1985 this was the plight of those with cataracts who did not want to risk surgery with a mechanical grinder. Doctor Bath’s passionate dedication to the treatment and prevention of blindness led her to develop the Cataract Laserphaco Probe; designed to use the power of a laser to quickly and painlessly vaporize cataracts from patients’ eyes.
FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE DOCTOR’S PATENT Dr. Bath a New York based ophthalmologist, was living in Los angles when she received her first patent in 1988, thus becoming the first African-American female doctor to patent a medical invention. Her patent was for removing cataract lenses transformed eye surgery making the procedure more accurate. The difference between the old method and her new invention was the difference between the use of highly accurate laser technology and the somewhat subjective accuracy of a mechanical device. With yet another invention Dr. Bath was able to restore sight to people who had been blind for over 30 years.
A MERIT AWARD Science was at the heart of her ambition form the start. Patricia served as editor of the Charles Evans Hughes High School science paper and was selected from a vast number of students from across the country for a summer program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. She was only 16 years old she worked in the field of cancer research and her mentor, Dr. Robert Bernard incorporated parts of her research into a joint scientific paper which he presented in Washington, D.C. Due to the resulting publicity, Mademoiselle Magazine presented Patricia with its 1960 Merit Award.
ACADEMIC ACHIEVER Further on Patricia graduated from Howard University School of Medicine in 1968. Her reputation as an acclaimed scientist was acknowledged in 1975, when Dr. Bath became the first African-American woman surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center and the first woman to be on the faculty of the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute. Need I say more? In her remarkable journey she founded and was the first president of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness.
DOCTOR PATRICIA BATH WAS ELECTED TO HUNTER COLLEGE HALL OF FAME IN 1988 AND ELECTED AS HOWARD UNIVERSITY PIONEER IN ACADEMIC MEDICINE IN 1993. WITH REVERENCE WE STAND IN AWE AND ADMIRATION FOR HER COURAGE AND INSPIRATION , AND DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED.

VON NESSEN, GRETA INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER (c) By Polly Guerin

Greta von Nessen may not be a household word today but when she created the Anywhere Lamp in 195l there was nothing like it, but at the same time, there was absolutely nothing new about it; all the lamp’s parts had been available as early as the 1920s. Amazing! She was an innovator, a style caster of a modern style. Greta decided instead of totally reinventing the wheel, to wield already-been made parts together (each from a different design periods) to create something new. Greta von Nessen was a woman determined to succeed in a man’s world where so few women had made their mark. In a sense her lamp was a game-changer-or at least parts the effort towards taking design to its next level.
WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL DESIGN? It emerged as a profession in the 1920s but took firmer hold in the depression the United States. After the stuffiness of previous eras manufacturers turned to industrial designers to give their products a modern look that would attract consumer appeal. It was a fresh new beginning and the timing was fortuitous. At a time when the country was at a low-ebb, the new streamlined works evoked a sense of speed and efficiency and projected the image of progress. At the same time, it allowed corporations to mass produce items and industrial designers lowered the costs by exploiting new materials like plastic, vinyl, chrome, aluminum creating works through molds and shaping. Resulting affordable prices and a growing prosperity helped to drive popular demand for modernism.
GRETA BEHIND HER MAN Greta was the widow of the industrial designer, Walter Von Nessen founder of Nessen Studios, established in 1927 in New York City, now Nessen Lamps Inc. Von Nessen was the only major designer to concentrate on innovative contemporary lighting and quickly gained a following with well known architects. After her husband’s death in 1943, Greta continued his lighting and furniture business developing designs of her own, particularly the Anywhere Lamp. She is counted among the pioneers in American industrial design and her designs have been featured at MOMA, the Modern Museum of Art and on a United States postage stamp. There seems to be very little biographical date about Great except that she was an American born in Sweden in 1900 and died in 1978.

GRETA VON NESSEN, ONE OF THE PIONEERS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, SERVES AS INSPIRATION FOR WOMEN TODAY WHO WILL SET THE STANDARD FOR A NEW GENRE OF FUTURE MODERNISM.

JULIETTE 'DAISY' GORDON LOW GIRL SCOUT LEADER (c) By Polly Guerin

When I visited Savannah, Georgia I was delighted with the quaint neighborhoods with their English style gardens and Victorian houses, and in this unlikely place I discovered Juliette ‘Daisy’ Gordon Low, the daughter of a proper Southern family who gave girls a voice before the country even gave women the vote. On March 12, 1912 she established the Girl Scouts in Savannah and from a single troop of 18 girls; the Girl Scouts has grown to an international organization of 10 million members in 145 countries. On the occasion of the Girl Scouts of the USA, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2012, we pay tribute to “Daisy,” as everyone knew her, a woman determined to succeed, and did so at a time when it was unthinkable that an elite Southern girl would prepare for a career. Pictured left: Daisy pins an achievement award on one of her Girl Scouts. Inset: Daisy as a young Southern society debutante.
‘DAISY’ ON THE VERGE Daisy was the product of the genteel South and the daughter of a wealthy cotton broker, as cotton was King in Savannah her father was wealthy and could indulge his daughter. Very little was expected of her and she could have gone on her merry way after attending finishing school to engage in cultural pursuits, but most certainly her first priority was to land a husband. That’s exactly what daisy did, she feel hopelessly in love with William Mackay Low, called ‘Willy,’ the heir to a British fortune.
THE UPPER CRUST This fairytale romance culminated in stunning society marriage in Savannah in 1886. Tragedy began at the start when a piece of rice tossed at the newlyweds logged in Daisy’s ear and that exacerbated an already existing poor hearing problem. When a doctor attempting to remove the rice punctured her eardrum she lost most of her good hearing as well. A feisty woman, Daisy’s near deafness did not slow her down but the antics of the British upper class were her undoing. Her philandering husband drank to excess and he made no attempt to conceal his affair.
BREAKING AWAY When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898 and the impending divorce, and the untimely demise of her husband, Daisy found herself a widow in her 40s, but she decided it is never too late to change your life. So she headed back to America determined and made life-changing decisions. As fate would have it, at a luncheon she met retired general Robert Baden-Powell, a hero of the second Boer War, who regaled her about his scouting program for the Boy Scouts. This encounter began a lifelong relationship with Powell and she caught the spirit of the message. So much so that using her personal fortune, her society contacts and her personal connection with Powell Daisy introduced Girl Guides to America.
SELF HELP BOOK Daisy was an innovator and she helped write and publish “How Girls Can Help Their Country,” a feminist self-help book before either term even existed. Eventually the Girl Guides name was changed to Girl Scouts but they do more than sell cookies: they teach respect, confidence, compassion and leadership. The philosophy or the organization and the activities and projects the girls participate in are the inspiration of its founder Juliette ‘Daisy’ Gordon Low. At first parents were reluctant to let their daughters join a group promoting independence, but relented when it became apparent that self-improvement far outweighed any thought of revolution. The Girl Scouts uniform gave the members of the troop a sense of true belonging to a new breed of young women who would pave the way for independence.

WE SALUTE JULIETTE ‘DAISY’ GORDON LOW; A WOMAN DETERMINED TO SUCCEED WHERE NO OTHER HAD VENTURED BEFORE CREATING THE GIRL SCOUTS OF AMERICAN A POWERFUL ICON FOR MILLIONS OF YOUNG WOMEN. TODAY THE GIRL SCOUTS HAS GROWN TO AN ORGANIZATION OF 3.3 MILLION ACTIVE MEMBERS, 50 MILLION ALUMNAE AND TROOPS IN 92 COUNTRIES.