The Makers

The Worcester City Directory listings divided corset making activity between two business types.  There was the corsetiere, a small shop with usually one proprietor who was a woman taking measurements and making the product. There was also the corset manufacturer, a larger operation with more employees, division of labor, a larger facility, namely, a factory.  This website features two manufacturer profiles, both researched and written when I still imagined City of Corsets as a general overview of the industry in the city, before deciding to focus on the women’s businesses.  We’ll consider these to be “bonus material.”

Please read more about two early Worcester corset manufacturers:

– Park Corset Works (1882-1894) – at 84 Front Street, one of the city’s earliest corset manufacturers, run by a Civil War veteran and former “notions” shop owner
– Linehan Conover Company (1913-1929) also in business as Linehan Corset Company (1908-1912, 1927-1931), started at a downtown location (12 Austin Street) and later moved to a larger facility around the corner from Mary Bowne’s factory in the Junction Shop Manufacturing District