Table of Contents
Part I. From a Farm Town
Mary Bowne and the Ivy Corset Company
The Beginning: Ohio to New York to Massachusetts 1870-1904
From a childhood in London, Ohio, to a business venture in nearby Springfield, Ohio, Mary Heintzelman starts her life-long career as a professional corset maker. An absent father perhaps propels Mary and her two brothers into the work force at an early age. A move to New York City with her mother and sister enhances her credentials and confidence, preparing her for a move to her ultimate destination: Worcester, Massachusetts.
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short subject 1: Corset Miscellany
A sidebar piece with miscellaneous information about the corset.
Emma A. Kemp
Kemp was born in the summer of 1852, more than ten years before the business of corsets came to the city of Worcester. Raised on a farm in the nearby town of Webster, Massachusetts, she eventually made the same move that Mary Bowne would make 25 years later, one that thousands of Americans made in the last years of the 19th century: from small agricultural town to manufacturing city. Like Mary Bowne, her journey included many years of self-employment, a short-lived marriage, and decades hunched over a sewing machine.
Bon Ton School of Corsetry
The city’s oldest and largest corset manufacturer the Royal Worcester Corset Company launched a clever marketing strategy with its saleswoman training academy. What began as an
on-site event morphed into a very active correspondence school with customers around the world. We look at some of the women involved in the Bon Ton School and at other contemporary options for learning how to make a corset.
short subject 2: She Maintained Herself by her Sewing Machine: Lavinia Foy
Part II. Downtown
Mary Bowne and the Ivy Corset Company: early years (1904-1910) and a downtown start-up
Arriving in Worcester as a saleswoman for the Royal Worcester Corset Company, by year’s end Bowne had launched the Corset H Company located in a factory building two blocks from City Hall. The company grew to overflow at its 8,000 square foot first location as its “Ivy Corset” model became nationally famous. A family member comes to join her in Worcester and she focuses on marketing her popular product lines.
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short subject 3: An Insult to the Colored Woman
A sidebar piece discussing the lack of information about corset makers and buyers of color in Worcester and elsewhere.
Burnside Building 339 Main Street
This building in the heart of downtown Worcester hosted seven different corset making shops over a 20+ year period. Solo operators, an unlikely business partnership, Swedes, Irishwomen,
an Italian … the stories offer a mixed bag that reflects life at that time in the small city. The vibrancy of this community of corset-makers provides an example of what was lost when America’s main streets were no longer the epicenter of town commerce. We also see in this building examples of the determination of many of the city’s single women (unmarried, widowed, abandoned, etc.) to keep themselves afloat.
May Cosgrove
May Byrne Cosgrove managed her business through challenging chapters of American history, from the end of World War I to the early 1950s. Like many of the city’s corsetieres, her shop moved from one downtown address to another over the years as she searched for better locations, cheaper rent, or snazzier display cases. She is unique among the women profiled in that her introduction to corsets came via retail, having sold corsets as a young store clerk at both a downtown department store and corset boutique. As she approached the world of corset-making we learn about the retail options for corsets in Worcester in the early 1900s.
Slater Building 390 Main Street
When the Slater Building opened in 1907 it was Worcester’s second “sky-scraper,” joining the State Mutual Building at 340 Main Street in the vertically growing city’s new skyline. The seven corsetiere businesses in the Slater building feature members of Worcester’s transplanted Canadian, Irish, Swedish, and Syrian communities. We see large U.S. manufacturers of corsets based outside of the city setting up shop with franchise-type locations run here by “registered
corsetieres,” such as those trained by the Bon Ton School. Some of the women in this building got their start at May Cosgrove’s shop. Across these forty years of corset-making we see the evolution of the corset’s shape and function.
short subject 4: Saying No to Corsets: Dr. Mary J. Studley
A sidebar piece about a Worcester native who became one of America’s early female medical doctors, returned to practice in her home town, then spent years on the national lecture circuit explaining the damage that corsets were doing to the human body.
Part III. The Factory
Mary Bowne and the Ivy Corset Company: first years at 40 Jackson Street 1910-1917
As Bowne settles into the new factory building she pursues patent protection for her new designs. The state of Massachusetts sets up a commission to document wages in certain industries, among them corset manufacturing, then recommends some changes. We see
evidence of exclusion of women from the highest levels of the industry and wonder about Bowne’s decision to stay out of the limelight. The onset of World War I brings changes to production at corset factories nation-wide.
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short subject 5: Many Local Suppliers
A sidebar piece about the various businesses in the city that provided supplies to its corset makers.
labor Conditions
What were conditions like in a corset factory? What recourse did employees have — if any — in unfair labor situations? We hear from some women who documented the abuses of the labor force in the corset manufacturing industry and watch as the dissatisfaction bubbles up into labor actions, including in Worcester.
Edith Salgstrom
One of the corsetieres who began in the Burnside Building moved to a location on the other side of Main Street where she stayed in business for over thirty years. Her Swedish immigrant father worked at one of Worcester’s biggest employers, the largest wire manufacturer in the United
States at the time. Enroute to self-employment, Edith works at Mary (Heintzelman) Bowne’s Ivy Corset factory, an example of the frequent overlap among the businesses in this corset making community. She also worked for years at the city’s biggest corset factory the Royal Worcester Corset Company including time as a forewoman. What did that job entail?
short subject 6: Royal Worcester Corset Company
A sidebar piece about the company at the forefront of Worcester’s prominence in this industry.
Mary Bowne and the Ivy Corset Company: World War I into mid-century
Bowne augments the company’s revenue stream by launching a national chain of retail stores to sell its product. Its Ivy Corset model was by then of such prominence that the business renamed, from Corset H to the Ivy Corset Company. The 1920s was a decade of great
prosperity for the business. The last half of the its life included the challenges of damage to its facilities by arson, hurricane, and flooding. Bowne continued to evolve the product as evidenced by patent activity through this period. After many decades in the business, she retired to the family estate in a nearby town.
