In the early 1900s, women entrepreneurs were few. At the age of the 24, Helena set off to Australia aboard the Prinz Regent Luitpol with a parasol, twelve jars of face cream and twelve talismans. Helena opened her first beauty institute in Melbourne in 1902, capitalizing on women's burgeoning independence and turned equal rights into a marketing opportunity for her products. She sold the company to Lehman Brothers in 1928 before the Great Depression. She bought back $1.5 million in stock and increased its valuation to $100 million.
Untutored in classical music but influenced by jazz and blues, Mahalia Jackson would create her own style and establish herself as a gospel singer. During her lifetime, she performed for kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers and kept going back to sing in churches for the people who loved her voice first.
Very little is known of Amelia Simmons, believed to be the author of the first American cookbook by a European American. "American Cookery, or the art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plum to plain cake: Adapted to this country, and all grades of life" is considered by the Library of Congress to be one of the 88 books that shaped America.
Hetty Green was born Henrietta Robinson in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The lone woman among 19th century tycoons such as Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, she was an innovator in the field of value investing. Green believed that women should learn about bank accounts, mortgages, bonds and how interest works.
Lorraine Hansberry was born the youngest of four to Carl Hansberry and Nannie Hansberry in Chicago, IL on May 19, 1930. She became the first African American, the youngest playwright, the fifth woman to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the best play of the season on April 7, 1959 for her a play A Raisin in the Sun, which addressed equal rights in work/housing, and freedom.
