Women Owned Businesses

Women have been midwives, healers, dowsers, photographers, and writers. Some have started businesses for which they hired other laborers such as knitters and dressmakers. Some women took in ironing, washing, or boarders. Women have also owned and managed restaurants throughout the twentieth century. See the blurbs below to learn a little more about some of the businesses that women owned in the region and the business women who owned them.

Basket Makering:

P8225 Penobscot women and Child from Old Town, Maine displaying baskets they have woven. circa 1890 [Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor] (P 8225) Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Native American women in Maine worked hard all winter long making baskets to sell to the summer tourist trade. Their basket sales enhanced the family income.
P08225
Penobscot women and child displaying baskets they have woven, Indian Island, Old Town, ME. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Native American women in Maine worked hard all winter long making baskets to sell to the summer tourist trade. Their basket sales enhanced the family income.

“I couldn’t remember how old I was, I was little. Very little and my grandmother gave me all the gauges and the material and everything and said, ‘Now you sit and you work, you learn how to make baskets, because sometime when you marry and have a family, its gonna come in handy, and believe me, it did.” –Madeline Tomer Shay (NA2383)

If you find this topic interesting, you may want to look at the finding aids for NAFOH MF 164, the Maine Pack Basket Makers Collection, which can be found on the research occupational folklore topic page.

Dowsing:

Dowsing, or water witching, is a traditional way to find a good place to dig a well. People who are known for having the ability to locate water are hired to find the best site. The photos below show dowsers demonstrating techniques.

“I spent one whole day water witching, and when I got home I was tired than I’ve ever been in my life. I’d had all the magic drained out of me.” -Sylvia Wichenback

Lobstering:

P08231 Women owned Lobster businesses. Barbara Seawell empties the bait bag While her granddaughter, Sabrina Mariner pulls lobsters from a trap. [BDN photo by Bridget Besaw, taken August, 1997] (P 8231)
P08231 Barbara Seawell and Sabrina Mariner. Photo by Bridget Besaw. Photo courtesy of Bangor Daily News, permission must be obtained prior to use.
Lobster business owner Barbara Seawell empties the bait bag while her granddaughter, Sabrina Mariner, pulls lobsters from a trap.

Maine Guide:

Fly Rod Crosby — Cornelia Thurza Crosby (1854-1946) was a native of Phillips. Crosby worked and fished in the Rangeley area. By 1895 she had become Maine's first registered guide, first paid tourism promoter, and a nationally known sports celebrity with a widely syndicated outdoor column. [Maine State Museum Photo] (P 8228)
P08228 Fly Rod Crosby. Photo courtesy of Maine State Museum.
Fly Rod Crosby – Cornelia Thurza Crosby (1854-1946) was a native of Phillips who worked and fished in the Rangeley area. Crosby worked and fished in the Rangeley area. By 1895 she had become Maine’s first registered guide, first paid tourism promoter, and a nationally known sports celebrity with a widely syndicated outdoor column.

Opera Singing:

Madam Nordica, opera singer. Lilian Norton, a working class farm girl from Farmington, began her career singing in Italy, France, England, and Russia. [NA 2532] (P 8229)
P08229 Madam Lilian Nordica. Photo courtesy of Maine State Museum, permission must be obtained prior to use.
Madam Lilian Nordica, opera singer. Lilian Norton, a working class farm girl from Farmington, began her career singing in Italy, France, England and Russia.

Whitewater Rafting:

P06357 Joy Neily, whitewater guide in the rear of the raft, guides her group through the cribworks on the West Branch of the Penobscot. Her sister, Sandy Neily, is co-owner of Eastern Expeditions (printed on side of raft) a whitewater rafting company in Greenville. (P6357)
P06357 Joy Neily.

Joy Neily, whitewater guide. Neily, in the rear of the raft, guides her group through the cribworks on the West Branch of the Penobscot. Her sister, Sandy Neily, was co-owner of Eastern Expeditions (printed on side of raft) a whitewater rafting company in Greenville. Written on back of the photo: “Joy Neily August 1982 first chute of the cribwork on the west branch of the Penobscot first commercial run forgot helmets so she gave hers to woman 2nd from front. Joy had fallen out in staircase rapids after gorge.”

Additional reading:

Bird, Caroline, Enterprising Women, (New York: Norton, 1976)

Dexter, Elisabeth Williams Anthony, Colonial Women of Affairs: Women in Business and the Professions in America before 1776, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931).

Stage, Sarah, Female Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and the business of women’s medicine, (New York: Norton, 1979).