Mary Phelps Jacob
Mary Phelps Jacob , from 1924 Caresse Crosby (born April 20, 1891 in New Rochelle , New York , † January 24, 1970 in Rome ) was a New York celebrity who invented a brassiere in 1910 , which was widely accepted. She was a publisher , writer and campaigned for women's rights.
Life
Mary Phelps Jacob was the eldest daughter of William Hearns Jacob and Mary Phelps. She had two brothers, Leonard and Walter “Bud” Phelps. Her ancestors came from an important colonial family in New England . She attended the private schools Chapin School in New York City and Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford .
In 1915 she married Richard Peabody. From this marriage two children, William Jacob (born February 4, 1916) and Poleen Wheatland (born August 12, 1917) emerged. Her husband joined the Boston vigilante and later fought in the First World War . After the war her husband became an alcoholic and the couple drifted apart.
Mary met the poet Harry Crosby in 1920 . She separated from her husband and married Crosby on September 9, 1922. On board the Aquitania , she moved to Paris with her two children from her first marriage , where her husband worked in a family-owned bank. Because of their predilection for racing horses, they bought a private horse racing stable in France. In 1924, Mary changed her first name to Caresse.
Caresse published the volume of poetry Crosses of Gold (1925) and the book Graven Images (1926). In 1927, the couple founded the Black Sun Press publishing house in Paris, which published small editions of English-language books.
Her husband Harry Crosby had many affairs in Paris, including with the twenty-year-old Josephine Noyes Rotch. Nevertheless, Caresse remained loyal to him. On December 10, 1929, Harry Crosby and Josephine committed suicide together. Both were drawn to death.
After the death of her husband, Caresse Crosby continued to run the publishing house alone. She later ran an art gallery in Washington, DC and started a literary magazine. Caresse Crosby died of pneumonia in Rome on January 24, 1970.
invention
Bras had been invented before 1914, but only found regional distribution. What annoyed Jacob about the corsets that were widespread at the time was that the whalebone peeked out from under the fabric of her evening dress. Together with her maid, she made her bra from two silk handkerchiefs and pink ribbons. This was initially in great demand. On February 12, 1914, she applied for a patent for her backless bra, which she received on November 3.
Since business with her Caresse Crosby Brassières was not going as well as expected, she sold the patent to the Warners Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport for $ 1,500 . In 1917, during the First World War, Bernard Baruch urged American women to switch from corsets to bras in order to free material that was crucial to the war.
Works
- Crosses of Gold . Éditions Narcisse, Paris, 1925.
- Graven Images . Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1926.
- Painted Shores . Black Sun Press, Paris, 1927.
- The Stranger . Black Sun Press, 1927.
- Impossible Melodies . Black Sun Press, 1928.
- Poems for Harry Crosby . Black Sun Press, 1930.
- The Passionate Years . Dial Press, 1953.
literature
- Cristina De Stefano: Adventurous Americans . SchirmerGraf Verlag, Munich 2008.
Web links
- Caresse Crosby in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- to the history of the bra
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jacob, Mary Phelps |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Caresse Crosby; Mary Peabody; Mary Crosby |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American inventor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 20, 1891 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New Rochelle , New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 24, 1970 |
| Place of death | Rome |