Pages
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Title
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Enterprising Women
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Description
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Chapter in the book which highlights both Ida Rosenthal, founder of Maindenform, Inc., and Kansas City's Nell Donnelly Reed and her Nelly Don dresses.
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Date
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1976
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Object Type
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Book
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Title
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Outdoor Portrait of Women
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Description
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Outdoor group portrait of men and women at an unidentified park shelter. A woman holds a sign that reads "Wilson and Co. Plant Girls Picnic, 1920."
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Date
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1920
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Object Type
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Photograph
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Title
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Three Seated Women
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Description
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Portrait of three unidentified women seated at unknown location.
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Object Type
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Photograph
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Title
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Portrait of Two Women
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Description
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Informal protrait of two unidentified women.
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Object Type
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Photograph
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Title
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Women Seated at Table
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Description
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Group of Donnelly Garment Company employees dining at table.
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Object Type
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Photograph
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Title
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Men and Women in Wedding Costume
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Description
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Group portrait of men and women in wedding attire at company Valentine's Day party, February 8, 1929.
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Date
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1929-02-08
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Object Type
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Photograph
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Title
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Nell Donnelly Reed
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Description
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Biography of Nell Donnelly Reed (1889-1991), or Nell Reed, designer of women's clothing in the early and mid-1900s with the Donnelly Garment Company and the Nelly Don clothing label, "a stylish, feminine frock which was the foundation of a multi-million dollar business." Native of Parson, Kansas coming to Kansas City in 1906 as Mrs. Paul Donnelly and starting her own company before marrying senator James A. Reed in 1931, becoming the first woman on the board of the Midwest Research Institute, and donating 840 acres of land in Jackson County for the James A. Reed Wildlife Area, etc.
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Date
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1992
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Object Type
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Book Section
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Title
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Nell Snead
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Description
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Photo and bio of Nell Snead (1885-1978), "'The Kansas City Star's" quick witted fashion editor." Native of Nebraska coming to Kansas City in 1918 as a Star writer before moving to the paper's Women's Page and in 1950 becoming "one of the five women selected to receive the Women's National Press Club award."
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Date
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1905-06-14
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Object Type
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Book
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Title
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Woman Seated at Desk
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Description
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Informal portrait of woman at desk, identified by writing on photo as Mrs. Reeves.
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Object Type
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Photograph
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Title
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Dictionary of Missouri Biography
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Description
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Biography of Nell Donnelly Reed (1889-1991), a pioneer woman clothing designer and entrepreneur, starting the Donnelly Garment Company in the 1910s and leading it to "one of the largest in the nation" for garment labels by the 1950s, remarried in the 1930s to James A. Reed.
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Date
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1999
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Object Type
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Book
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Title
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P31 Nelly Don Collection Finding Aid
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Description
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The Nelly Don Collection contains 35 black and white photographic prints donated to the Missouri Valley Special Collections in August 2001. The donor's aunt had been an employee of the Donnelly Garment Company and had collected these photographs. Few of the individuals in the photographs are identified, and many images are not dated. The photographs largely consist of Donnelly Garment Company employee group portraits on holiday and otherwise festive occasions.Nell Donnelly Reed was born Ellen Quinlan in Parsons, Kansas, 1889, and moved to Kansas City in 1906. She began designing and sewing her own housedresses, several of which she offered for sale to the George B. Peck Dry Goods Company in 1916. By 1931 she owned the Donnelly Garment Company, which manufactured the widely known "Nelly Don" line of women's apparel. Reed retired in 1956, and the organization's name was changed to Nelly Don, Inc. The company evolved throughout the 1960s and 70s, although the changing economic climate of the nation eventually brought its demise. The selling of fabrics was a sustaining innovation of the 1970s, but Nelly Don, Inc., filed for Chapter 10 bankruptcy in 1978.
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Date
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1920~/1950~
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Object Type
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Finding Aid
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Title
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Interview with Margie Bercu and Barbara Bloch
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Description
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Interview with Margie Bercu and her daughter Barbara Bloch about their family's history with Kansas City's garment district, and discuss what garment design and manufacturing still exist in Kansas City at the time of the interview. Barbara discusses her father Archie's start at Maurice Coat & Suit Company and later transition to Lan-Mar Sporting Goods, which manufactured little league baseball uniforms, basketball uniforms and other athletic apparel. Lan-Mar later spun off a company called Cotton Duck which manufactured restaurant uniforms and related apparel. The women also discuss Archie's education and military service, Barbara's continuing work with retail and restaurant uniforms through the 1980s, oursourcing of manufacturing, and remaining American textile manufacturing. The women also note several local companies continuing to work in garment production into the 2000s.
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Date
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2005-08-23
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Object Type
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Video Recording
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Title
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Interview with Marianne Young
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Description
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Interview with Marianne Young about her life and her experience in Kansas City's garment industry. Born and raised in Germany, she discusses getting her taste for nice things from her mother and her early interest in fashion, coming to the United States on a scholarship to Northeast Missouri State University, meeting her husband, and following his job to Kansas City. She recalls her job at upscale women's clothing store Swanson's in the 1970s, working as a salesperson and helping assemble wardrobes for customers, declining offers to work as a model, and working as a buyer for DuVall's until the store closed. She discusses the fate of the various DuVall's locations in the area, and going to work at Saks on the Plaza as a personal shopper until that store closed circa 2005. She shares her opinions about the state of Kansas City clothing retailers, the change in fashion to focus on younger women, and making her wardrobe work over time.
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Date
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2011-04-03
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Object Type
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Video Recording
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Title
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Interview with Linda Lighton
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Description
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Interview with Linda Lighton about the history of the Woolf Brothers clothing stores, which he father worked at and later owned. She discusses the company's origins in the late 1800s, selling men's clothing and haberdashery at 1020 Walnut, and its expansion over the decades to locations at the Plaza, area malls, and regional cities, as well as expanding to sell women's clothing. She also discusses the life of Herbert Woolf, the Kansas City Jewish community, and says that she heard Herbert Woolf "discovered" actress Jean Harlow. She connects the decline of the business to the 1977 flood that damaged the Plaza store and her father Alfred being shot in a mugging, as well as the ascendance of clothing and department store chains in the 1980s.
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Date
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2011-05-13
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Object Type
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Video Recording
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