Search results

Title: Whoa, Nelly
Description: Brief item describing a documentary entitled Nelly Don: A Stitch in Time, created by Terence O'Malley, nephew of Nell Donnelly Reed. O'Malley published a companion biography of Reed in 2006, as well.
Date: 2006-05-11
Object Type: Newspaper Article

Title: Future: The Newsweekly for Today
Description: Issue of the anti-corruption, Kansas City-based newspaper, Future: The Newsweekly for Today. The front page includes an article, continued on page 8, about the apartments on the Country Club Plaza and Armour Boulevard managed by the Assured Rental Company (led by George Goldman and Herman Shapiro), in the city's "South Side," voting against the Pendergast ticket City Council nominees. Apartment buildings involved including "the White Hall apartments, 323 Brush Creek boulevard; the Alcazar, 101 West [39th Street]," and "the Armour Plaza apartments, 1216 East Armour boulevard, and the Ricardo, 811 East Armour boulevard." Other featured articles include: “Ah! Union!” (p. 3), about the 1936 election for Missouri state senator, with Bennett Clark winning over Pendergast candidate Charles Howell despite being "robbed of 20,000 votes in Kansas City"; and “May We Present Bryson Ayres” (p. 5), a photo and profile of Bryson Ayres, an Independence florist and anti-Pendergast activist born in Missouri and growing up in the Pacific Northwest before coming to Kansas City; also included in the newspaper are advertisements for local businesses and articles on fashion, finance, cooking, music, art, and national and international news.
Date: 1935-06-07
Object Type: Newspaper

Title: Enterprising Women
Description: 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.
Date: 1976
Object Type: Book

Title: See Inside Nelly Don's Home!
Description: Advertisement for the Kansas City Symphony Designers' Showhouse number 40, the former home of Nell Donnelly Reed, owner of the Nelly Don fashion business. Includes a short history of the house, located at 5236 Cherry, and picture of the outside.
Date: 2009-04
Object Type: Magazine Article

Title: A Tough Nut to Crack: Unionization and the Donnelly Garment Company
Description: Article describes attempts by the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) to organize the Donnelly Garment Company in Kansas City. The author argues that the long battle between the company and union was "above all a clash of political and social ideologies."
Date: 2002
Object Type: Magazine Article

Title: Fashion's Famous: Nelly Don (Mrs. James A. Reed)
Description: Photo and biographical article about Nell Donnelly Reed, or Nell Reed, wife of senator James A. Reed and founder of a clothing store and women's clothing line named after her own nickname, Nelly Don.
Date: 1937-09
Object Type: Magazine Article

Title: James A. Reed, Legendary Lawyer; Marplot in the United States Senate
Description: Biography on the life and legacy of James A. Reed. Born in Ohio in 1861, Reed moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1887. A prominent local lawyer, Reed served as Mayor from 1900-1904 and then as a Democratic Senator from Missouri from 1910-1929. He returned to Kansas City in 1929 after a failed presidential bid in 1928. Reed died in 1944 at the age of 83. Manuscript
Date: 2016
Object Type: Manuscript

Title: Biography of James Alexander Reed (1861-1944), Attorney and Politician
Date: 1999
Object Type: Biography

Title: Nell Donnelly Reed
Description: 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.
Date: 1992
Object Type: Book Section

Title: Interview with Mary Agnes Alderman
Description: Interview with Mary Agnes Alderman in which she discusses her career in the garment industry, including working as a buyer for a department store in Springfield, Missouri in the 1950s. She recalls modeling and managing fashion shows, traveling to New York to buy women's sportwear, and her knowledge of Kansas City garment manufacturers and stores. She discusses the changes in shopping habits and department stores, working as a teacher after moving to Kansas City, and serving Ramfis Trujillo, son of president of the Dominican Republic Rafael Trujillo, while working at Swanson's clothing store on the Plaza. She also discusses the change in fashion to more casual dress, and expresses support and enthusiasm for the preservation of Kansas City's garment industry history.
Date: 2011-05-03
Object Type: Video Recording

Title: Dictionary of Missouri Biography
Description: 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.
Date: 1999
Object Type: Book

Title: Called To Courage: Four Women In Missouri History
Description: Text with photographs concerning Nell Donnelly Reed, local dress maker and entrepreneur. Also includes suggestions for further reading.
Date: 2002
Object Type: Book

Pages