-
-
Title
-
A New Day
-
Description
-
"The 41st Symphony Designers' Showhouse Takes Aim at The National Spotlight." Two-page spread explains a new emphasis for the Designers' Showhouse. Karen Mills, a radio show host, interior designer and the co-chair for the Designers' Showhouse this year, envisions Kansas City becoming a design mecca. The 41st showhouse at 5833 Ward Parkway once belonged to dressmaker Nelly Don. The showhouse will also welcome children this year. Previously children were not admitted.
-
Object Type
-
Magazine Article
-
-
Title
-
''A Stitch in Time'' Premieres Friday
-
Description
-
The story of dress manufacturer Nell Donnelly Reed is captured in a new book and documentary film produced by her great great nephew Terence Michael O'Malley. The film is entitled "Nelly Don: A Stitch in Time" and premiered May 12, 2006, at the Screenland Theater in Kansas City, Missouri. "Her factories are now trendy lofts (the Western Auto building) and offices (Corrigan Building) but once produced 5,000 dresses a day. The 12th of the 13 Quinlan children born to Irish immigrants in Parsons, Kan., Nell made her first million dollars by the age of 26."
-
Date
-
2006-05-10
-
Object Type
-
Newspaper Article
-
-
Title
-
P31 Nelly Don Collection Finding Aid
-
Description
-
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.
-
Date
-
1920~/1950~
-
Object Type
-
Finding Aid
-
-
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
-
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
-
Interview with Ann Brownfield
-
Description
-
Interview with Ann Brownfield about her experience as a designer Kansas City and other Midwestern cities. She recalls her start designing shoes in St. Louis, later teaching pattern-making in Grand Island, Nebraska, and working in sportswear, coat, and suit design at Brand and Puritz after moving to Kansas City in 1960. She describes opening her own factory in Kansas City, Kansas, designing and sewing small collections for a variety of clients, including making warm-up suits for the 1972 US Olympic ski team; and her later closure due to the decline of skilled sewing machine operators. She also discusses the decline of the local industry, manufacturing moving overseas, and later working in retail, giving tours of the old garment district, and beginning to collect clothing and other items from local manufacturers.
-
Date
-
2005-11-14
-
Object Type
-
Video Recording
-
-
Title
-
Interview with Hal Hardin
-
Description
-
Interview with Hal Hardin about his history working in Kansas City's garment industry. He discusses the origin of the Donnelly Garment Company, his experience serving in the Mediterranean during World War II, his early life and work, and his start with the Donnelly company in 1952. He describes his beginning in advertising and his later work in sales, ultimately becoming their national sales manager. He also discusses his work with stores across the country; their plants in North Kansas City, St. Joseph, and Nevada, Missouri; their clothing lines and sales territories; and staying with the company until it shut down in 1978. He then opened a new manufacturing company which he operated until selling in 1990.
-
Date
-
2005-02-14
-
Object Type
-
Video Recording
-
-
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
-
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
-
Interview with Sally Schwenk
-
Description
-
Interview with historic preservationist Sally Schwenk about the importance, and difficulty, of preserving and sharing the history of Kansas City's garment industry. She discusses the importance of Kansas City's location as a railroad hub to its early industry, the boom in the industry following World War I, the impact of unionization, and changes in the location and design of facilities, and the later decline of the local industry. She also describes the Garment District surrounding 8th and Broadway, the loss of buildings and connectivity to other neighborhoods due to post-war freeway construction and demolition, and the challenges of running the Historic Garment District Museum.
-
Date
-
2010-04-26
-
Object Type
-
Video Recording
-
-
Title
-
Interview with Mary Lou Chalmers
-
Description
-
Interview with Mary Lou Chalmers about her experience working in Kansas City's garment industry from the late 1950s through late 1970s.. She discusses enrolling in the fashion design program at Kansas City Art Institute, as well as taking courses at Fanny Fern Fitzwater School of Fashion Illustration and the Isabelle Boldin School of Fashion, and then working in design and pattern-making at area garment companies such as Nelly Don and Gay Gibson. She describes the process of designing and making clothing, her experiences at numerous companies, the perks of working at Nelly Don, and times that her designs were featured in national magazines. She also discusses the decline of the garment fashion industry in the 1970s, the homogenization of shopping, and the shift to manufacturing in Asia.
-
Date
-
2010-05-07
-
Object Type
-
Video Recording
