Today we are marking National Eyewear Day, June 6.
Cambridge Chronicle May 20, 1916
Cambridge Chronicle December 28, 1878
It is widely held that Italians invented eyeglasses as early as the 1200’s. What really launched popular demand for eye glasses – spectacles — was the invention of the printing press. More to read – more the need. By the 1700’s someone had invented an “over the ear” eyeglass, which was much easier to use than those pinched on the nose. Then Benjamin Franklin came along and invented the first pair of bifocal lenses, by cutting two different lenses in half and stacking them on the other in a frame. (Source: https://allabouteyes.com/see-past-fascinating-history-eyeglasses/)
A survey of Cambridge newspapers reveals that in the mid-1800’s most advertisements for spectacles and eyeglasses were for businesses in Boston, but one of the earliest in Cambridge was B. W. & J.N. Gibbs, jewelers on Main Street. A “periscopic” lens was good for both near and far sightedness. $1.37 1/2 per pair!
Cambridge Chronicle April 15, 1847.
As shown above, most eyeglasses were sold at jeweler’s stores:
Cambridge Chronicle November 16, 1878
Over time many jewelers became opticians and/or included optical departments in their shops. In 1891, James Marshea advertised as a watch and clock maker also selling spectacles, assuring customers that eyes were examined by a trained lady optician. By 1900, Marshea was offering specialized services: not only were eyes examined professionally, but eyeglasses were fitted with lenses ground on site to individual specifications. And, the shop offered free scientific examinations.
Cambridge Tribune January 2, 1891
Cambridge Chronicle April 14, 1900
Cambridge Chronicle June 30, 1900
Cambridge Chronicle August 31, 1901
But, especially among travelling salesmen, there were many quacks and fakes. Opticians were not regulated until well into the 20th century.
The Optical Journal and Review of Optometry, Volume 27. March 23, 1911
Reflecting back on the bad old days, J. C. Bloom, who began his practice in 1889, wrote that in the days of the travelling salesman in the west, “When a person came in to get a pair of glasses, you would look him over, ask his age, and then reach into one of the boxes that had the mounted goods and you would reach from box to box until the patient said he could see. He would ask what the price was, and it was anywhere from $150 to $5.” (https://www.eyetoeyeoptical.net/AboutUs/eyeglasshistory/index.aspx)
Eventually opticians established their practices independent of jewelry stores:
Cambridge Chronicle June 16, 1888
FASHION IN EYEWEAR
In the beginning there were monocles, worn mostly by wealthy men; lorgnettes, used by the stylish; and pince-nez, all in frames of silver or gold. Then came celluloid eyeglass frames, developed in the 1860’s and 1870’s using a material invented by the English chemist Alexander Parkes in 1858. In 1870 the American inventor John Wesley Hyatt and his brother established Hyatt’s Celluloid Manufacturing Co. in New York where they produced, among many other things, commercially successful eyeglass frames, such as those offered by the jeweler A.J. Applegate in 1882. (https://www.britannica.com/technology/celluloid)
Large round tortoise shell glasses became fashionable around 1914. The time had now come when “the average human disfigurement, often an injury, seldom a person, instead of being ashamed that his eyes are on the blink, actually seems to be proud of it.” (https://www.eyetoeyeoptical.net/AboutUs/eyeglasshistory/index.aspx)
Gold eye glass frames were still popular (look at the price!)
Cambridge Chronicle April 15, 1890
“Kryptok Lenses” were a type of round bifocal, which made the line between near and far lenses less obvious.
Cambridge Chronicle June 17, 1911
Cambridge Chronicle January 25, 1913
Cambridge Chronicle June 8, 1912
* * * *
Finally, this next advertisement is not only about eyeglasses but artificial eyes as well–it just seemed too good to leave out. The business was in Boston, but they advertised in Cambridge newspapers.
Cambridge Chronicle May 11, 1901
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
With his acquisition of Fred Row’s Pleasant Street market in 1885, Arthur Smith became a giant in further revolutionizing grocery shopping in Cambridge.
Cambridge Chronicle April 9, 1893
Like Fred Row, Smith was an émigré from England. Born in London in 1861, he emigrated to the U. S. as a boy in 1870, the year before his fellow Englishman, the teenaged Row. Perhaps because of the “English connection,” Smith briefly worked for Row during the late 1870’s. He then went on to work at other grocers, and established himself well enough that in 1886, at the age of 25, he bought Row’s Pleasant Street Market. The gumption of these two emigres to have bought businesses before they were 25 years old is remarkable—and a familiar immigrant story.
Cambridge Chronicle January 8, 1887
Cambridge Chronicle January 29, 1887
Smith seems to have learned a few things about advertising from his previous employer, changing the name to the impressive Mammoth Market. He printed a proclamation supporting Massachusetts Governor designating November 27, 1890 as a Thanksgiving holiday.
Cambridge Chronicle November 22, 1890
In 1891, Smith sold the Mammoth Market and moved to a larger location on Main Street in Central Square. He intended to build a two-story building with a market on the ground floor and offices on the second floor. But plans were delayed and changed, and it wasn’t until 1895 that he opened “Smith’s Manhattan Market” at 602-614 Main Street. Story has it that It was named “the great Manhattan Market on 125th Street [in] Harlem” (Cambridge Chronicle, Jan. 31, 1891). His advertising emphasized modern conveniences such a big “hygenic” refrigerators, a long- distance telephone on the premises and a “neat little room for ladies to sit in…”
Smith’s particular innovation in marketing was to include under one roof individual vendors for the usual grocery goods—meat, fruit & vegetables, canned goods, and baked goods. He also sold kitchen implements, and, believe it or not, music and musical instruments. There was even a piano available for “customers to try out the sheet music” before purchasing. An all-day lunch counter was an added attraction. The position of the individual vendors eventually morphed into departments under the same store management. The “Superb and Elegant” Manhattan Market was a big step toward the idea of what we today call a “Supermarket.”
Historically, the first supermarket as we know it today was the Piggly Wiggly, opened in Memphis, Tennessee in 1916. Customers were able to load items into their baskets (provided by the store) themselves and brought them to a central check-out counter. The Manhattan followed this and all subsequent trends in the management of grocery stores.
Excerpt: Cambridge Tribune August 31, 1895
The fine print:
After a very brilliant and successful reception, which was attended by thousands who spike in the highest terms of the beauty and completeness of its arrangements, has passed through a week of business which far exceeded our fondest hopes. It may be thought that because of its magnificence the prices may be on an equally magnificent scale. The Manhattan will entirely disabuse your mind of any such erroneous idea. The proof of the pudding is in the eating; so also the proof of the price is in the purchase…The Manhattan will give measure for measure and dollar for dollar as much as can be obtained anywhere.
Excerpt: Cambridge Chronicle September 11, 1897
Cambridge Chronicle February 25, 1905
Cambridge Chronicle April 20, 1918
Cambridge Chronicle June 22, 1918
Smith went on to open other stores in the Boston area, as well as a chain of “five and ten-cent” grocery stores. In 1929 the store became a part of Upham’s Corner Market. Smith soon stepped down from active management of the store in and went on to create United Markets, Inc.
Cambridge Chronicle February 1, 1929
Under changes in management and names, a grocery store remained at the site of the old Manhattan Market until at least 1999.
596-600 Mass. Ave. (left), 602-614 Mass. Ave. in 2019 (right) in 2019 (Google Street view)
Stay tuned for the final installment of our series on supermarkets!
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
These days we don’t think twice about going to the supermarket and picking up all of our groceries in one place. But back in the 1800’s, before there were supermarkets, grocery shopping required making stops at a variety of small, specialized markets. For instance, you might have visited:
Cyrus Fellows for fish and oysters: Fellows was born in New Hampshire in 1808. As a young man he walked the 50 miles to Gloucester, Massachusetts, for work. He became a stage driver and wound up in the fish business. It is thought he established one of the first fish markets in Cambridge. He died at age 93 in 1902.
Cambridge Chronicle January 4, 1849
Or stopped by William E. Fyfe’s shop for baked goods. The census of 1860 lists him as a “cracker peddler.”
Bakeries: City Directory 1866
Cambridge Chronicle August 11, 1866
Calvin Gove was well known for his meats, as was Andrew A. Ward. In 1860 Ward announced home delivery service, running “a wagon to the houses of individuals carrying meats of all kinds … In 1877 the two became partners and purchased a stall at Faneuil Hall Market.
Cambridge City Directory 1866
Cambridge City Directory 1860
Poultry: Fred Richardson on River Street was well stocked with a variety of edible birds:
Cambridge Chronicle September 15, 1883
Dairy: No need to worry that Munroe & Evans would run out of butter before you could get there. “Firkin” refers to the wooden tub in which the producers shipped their butter.
Cambridge Chronicle April 5, 1849
The word “grocer” comes to us via the medieval Latin “grossarius” and French “grossier,” finally landing in English as “grocer.” When the “Company of Grocers of London” was created in 1376 the term became more widespread. Eventually a grocer meant anyone who sold basic foodstuffs such as flour, sugar, coffee, tea, etc. (https://grocershall.co.uk/the-company/history)
Of the 84 names listed under “Grocer” or “Provisioner” in the 1866 Cambridge City Directory, 18 were on Main street or on a street corner “near” main Street. The Directory also listed 11 bakeries.
Apart from their particular specialization, some of these many stores also did sell other food stuffs. Over time, meat markets increasingly combined with greengrocers, fruit markets, bakeries, fish markets, etc., leading to the ultimate development of the “supermarket.”
Two of the most influential grocer/provisioners in 19th century Cambridge whose markets led the way were Fred J. Row and Arthur H. Smith.
Frederick “Fred” J. Row (1853-1910)
Row was born in Plymouth, England, in 1853. In 1871, at age 18 he emigrated to Boston.
Cambridge Chronicle December 1, 1894
Before appearing in the Cambridge City Directory in 1877 as a “provisioner” at 80 Pleasant Street, he had briefly been a bookkeeper. His obituary states that he “originated” the Pleasant Street Market in 1875–which means he was only 22 or 23 years old at the time.
Row lived across the street from the store. He ran it until 1885, when he sold it to a former employee (Arthur H. Smith, see the forthcoming Part 2 of this post) and moved to larger space on Main Street.
Modern image of 80 Pleasant street, corner of Chalk St. (Google street view)
Row’s particular innovation in the grocery business was his savvy advertising. If there ever was a self-promoter, he was it. He even once referred to himself as a “hustler.” The Cambridge Chronicle noted: “Mr. Row is credited with having an abundance of ‘snap’ and his modern and liberal policy has effected a revolution in the local trade.” (April 19, 1884).
Cambridge Chronicle April 9, 1881
Advertisement in the Cambridge Chronicle November 23, 1878
Customer service was key. The advertisement reads:
“We shall have a bulletin board in front of our store giving the market prices every day, as sometimes prices change, and our customers may rely on getting the benefit of the market. All orders entrusted to our care will receive prompt attention, and will be charged at the market price on the day the goods are bought.”
His advertisements were witty, at times poetic, and at times screaming from the pages. A couple of his first ditties appeared in 1879:
Cambridge Chronical January 4, 1879
Cambridge Chronicle February 2 1879
Row’s advertisements were conversational. They had the effect of acknowledging the customer and speaking directly to them in a way that other advertisers did not. The paper may have printed his name incorrectly in the advert below, but what other market operator would dream up the idea of announcing that “The Country is Safe!” because of himself?
Cambridge Chronicle November 25, 1882
Business boomed at #80 Pleasant Street. In 1885, Row sold the market to Alfred H. Smith, who had worked for him as a boy. (More on Arthur H. Smith in the next post)
Fred established his new market at #423 (subsequently #818) Main Street, and named it the “Middlesex Market.”
Cambridge Chronicle October 24, 1885
After about three years, Row decided it was not only the Middlesex Market, but the “FAMOUS Middlesex Market” as in the ad below from 1888. It also features Arthur Ward, whom Row had brought on board in 1878, and made vice president of the company in 1888. In 1892, Row opened a second store at 11 Prospect Street, and put Ward in charge of managing it.
Cambridge Chronicle October 27, 1888
Ward, along with Row (and Smith), was featured in an article in the Cambridge Chronicle on “Men of Cambridge Markets,” (April 9, 1893):
Cambridge Chronicle April 9, 1893
They remained in business together until 1894 when Arthur departed to start his own business, “Ward’s Market, later Ward’s Central Sq. Market” at the corner of Pearl and Main Street (566 Main Street).
Back to Fred’s advertising: He took advantage of any public events to tie them to his store – the advent of electric cars, electric lights, and a presidential election. Below is a fun selection from over the years:
Cambridge Chronicle December 3, 1887
Cambridge Chronicle February 23, 1889
Cambridge Chronicle October 19, 1889
A “public exhibition” of his stock under the “Absolutely Searching Electric Light”:
Cambridge Chronicle October 19, 1889
Cambridge Chronicle June 21, 1890: “It goes without saying, that a Yankee is, or thinks he is, the smartest, brightest and keenest specimen of the Genus Homo” (that is Latin for Man) …
And here we have a description of the “Looks of Astonishment” that patrons displayed upon first seeing the store as he described the “activity, life and animation” they saw.
Cambridge Chronicle April 12, 1890
Cambridge Chronicle December 27, 1890
Cambridge Chronicle June 11, 1892
Cambridge Chronicle April 16, 1892
Fred Row closed up shop at the Middlesex Market in 1901. He briefly opened the Columbian Market at # 1½ Austin Street. He also managed a store on River street, but after the Columbian Market, he never again actually owned a grocery store. Fred Row succumbed to typhoid in 1910 at the age of 57.
Stay tuned for our next installment to learn more about Arthur Smith and the evolution of supermarkets!
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
Did you know that Paul Revere, in addition to being a silversmith, also made false teeth for several years?! In fact, by recognizing his own handiwork he was able to identify the remains of Dr. Joseph Warren who died at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Today we are celebrating National Dentist’s Day, March 6., and in particular three mid-19th century dentists in Cambridge: Drs. Andrews, Loomis, and Bullock were all innovators and public servants.
In the 1848 Cambridge City Directory, there were 14 doctors listed in the business directory under “Physicians,” but dentists were not yet listed in a separate category. They were listed individually, but it was not until 1860 they warranted their own category in the business directory:
Cambridge City Directory 1860
George P. Backus appears in the newspapers in 1847; Dr. Dillingham in 1857, and James L. Simonds’ arrival on the scene is unknown.
If you cringe at the idea of going to the dentist now, imagine what it would have been like in 1857 to make a visit to Dr. A. W. Dillingham, “Surgical and Mechanical Dentist.” Eeek!
Cambridge Chronicle January 5, 1861
Cambridge Chronicle March 26, 1859
It turns out that “mechanical” dentistry was not quite as medieval as it sounds. In the nineteenth century dentistry was divided into two branches: “operative” and “mechanical.”
Mechanical dentists made prostheses (read false teeth). Operative dentistry, involving removing decay, drilling teeth and making fillings, was considered requiring more medical knowledge, and therefore superior. Mechanical dentists on the other hand were often considered “undignified,” and “unclean,” as reported in the Report of the Committee on Mechanical Dentistry, Trans. Am. Den. Assoc., 1873-4:
“Mechanical dentistry is fast becoming a highway for all the quacks, charlatans and butchers that desire to enter the profession. The maker of artificial teeth will one day occupy the same relation to the dentist that the manufacturer of wooden legs now does to the surgeon.” —Eames, W. H
To counter these “charlatans,” in 1840 professionally trained dentists had formed the American Society of Dental Surgeons. A further step toward professionalism was the development of academic dental schools. The first university-associated dental school was that of Harvard University in 1867.
Dr. Dillingham qualified as a “surgical” (operative) dentist and a mechanical dentist.
* * *
DR. ROBERT ROLLINS ANDREWS
Dillingham’s successor was Dr. Robert Rollins Andrews, a graduate of the Boston Dental College, renowned dental researcher, and inventor, artist, poet, and author.
Image via History of Dental Surgery: Contributions by Various Authors, Vol. 3 (1909)
Cambridge Chronicle October 17, 1868
Cambridge Chronicle February 13,1869
Andrews began his dental training in 1858, when, he apprenticed in the office of his uncle in Boston, Dr. Robert L. Roberts. When the Civil War interrupted his apprenticeship, he enlisted as a private in Company H, 47th Massachusetts Volunteers, and re-enlisted with the 60th Massachusetts Volunteers. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant and served as a staff officer with Generals Butler & Banks between 1862-1864.
After the war he attended the Boston Dental College (later a part of Tufts University) and graduated as a Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1865. His research in dental embryology led to his being appointed Professor of Dental Histology at the same school. After setting up practices in Boston and Hyde Park, in 1868 he took over A. W. Dillingham’s practice in Cambridge. Andrews remained in Cambridge for the rest of his career, with frequent time out to present his research papers in the U. S. and Europe. In 1880 he presented a paper at the International Medical congress in Berlin, which he attended as the Secretary from America. One of his inventions included a “mallet for condensing gold in filling teeth.”
In 1893 the Governor asked him to be a member of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Dentistry, and in 1899 he was made a Trustee of the Tufts Dental College. He received several honorary degrees and was elected to dental societies in Great Britain and Belgium. In addition to his dental practice, he was known locally as an exceptional artist, poet, and playwright. In 1870 he married Mary Emily Leseur, and they had five children.
In 1908 Andrews was honored by his colleagues with a banquet at the Somerset Club in Boston:
Cambridge Tribune March 7, 1908
After his death in 1921 Tufts University established the Robert R. Andrews Research Society of Tufts College, recognizing “that the work he accomplished in the profession of dentistry is epoch-making
Cambridge Tribune March 26, 1921
Andrews wrote a testament to the service of Charles Bullock and what he did to promote children’s dental health in Cambridge. (see below) in 1914.
* * *
DR. MAHLON LOOMIS
Photo: Lynchburg Museum, Lynchburg VA
Cambridge Chronicle June 11, 1853
Mahlon Loomis was born in 1826 Fulton Co., N.Y, to Professor Nathan Loomis and Waite Jenks Barber. When he was a teenager his family moved to Virginia, where, in 1848 he studied dentistry and built up a practice. In 1851 he moved to Massachusetts and landed in Cambridge. He practiced here for just a few years, between 1851 and 1856, after which he moved to Washington, D. C.
Cambridge Chronicle August 16, 1851
Cambridge Chronicle April 3, 1852
But while in Cambridge, in 1854, he invented a method for making “mineral plate” dentures out of Kaolin porcelain:
Cambridge Chronicle 9 September 1854
He applied for a patent on his process, which he finally received in 1857( U.S. Patent 10,847)
It was also patented in France and England:
Image: U. S. Patent Office
Cambridge Chronicle September 22, 1855. (Excerpt from the Cleveland Herald in Ohio)
As it turns out, his dental invention was overtaken in fame by his experiments with electricity performed after he moved to Washington. Keenly interested in wireless telegraphy, he wrote in 1864 “I have been for years trying to study out a process by which telegraphic communications may be made across the ocean without any wires, and also from point to point on the earth, dispensing with wires.” In 1866, (years before Marconi was even born), Loomis performed a successful experiment in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His “two kites, between 14 and 18 miles apart, a vertical antenna, a high frequency detector, and a spark gap transmitter” is considered by the Library of Congress as the first known instance of wireless aerial communication (Lynchburg Museum, Lynchburg West Virginia). https://www.lynchburgmuseum.org/blog/2018/12/28/dr-mahlon-loomis-pioneer-of-radio.
While not as internationally known as Drs. Andrews and Loomis, Charles Bullock is included here for what he did to promote dental heath for children in Cambridge. He was born in Providence,
R. I. in 1836, the youngest of twelve children. He studied first with his brother (a dentist in Hartford, Ct.) for two years. He spent another several years practicing in Collinsville, Ct. before moving to Cambridge in 1859.
He bought the building at #569 Main Street and began his practice. Bullock was an innovator, – – “the second person in the state to use gas” for anesthesia. Around 1880 he invented (and patented) an inhaler for a that purpose. He also used cocaine, which was popular in those days.
Cambridge Chronicle October 1, 1870
At some point in the 1870’s he teamed up with Dr. A. J. Sawyer:
Cambridge Chronicle February 15, 1879
In the late 1880s he sold out his portion of the practice to Dr. Sawyer, and continued his practice once again on his own. In the 1890’s he became acquainted with Clarence Hews, a recent graduate of the Baltimore Dental College. Hews worked in Bullocks office for about a year before forming his own practice in Malden. In 1907 he rejoined Bullock to form the Bullock & Hews Dental Co. They brought on an associate, Dr. Jones, and after figuring out a better light fixture to enable them to work in the evenings, they opened their practice until 8:00 P.M.
Cambridge Tribune May 11, 1907
Cambridge Chronicle May 26, 1906
Cambridge Chronicle, 13 October 1906
Charles Bullock served as an Overseer of the Poor for fourteen years. But perhaps his most significant contribution to the health of the citizens of Cambridge was his advocacy for children’s dental health:
Excerpt from interview: Cambridge Tribune May 11, 1907
In his will Bullock left a substantial amount of money, the income of which ($3,000 per year by 1937) was to fund the position of a dentist responsible particularly for educating school children on dental care. This remembrance of his contributions in this regard was written by Dr. Robert R.
Andrews, profiled above:
Cambridge Tribune April 11, 1914
Charles Bullock died on March 14, 1914. He is buried Mt. Auburn on Snowflake Path, Lot #5932
Cambridge Tribune March 21, 1914
FUN FACTS
Dentist’s Chairs. Dentist chair was invented by Josiah Flagg in 1790. Just a Windsor chair with an adjustable headrest attached:
Image: pg. 197 Weinberger’s Introduction to the History of Dentistry in America
The first reclining dental chair was designed in 1832 by James Snell of London:
mage via Oshawa Centre Dental Office
Toothbrushes. First invented in China, and first mass produced in 1780 by English inventor William Addis, the first American to patent a toothbrush was H. N. Wadsworth, in 1857.
Anesthetics. In 1844 Horace Wells discovered the anesthetic qualities of nitrous oxide, and used it for pulling teeth. In 1846, William T. G. Morton (buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery) “discovered” ether. The two discoveries got confused with one another, and a long controversy ensued over whether Morton discovered ether or discovered the use of it as an anesthetic. In 1864 and 1870 two “major health organizations in the United States—the American Dental Association and the American Medical Association—voted in favour of Horace Wells” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Toothpaste. Before there was tooth paste there was tooth powder or dentifrice, including “Saponaceous” (soapy) Dentifrice sold at local pharmacies:
Cambridge Chronicle April 28, 1860
In 1873 the Colgate Co. produced toothpaste in small glass jars. In 1881 Dr. Washington Wentworth Sheffield of created “Dr. Sheffield’s Crème Angelique Dentifrice,” the first toothpaste sold in collapsible tubes. (https://stetsonhillsdentist.com/the-history-of-toothpaste/)
Drills. In 1871 James Beall Morrison (1829-1917) invented a high- speed foot-operated treadle drill. This drill could make 2,000 revolutions per minute, vastly speeding up the efficacy of removing decay.
Dental Floss. The first recorded patent for dental floss was issued in 1874 to Asahel M. Shurtleff, a partner in the Boston medical devices company called Codman & Shurtleff. They began selling unwaxed silk dental floss in 1882. (https://oralb.com/en-us/oral-health/dental-floss-history/)
A section of the Codman & Shurtleff exhibit at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
The first Black dentist. The first black man to receive a D.D.S. degree was Robert Tanner Freeman. Freeman, born to enslaved parents, graduated from Harvard University’s School of Dental Medicine in 1869 with its first class of six students.
This portrait of Dr. Freeman, painted by artist Stephen Coit, hangs in the lobby of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM)
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
We have recently processed a collection from our holdings and added its finding aid to ArchivesSpace . Currently, the Historical Commission is offering limited research assistance. Please see our main webpage for the most up-to-date information.
We have digitized a significant portion of this collection, so that it is available from the safety of your home. The items are available for viewing on our Flickr page here. If you would like to research this or any other collections, please email us at chcarchives@cambridgema.gov.
Alice Darling Secretarial Service letterhead. N.d.
Partial booklet of address labels. N.d.
The Alice Darling Secretarial Service Inc. Ephemera collection contains records of the business activities supplied by the corporation from 1948 to 1991. The bulk of the items were created between 1948 and 1955 when the Alice Darling Secretarial Services changed management and expanded its Alice Darling Secretarial School. Present are textual records that reflect the legal status, certification process, job descriptions, and financial costs involved in providing the vocational service of clerical work. Also available are draft letterhead designs and other evidence of the products of contracted work for clients, including correspondence and marketing tools. Of particular interest are the correspondence and business transactions connected to members of the Shia sect of Islam, some of which are written in Arabic. Scroll down to learn more about the historical background of this collection.
The Alice Darling Secretarial Service Inc. was started in 1913 at 1384 Massachusetts Ave. in Harvard Square, Cambridge. The founder, Alice Darling, born Azniv Beshgeturian in Turkey in 1883, belonged to a prominent Armenian family of clerks, bishops, professors, and ministers. She was brought to America in 1885 and attended Boston public schools and Bridgewater State Normal School (now Bridgewater State University), where she graduated in 1902. After graduation she taught for several years in Boston.
As a savvy businesswoman, Darling knew she’d find no lack of demand in Harvard Square. Typewriting began to supplant handwriting in business correspondence in the late 19th century. While many employers once employed male secretaries exclusively, women began to find employment opportunities as typists and stenographers, taking dictation in shorthand (coded language) and typing finished documents. Typing and stenography were skills that allowed women access to relatively high-paying office jobs, but were not widely valued by men; throughout the 20th century secretaries were almost always women. Many girls learned to type in high school, but men did not.
Typewriter diagrams and instructions, in Arabic. N.d.
While America’s growing businesses and industries were the major employers of secretaries, Cambridge’s academic community offered special opportunities for Darling’s services. Harvard students (entirely male until the 1940s) needed papers typed, often overnight; doctoral candidates required professional typists to prepare flawless dissertations meeting rigid standards for format, layout, and paper quality; and faculty authors needed assistance to prepare their manuscripts for publication. (It was cheaper to have a typist create a draft from an author’s longhand than to commission a printed page proof.) The gendered bias of mid-twentieth-century academia and its “approved” tasks made it undesirable for male students and scholars to type their own work.
In 1920 Darling expanded her business to include the Harvard Square Stenographers Bureau, also known as Miss Darling’s Business Employment Bureau, which facilitated job connections for secretarial services. In 1923 she founded the Alice Darling Secretarial School to provide women and college students with formal secretarial lessons. A person seeking to assume a role in Boston’s competitive secretarial market had to possess this knowledge. In the early years, the secretarial school only offered general stenography and typewriting courses, but it soon expanded its curriculum. In 1928 it introduced training in transcribing dictation from an Ediphone, an early recording machine.
Alice Darling Secretarial School pamphlet pages. N.d.
Darling’s school went above and beyond teaching classic secretarial competencies. Her school incorporated a psychological component, business ethics, and personality training. The Alice Darling School implemented a “tutorial system” that integrated office procedures and practical applications. Known for its talented secretaries and stenographers, Darling’s school drew people who wanted to make clerical work their vocation. A Cambridge Chronicle article from June 29, 1928 stated that the school “aside from enabling pupils to have confidence in themselves, which is an essential requisite for ultimate success, is also a means of increasing on a large scale their earning capacity.”
The school grew throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The Great Depression saw a rise in attendance because pupils were drawn to learning viable skills and networking through real world jobs in the public stenographic department. Graduates at this time were likely to earn a monthly income of $100, according to a Cambridge Chronicle article. During WWII, the school expanded again to accommodate war emergency courses. After the war, many women college graduates found that their employment opportunities were limited if they lacked secretarial skills.
Marston’s Office Service’s business card. N.d.
In the late 1940s, Alice Darling Secretarial Services was taken over by Theodora L. and John S. Marston, who had a prior business, Marston’s Office Services, at 1735 Massachusetts Ave. Theodora and John lived at 60 Brattle Street, Cambridge, and later at 17 Spring Street in Lexington. They received their state license to conduct business services in 1949. They were active participants of Cambridge’s Lesley-Ellis School, with John acting as treasurer of the Parents Association in 1954.
At this time, the Alice Darling Secretarial Services Inc. served as a licensed intelligence service for major clients, including the Internal Revenue Service. Its role as an employment facilitator extended to other state and federal positions because the company provided its workers certification by issuing the Civil Service Exam.
Letter from M. Beguel to Mr. and Mrs. John Marston. M. Beguel was the private secretary to the Aga Khan. 1959.
In the 1950s, the business served Prince Shāh Karim al-Husayni, the current Aga Khan (IV) of the Imāmate of the Nizari Ismāʿīli Shias, a sub-sect of Shia Islam. He was attending Harvard University at the time and his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, provided the school with an endowment to create the Aga Khan Professorship of Iranian. When Aga Khan III died in 1957, Karim Aga Khan assumed the tenure of the religious leadership position while still attending school. Addressed as Karim Aga Khan in this collection, some of his business transactions are available for research.
Alice Darling published a “semi-autobiography” two years before her death in 1966. She recalled that she had typed papers for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his sons; Henry Cabot Lodge and his sons; John F. Kennedy; John DosPassos; and many others. She typed so many papers for law students that she became interested in field and took a law degree from Northeastern University, graduating in 1939. Her profession, she said, had enabled her to acquire “a college education, free of charge, in one of the leading universities in the country.”
In 1998 Alice Darling’s long-time location in the Read Block in the heart of Harvard Square was sold for redevelopment. Now operating from an office on Mifflin Place, Alice Darling Secretarial Services offers transcription services via electronic media for “conferences, interviews, focus groups, meeting, film, press conferences etc.”
During these trying times for our community, we are committed to helping local businesses. To do our part, every week in May we have been highlighting locally-owned small businesses right here in Cambridge! Today, we will spotlight Abroad Modern along with the history of the building in which the shop is located at 260 Concord Avenue in Northwest Cambridge.
260 Concord Ave, 4 August 1985. Photographer: Frank J. O’Reilly.
Although the storefront is closed, Abroad Modern is open for online business, and its founder is even offering free gloved-hand delivery to locals! “Modern utility sourced globally” is how owner and founder, Greer Goodman describes the products, sourced from India, offered in her shop. Goodman’s passion for her entrepreneurial goals is apparent: “…I started this business to help others, to partner with people around the globe and make space for a cultural awareness that will hopefully, in tiny but meaningful ways, make the world smaller and better.”
The history of the building from which Abroad Modern is operated is as unique as the store itself. The property, which contains 360 square feet, is a remnant of a larger property that was divided when Appleton Street was laid out the it in 1871. The ‘heater piece’ or ‘gore’ as these leftovers were known, shows up in city atlases in 1894 as the property of Francis J. O’Reilly. In 1908, O’Reilly obtained a building permit to put up a one-story wood-frame store, 8′ wide on Concord Avenue, 30′ deep along Appleton Street, 4′ wide at the back, and 14′ high.
260 Concord Ave, ca. late 1960s. CHC Survey.
The 1910 Cambridge Directory lists shoemaker Cosimo Carfagno as the occupant at 260 Concord. Carfagno operated his business from the small building until at least 1931, his last directory listing. The next directory, in 1937, lists the property as vacant and according to directories, remained so until at least 1972.
Detail of 1930 Cambridge Bromley Atlas.
The adjoining property to the east, once the house and land of ice dealer H.H. Eames, was subdivided by his heirs in about 1900 into four house lots. Andrew N. Lewis, a carpenter, built houses on each lot, including the present house at 256 Concord Avenue once owned by Boston-based contractor Garrett Lambert.
256-260 Concord Avenue, 20 August 1983. Photographer unknown.
The neighborhood lore is that this is a ‘spite’ or ‘grudge’ building. This may be a reasonable inference from the store’s proximity to 256 Concord Avenue, since one can easily imagine O’Reilly buying this otherwise useless property with the intent of selling it to the eventual abutter, but there is no documentary evidence to support this. In the absence of zoning, which was not adopted until 1926, many property owners were quick to put waste ground to any productive use, and it is equally logical that this structure was built by O’Reilly specifically for Carfagno to occupy as a shoe repair shop.
260 Concord Avenue as seen from Appleton Street, 13 August 1983. Photographer unknown.
We hope you enjoyed today’s post, and we also hope you take time to explore the small businesses in your neighborhood!
