Week 3 2022: Favorite Photo #52 Ancestors

My favorite photo (this go-around) is the one taken in 1904 of my husband’s grandmother, Kathryn Ann (McCormick) Baty. At twelve-years old, she is sporting what the hand-written caption to the picture describes as a “crepe paper hat.” How cute.

Born and raised in Parsons, Labette County, Kansas, both sets of Kate’s grandparents had settled in Labette County by 1880. Both of her grandfathers started out as farmers, but her maternal grandfather, John Quinlan, gave up farming by 1886, to work as a “boiler maker” for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. One of eight children, the family story is that her closest companion was her aunt Ellen Quinlan. Kate’s mom was the oldest of thirteen and “Nell” was her youngest sister, only three years older than Kate. A lot has been written about Nell: she founded the Donnelly Garment Company in 1919 and by 1953 it was the largest dress manufacturer in the world.[1] Nell was a self-made millionaire, visionary entrepreneur, and feminist icon.[2]

Back to the hat. The family story is that Nell learned to sew at an early age, refashioning hand-me-downs from her older sisters, mending clothes for the family and making dresses for her dolls.[3] Known for her style and charm, I suspect that Nell was very likely the creator of the crepe paper hat.

As early as 1892, the local Labette County newspapers described the many things that could be made of crepe paper, including candle shades (no, thank you).[4] In 1901, The Parsons Daily Sun reported on a “most surprising article that has invaded the feminine world”: a crepe paper hat.[5] The stores in Parsons were apparently doing a land-office business as “all the feminine world has [seen] fit to don crepe paper chapeaux and sally forth.” I can just see it. The paper noted that two young women were in the business of making crepe paper hats in Parsons. Don’t you just bet one of them was Nell?[6]

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[1] “Nelly Don by the Donnelly Garment Company, Kansas City, Missouri,” Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection, University of Missouri (https://mhctc.missouri.edu/collection/nelly-don/ : accessed 18 January 2022).

Kimberly Harper, “Nell Donnelly Reed,” Historic Missourians (https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/nell-donnelly-reed : accessed 18 January 2022). Lisa S Thompson, “Nelly Don: An Educational Leader” (2018). Dissertations. 192 (https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/dissertations/192 : accessed 18 January 2022).

[2] I doubt she’d identify herself as a feminist, but I do.

[3] Betsy Blodgett, “Nelly Don: Self Made in America,” Seamwork.com (https://www.seamwork.com/magazine/2015/12/nelly-don-self-made-in-america : accessed 18 January 2022).

[4] “Home Hints,” Labette (Kansas) County Democrat, 14 January 1892, p. 4, col. 5.

[5] “The Crepe Paper Hats,” The Parsons (Kansas) Daily Sun, 10 July 1901, p. 3, col. 2.

[6] Ibid.