Madame Anna Ben-Yusuf was a German milliner and teacher based in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. She wrote ''The Art of Millinery'' (1909), one of the first reference books on millinery technique. She was the mother of the portrait photographer

Zaida Ben-Yusuf Zaida Ben-Yusuf (November 21, 1869 – September 27, 1933) was an American portrait photographer based in New York. She was known for her artistic portraits of wealthy, fashionable, and famous Americans during the turn of the 19th–20th century ...

Early life

Born Anna Kind in Berlin in around 1845, she married an Algerian man, Mustapha Moussa Ben Youseph Nathan, who lived in

Hammersmith, London Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

.Chronology of Zaida Ben-Yusuf, 1869-1898
on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website, accessed 30 March 2009 They had four daughters - Esther Zeghdda Ben Youseph Nathan, better known as Zaida (1869-1933), Heidi (c.1873-1915), Leila (c.1877-1967) and Pearl (c.1878-1940), before the marriage fell apart. Anna and her daughters moved to

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town and civil parish in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in eastern Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2021 it had a population of 42,027. Ramsgate' ...

, England, where she supported her family by working as a

governess A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...

. Her ex-husband remained in London, occasionally giving lectures on Arab culture for the Moslem Mission Society. In 1891, he and his second wife Henrietta Crane, had a daughter, also called Zaida (1891-1967) and a son, Mussa, who died in infancy in 1893.

Career

During the late 1880s, Anna Ben-Yusuf emigrated to the United States, where by 1891, she had established a milliner's shop on Washington Street in Boston.Jones, Stephen & Her eldest daughter Zaida also emigrated to the US in 1895, setting up a milliner's at 251

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

before becoming a successful

portrait photographer Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait photograph may be artistic or clinical. Frequentl ...

. Zaida published occasional articles on millinery for '' Harpers Bazaar'' and the ''

Ladies Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine that ran until 2016 and was last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century ...

''.Chronology of Zaida Ben-Yusuf, 1898-1900
on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website, accessed 30 March 2009 From September 1905 to June 1907, Anna Ben-Yusuf was an instructor in millinery at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

.Chronology of Zaida Ben-Yusuf, 1901-1906
on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website, accessed 30 March 2009
on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website, accessed 30 March 2009 She resigned in 1907 to set up a school of her own on West 23rd Street. Her book, ''The Art of Millinery: Practical Lessons for the Artiste and the Amateur'' was published in 1909. It was one of the first reference books for teaching the art of hat-making in all its aspects, and remains a useful resource for leading contemporary milliners such as Stephen Jones. It was formatted as a series of lessons, each dealing with a particular aspect of constructing a hat, treating the fabric, or creating different types of trimming. On a more practical note, it also advised on correct storage, renovating fabrics, and the business side of millinery, and included a glossary of terms used in millinery. In 1992, a revised edition was reprinted as ''Edwardian Hats: The Art of Millinery''.

Books

* 1909 — ''The Art of Millinery'' * 1992 — ''Edwardian Hats: The Art of Millinery''

Death

Anna Ben-Yusuf died in New York on 8 December 1909.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Yusuf, Anna 1840s births 1909 deaths Prussian emigrants to the United States Immigrants to the United Kingdom Immigrants to the United States German women fashion designers American women fashion designers 19th-century fashion designers 19th-century American designers American fashion designers German milliners American milliners 19th-century American businesswomen 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American designers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American educators 20th-century American women educators