Dorothy Shaver (July 29, 1893 – June 29, 1959) was the first woman in the United States to head a multimillion-dollar firm. She was a well known leader of the

fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

industry.

Life

Dorothy Shaver was born in Center Point, Arkansas, in

Howard County, Arkansas Howard County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,785. The county seat is Nashville. Howard County is Arkansas's 74th county, formed on April 17, 1873, and named for James Howard, a s ...

, to Sallie Borden and James Shaver. Her paternal grandfather was Confederate officer Robert G. Shaver. When she was five years old, the family moved to

Mena, Arkansas Mena ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Polk County, Arkansas, Polk County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 5,558 as of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. Mena is included in the Ark-La-Tex socio-economic region. Surro ...

and James Shaver opened a law practice. The Shaver House has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since 1979. Shaver graduated from high school in 1910 at the age of 17 and she was chosen by her classmates to give the commencement address. She then earned a teaching certificate from the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

. Shaver returned to Mena and began teaching seventh grade. Her teaching career ended abruptly in May 1914, when the local board refused to renew the contracts of Shaver and three other single female teachers because they had attended an unchaperoned dance. In 1916, Shaver and her younger sister Elsie moved to Chicago. While in Chicago, Dorothy studied English literature at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. A year later, the sisters moved to New York City. Elsie began making dolls out of bandage cotton painted in pastel colors. Inspired by the success of the Kewpie Doll, Dorothy began selling five different versions of Elsie's Little Shaver dolls. A

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...

executive and distant cousin named Samuel Reyburn was impressed by the dolls and helped the sisters set up a workshop producing dolls for the next four years. Samuel Reyburn hired Dorothy to head comparison shopping bureau at

in 1921. A year later, she established an interior decorating service at

. Shaver was elected to the store's board of directors in 1927. In 1928, Shaver mounted the Exposition of Modern French Decorative Art at

as a spin-off of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. In addition to furniture and home goods, Shaver's Exposition included paintings by artists such as

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

, Utrillo, and Derain. Having made a splash in the media with her French design, Shaver switched her focus to American designers. In 1929, she hired Neysa McNein and other American artists to create fabrics with American themes for Lord & Taylor. Shaver became one of the founding member of the Fashion Group in February 1931. The Fashion Group was a networking organization for women in the fashion industry. Other founding members included

Elizabeth Arden Elizabeth Arden (December 31, 1881 – October 18, 1966), also known as Elizabeth N. Graham, was a Canadian-American businesswoman who founded what is now Elizabeth Arden, Inc., and built a cosmetics empire in the United States. Backg ...

and

Helena Rubinstein Helena Rubinstein (born Chaja Rubinstein; December 25, 1872 – April 1, 1965) was a Polish and American businesswoman, art collector, and philanthropist. A cosmetics entrepreneur, she was the founder and eponym of Helena Rubinstein Incorporate ...

. In 1932, Shaver created the American Look program to promote American fashion designers. Between 1932 and 1939, the American Look program featured more than sixty designers, including Clare Potter, Merry Hull, Nettie Rosenstein, and Lilly Dache. The clothing lines was moderately priced, well-constructed,

sportswear Sportswear or activewear is athletic clothing, including footwear, worn for sports activity or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Typical spor ...

. Shaver succeeded Walter Hoving as president of

in 1945. She was given a salary of $110,000. This was the highest salary on record for an American woman at that time, and although it was noted by the author of an article in Life Magazine that the salary was only a quarter of what some "similarly placed male CEOs earned" omparing it with Thomas J. Watson Sr., President of International Business Machines the salary was commensurate with what Lord & Taylor paid its top male executives. Walter Hoving, her predecessor, was earning a salary after 10 years as chief executive of $127,015 in 1944. In 1947,

Life Magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...

called Shaver "the No. 1 American career woman." By that point, she was managing a $40 million business. Shaver served as president of

until her death in 1959. By the time of her death, sales at

reached $100 million a year.

Designers promoted

Promoted by Shaver and sold at Lord & Taylor * Lilly Dache * Elizabeth Hawes * Merry Hull *

Muriel King Muriel King (1900–1977) was an American fashion designer based in New York City. She was one of the first American fashion designers along with Elizabeth Hawes and Clare Potter to achieve name recognition. She also designed costumes for severa ...

Claire McCardell Claire McCardell (May 24, 1905 – March 22, 1958) was an American fashion designer of ready-to-wear clothing in the twentieth century. She has been credited with the creation of American sportswear. Early life McCardell was the eldest of four ...

* Vera Maxwell * Norman Norell * Clare Potter * Nettie Rosenstein * Pauline Trigere

Notes

References

External links

Little Shaver Dolls (1919)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaver, Dorothy 1893 births 1959 deaths People from Howard County, Arkansas Businesspeople from Arkansas 20th-century American businesspeople American women corporate directors 20th-century American businesswomen People from Polk County, Arkansas University of Chicago alumni