When she published her own book, Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them, in 1915, the country’s first book dedicated to quilt history became a bestseller. It also helped legitimize quilting as an art and as an important topic of scholarly research.
Jamaican chef Norma Shirley built a reputation in the U.S. serving “New England food with Jamaican flair” at her Massachusetts restaurant in the late 1970s. But as she told Essence magazine, “It’s my dream to open another restaurant in Jamaica where Blacks would be the majority clientele.”
Tatsu’uma Kiyo built her family’s sake business into an empire in the 1800s
1800s Jamaican nurse and businesswoman
Robertson built the family business into Edrington, one of the largest producers of scotch whisky and the owner of Macallan, Highland Park, and The Famous Grouse.
Mexican-American chef
“The First Lady of Laphroaig,” as a writer would later dub her, declaring “she occupies an almost talismanic position in Scotch whisky history as the person who, without fanfare, proved that given the opportunity women could do so much more in a distillery than type or make tea.”
1800s Irish-American philanthropist
Co-founder of the US’s first female architectural partnership in 1894.
Julia Morgan is arguably the best-known female architect in the United States. Although millions of visitors have admired Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, Morgan’s architectural legacy is found throughout the state, where she designed more than seven hundred buildings during her long and prolific career.