Woman’s Exchange January 8, 1932
The Richmond Exchange for Woman’s Work is the first woman’s shop established in Richmond which has been in continuous operation for almost fifty years. It was established in 1883 to assist ladies who, in 1883, felt their privacy would be violated and their pride tarnished if the public knew they were forced to work for money. Now we know that what a woman can do is her greatest ornament and that she always consults her dignity by doing it.
Now we have meetings where Consignors and Board Members discuss every phase of our mutual business.
There are among the consignors some of your best friends and mine.
They are from the best levels of our citizenship – much respected and self respecting women.
Without exception they are women who cannot go out into active business. Most of them have children or invalids at home who cannot do without them, or perhaps their husbands have had bad luck and cannot make ends meet. They show a notable gallantry by throwing their strength into helping their family to be self supporting upstanding citizens.
The Exchange is not a charity, - it is a philanthropy.
We simply give women a chance to help themselves.
As a shop we are obliged to meet tremendous and increasing competition.
We try to meet it by defeating it.
We try to give honest value, courteous and efficient service and the very best quality in town.
In our foods we tolerate no substitute for the best materials.
We have lately put on a second delivery and we send to Westhampton and to Ginter Park.
We are constantly trying to introduce novelties in all our departments.
We have many services which the public does not always realize.
We make aspics and desert to order.
We mend fine bead bags and wash and darn delicate laces and old lace curtains.
We restore antique, painted trays.
We print stationery, --just like you get from Peru, Indiana, at the same price, - and more promptly.
We take for sale some young woman’s treasured bit of glory, that must be sacrificed because her husband has lost his job, or some frail old lady’s paisley shawl or piece of family silver.
The Superintendent gives these facts about some of our present consignors
A-says that through her sales she has been able to keep her two boys at school.
B-says that her sales of cake and fancy articles enabled her to have her daughter taught the violin which she is now teaching to others.
C-says her sales have made it possible for her to take care of an invalid mother and stay at home with her.
D-says her sales have given her the means to help to keep her sister at the Blue Ridge Sanitarium.
E-could not hold her home together without the Exchange.
We have over two hundred consignors.
It is not an easy job that we do.
We have only a thirty thousand dollar endowment invested in mortgage bonds.
p.3
The consignors pay us twenty per cent commission, -which is only about two-thirds of what it costs any shop to do business.
We have a small amount from subscriptions and consignors membership tickets.
One of our greatest difficulties has been to keep our promise to pay the consignor on the first pay day after her article is sold.
This is difficult because some of our patrons are careless about paying their bills. They do not realize that we have no working capital and that their delay is a very serious embarrassment for us, and has often sent us to borrow from the bank where we have to pay interest.
We rarely beg, but we do have a constant struggle to make ends meet.
If we ever have to shut up our business it will throw about two hundred women out of employment.
We do not ask pity, - we only ask that you will try our shop.
Give us the chance we are trying to give our consignors.
Ethel Baskervill
]]>Woman’s Exchange January 8, 1932
The Richmond Exchange for Woman’s Work is the first woman’s shop established in Richmond which has been in continuous operation for almost fifty years. It was established in 1883 to assist ladies who, in 1883, felt their privacy would be violated and their pride tarnished if the public knew they were forced to work for money. Now we know that what a woman can do is her greatest ornament and that she always consults her dignity by doing it.
Now we have meetings where Consignors and Board Members discuss every phase of our mutual business.
There are among the consignors some of your best friends and mine.
They are from the best levels of our citizenship – much respected and self respecting women.
Without exception they are women who cannot go out into active business. Most of them have children or invalids at home who cannot do without them, or perhaps their husbands have had bad luck and cannot make ends meet. They show a notable gallantry by throwing their strength into helping their family to be self supporting upstanding citizens.
The Exchange is not a charity, - it is a philanthropy.
We simply give women a chance to help themselves.
As a shop we are obliged to meet tremendous and increasing competition.
We try to meet it by defeating it.
We try to give honest value, courteous and efficient service and the very best quality in town.
In our foods we tolerate no substitute for the best materials.
We have lately put on a second delivery and we send to Westhampton and to Ginter Park.
We are constantly trying to introduce novelties in all our departments.
We have many services which the public does not always realize.
We make aspics and desert to order.
We mend fine bead bags and wash and darn delicate laces and old lace curtains.
We restore antique, painted trays.
We print stationery, --just like you get from Peru, Indiana, at the same price, - and more promptly.
We take for sale some young woman’s treasured bit of glory, that must be sacrificed because her husband has lost his job, or some frail old lady’s paisley shawl or piece of family silver.
The Superintendent gives these facts about some of our present consignors
A-says that through her sales she has been able to keep her two boys at school.
B-says that her sales of cake and fancy articles enabled her to have her daughter taught the violin which she is now teaching to others.
C-says her sales have made it possible for her to take care of an invalid mother and stay at home with her.
D-says her sales have given her the means to help to keep her sister at the Blue Ridge Sanitarium.
E-could not hold her home together without the Exchange.
We have over two hundred consignors.
It is not an easy job that we do.
We have only a thirty thousand dollar endowment invested in mortgage bonds.
p.3
The consignors pay us twenty per cent commission, -which is only about two-thirds of what it costs any shop to do business.
We have a small amount from subscriptions and consignors membership tickets.
One of our greatest difficulties has been to keep our promise to pay the consignor on the first pay day after her article is sold.
This is difficult because some of our patrons are careless about paying their bills. They do not realize that we have no working capital and that their delay is a very serious embarrassment for us, and has often sent us to borrow from the bank where we have to pay interest.
We rarely beg, but we do have a constant struggle to make ends meet.
If we ever have to shut up our business it will throw about two hundred women out of employment.
We do not ask pity, - we only ask that you will try our shop.
Give us the chance we are trying to give our consignors.
Ethel Baskervill
Manuscripts, Call Number Mss1 K2588 a 117-123, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
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NO COPYRIGHT – UNITED STATES
The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information.
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Acknowledgement of the Virginia Historical Society as a source is requested.
NO COPYRIGHT – UNITED STATES
The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information.
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Acknowledgement of the Virginia Historical Society as a source is requested.
NO COPYRIGHT – UNITED STATES
The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information.
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Acknowledgement of the Virginia Historical Society as a source is requested.
This informational brochure describes "interesting facts about the object, origin and progress" of a working-girls' home for self-supporting African American women in Richmond, Va. The project, described as a technical training school, was established in 1919 as a project of the National Protective League for Negro Girls and the Richmond Neighborhood Association. Ora Brown Stokes (Perry), a social activist, was a leader in both organizations.
p.1 "Our Club Home. An 'Inspiration Point' for Self-Supporting Women and Girls for 'These are they that maintain the fabric of the world, and without them is no city builded.'"
From p. 2 "The object of the Girls' Home is to provide and maintain a home which will solve the problem of the colored woman and girl of good character who comes to Richmond for the purpose of advancement, often without relatives, friends, or money; to surround them with Christian influences, to elevate the standard of employment, to provide a social center for women and girls."
"The Home is managed by a splendid board with Mrs. Artena J. Miller as the efficient chairman. Mrs. Alice Holmes Watkins is the splendid House mother."
"Our President, who is the Probation officer for women and girls, investigated the cause for the downfall of so many girls and women who came to the city. The cause was found to be that upon entereing the city they ofttimes found no one to direct them rightly and they were often sent by strangers to questionable places for room and board and the path downward was entered before they even knew it."
"It is the only one of its kind which is being carried on by women of the race. The white friends has assisted largely by financial contributions and words of encouragement....Mrs. Ora Brown Stokes, President."
The song "The Clarion Call" composed by Ora B. Stokes (September 5, 1915) and dedicated to Pocahontas Camp Fire Girls, Richmond, Va. is printed on the back of this brochure. The song was to be sung to the tune of "Loyalty to Christ" [From Over Hill and Plain] composed by Flora Hamilton Cassel.
Along with Ora Brown Stokes (President), other officers of the Richmond Neighborhood Association included Mrs. Harriet E. Thompson, Mrs. Maggie M. Hill, Mrs. Rosa Sutton Caffee, Miss Lucy, A. Peters, Mrs. Alice H. Kersey, Mrs. T. Everett Johnson.
Officers of the National Protective League for Negro Girls include Mrs. Ora Brown Stokes (Richmond), Mrs. W. T. B. Williams (Hampton), Miss Lillian Coleman (Fredericksburg), Miss Martha Fowlkes (Richmond), Miss Ruth Morris (Richmond), and Mrs. Theresa J. Diamond (Fredericksburg).
This home is sometimes referred to as the Home for Working Girls.
Members of the Equal Suffrage League photographed that day:
(left to right in car) Mrs. G. Harvey Clarke (Mary Ellen Pollard Clarke), Mrs. Roy Knight Flannagan (Lucy Catesby Jones Flannagan), Nora Houston, Mrs. John Grant Armistead (Rosalie Fontaine Jones Armistead), Mrs. Alice Overbey Taylor, Mrs. Della E. Hooker (widow of J. W. Hooker), Mrs. Charles Vivian Meredith (Sophie “Posie” Meredith), Mrs. Georgia May Johnson (identified on photo as Mrs. Frank L. Johnson; perhaps Mrs. Francis L. Johnson)
(left to right outside car) Adèle Clark, Mrs. Archer Gracchus Jones (Annie Boyd Jones), Mrs. John Garland Pollard (Grace Phillips Pollard), Mrs. Carter Wormeley (Sarah Harvie Wormeley), Mrs. Earnest Meade (Aline Jennings Mead(e), Mrs. Earnest C. B. Meade), Lynda McCalanahan Koiner, Mrs. James Stuart Reynolds (Virginia “Boogie” Dickinson Reynolds), Mrs. W. Hill Urquhart (Dorothy Gordon Tait Urquhart), Mrs. W. W. Foster (Carrie Palmore Hughes Foster)
]]>Members of the Equal Suffrage League photographed that day:
(left to right in car) Mrs. G. Harvey Clarke (Mary Ellen Pollard Clarke), Mrs. Roy Knight Flannagan (Lucy Catesby Jones Flannagan), Nora Houston, Mrs. John Grant Armistead (Rosalie Fontaine Jones Armistead), Mrs. Alice Overbey Taylor, Mrs. Della E. Hooker (widow of J. W. Hooker), Mrs. Charles Vivian Meredith (Sophie “Posie” Meredith), Mrs. Georgia May Johnson (identified on photo as Mrs. Frank L. Johnson; perhaps Mrs. Francis L. Johnson)
(left to right outside car) Adèle Clark, Mrs. Archer Gracchus Jones (Annie Boyd Jones), Mrs. John Garland Pollard (Grace Phillips Pollard), Mrs. Carter Wormeley (Sarah Harvie Wormeley), Mrs. Earnest Meade (Aline Jennings Mead(e), Mrs. Earnest C. B. Meade), Lynda McCalanahan Koiner, Mrs. James Stuart Reynolds (Virginia “Boogie” Dickinson Reynolds), Mrs. W. Hill Urquhart (Dorothy Gordon Tait Urquhart), Mrs. W. W. Foster (Carrie Palmore Hughes Foster)