This year for Black History Month, I'm going to be highlighting people who were design pioneers. They changed American fashion, architecture and design and helped create our American aesthetic.
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First is Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley. Ms. Keckley (Lizzy) was born into slavery in 1818. She learned her dressmaking skills, and to read and write from her mother who was also enslaved.
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While enslaved, Lizzy's owners (her biological half-sister and sister's husband) used earnings from the sale of Lizzy's dresses as their primary means of income. Nevertheless, in 1855, Lizzy was able to purchase her freedom for $1200 ($35,000 today).
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She moved to Washington DC in 1860 and quickly became a dressmaker to the white elites of the city. Her dresses were known for their sophisticated styles, draping and fit. By 1861, she had a shop on 12th street that employed 20 seamstresses.
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Lizzy was introduced to Mary Todd Lincoln in 1861 and was immediately hired as Mary's 'modiste' and dresser.
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Lizzy designed and created the dresses that MTL wore to Lincoln's 2nd inauguration, the off the shoulder dress Mary wore for her portrait photograph and the dress and cloak Mary wore to Lincoln's funeral.
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In 1862, Lizzy established the Ladies Freedmen and Soldier's Relief Association to provide assistance to men and women who were leaving slavery and coming to DC. She introduced Abraham Lincoln to Sojourner Truth.
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In 1892, Lizzy moved to Ohio to become the head of the Department of Sewing and Domestic Science at Wilberforce University.
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Lizzy helped found the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children where she lived from 1898 until her death in 1907.
