2013 2012 2011 2010 0Madame Walker Manufacturing Company: Mixing Up the Status Quo
Today’s post is by Kate Massman
The story of Madame C.J. Walker and her success can be told through the objects within the Madame C.J. Walker Museum. Objects, unlike text, can offer a physical look into the life a remarkable woman. One can walk through the exhibits and learn about the life and company of a self-made woman, who helped countless women start off on their own. This tale is told through tins of hair product, curling irons, images, and numerous other objects.
My favorite object in the collection (and maybe the largest!) is an industrial Hobart (M80) mixer. It is not in the exhibit space; rather, it is in a room near the museum. The Madame Walker Manufacturing Company used this mixer in the 1940s to produce a wide variety of beauty products made famous by the company’s founder. Production began in the Walker Theater building in 1926 and continued through 1974. Walker’s products are still in production in another location in Indianapolis.
The mixer by itself is not extremely unique. The Hobart Corporation was founded in 1897 and its products are widely used in the food service and grocery industries. In fact, many households have a variation of this mixer in their own homes in the form of Kitchen Aid, which was created in 1919 by the Hobart Corporation and later sold to Whirlpool.
What makes this industrial mixer a great addition to the Madame C.J. Walker Museum collection is how it expresses the achievements of Madame Walker. She certainly did not begin her company on such a large scale. Madame Walker would have mixed her first batches of hair product by hand in tubs, not far off from her original job as a washerwoman. Using her natural talents for networking and hard work she was able to build her brand into a massive nationwide company.
For a woman to own a million-dollar company involved in industrial manufacturing in the early 20th century was remarkable. The fact that Sarah Breedlove was an African American born in the Deep South two years after the abolition of slavery makes her accomplishments even more unbelievable. While she was not alive when this mixer was in use, it speaks to her skill as a businesswoman and proof that some 20 years after her death her company was manufacturing on such a large scale.
The sheer size of this mixer offers visitors a tangible expression of Madame C.J. Walker’s success. And the fact that she was able to achieve this scale of manufacturing considering all the societal factors pushing against her is mind-boggling. There are other stories of triumph and hardship that are waiting to be told through the objects in the Madame C.J. Walker Museum. It has been an exciting experience learning of Madame Walker and discovering new stories about her life while working with the collection.
