Martha Matilda Harper facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Martha Matilda Harper
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| Born | September 10, 1857 |
| Died | August 3, 1950 (aged 92) |
| Occupation | Businesswoman, entrepreneur, and inventor |
Martha Matilda Harper (born September 10, 1857, in Oakville, Ontario, Canada; died August 3, 1950, in Rochester, New York, USA) was an amazing businesswoman. She was an entrepreneur and inventor. Martha created the idea of modern retail franchising. She built a huge network of 500 franchised hair salons. Her salons focused on healthy hair care.
Martha was born in Canada. When she was just seven, her father sent her away. She had to work as a domestic servant. She worked for 25 years in this job. During this time, she saved enough money. She then started making a special hair tonic she invented. This product and her unique hair salons became very successful. Martha started letting other women open salons using her business model. These were often women who didn't have much money. At its best, her company had over 500 franchises. It also sold a full line of hair care products.
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Martha's Early Life
Martha Matilda Harper was born in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Her birthday was September 10, 1857. Sometimes, people thought she was born in 1868. She used that year to seem younger. But she later swore her true birth year was 1857. Her parents were Robert and Beadie Harper. Martha did not get much school education.
When she was seven, her father sent her to work. She became a domestic servant for relatives in Orono, Ontario. She worked there for 22 years. Then, she moved to the United States. She worked as a servant in Rochester, New York. Her last boss in Canada was a doctor. He taught her a lot about healthy hair. When he died, he gave her his hair tonic recipe. Martha learned to respect science from him. This helped her a lot when she made her own hair tonic.
While working as a servant, Martha created her own hair tonic. She worried that many hair products hurt hair more than helped it. She saved enough money to start making her tonic full-time. Three years after moving to the U.S., she stopped being a servant. In 1888, she opened the first public hair salon in Rochester. She used her life savings of $360 to open it. This salon helped her sell her hair tonic.
Building a Hair Care Company
Martha's salon was called the Harper Method Hair Parlour. Many of her ideas shaped how modern hair salons work today. Before Martha, hairdressers usually visited homes. Martha used her own long, floor-length hair to show off her tonic. Her hair was a great advertisement. It appeared in many ads for her products. She hired former servants to work in her salon.
In 1891, a famous woman named Bertha Palmer encouraged Martha. Bertha wanted Martha to open her unique salon in Chicago. This was for the Columbian Exposition in 1893. Martha agreed and became the first person to start modern retail franchising. This meant other people could open salons under the Harper name. Her first franchise was in Buffalo, New York.
Each Harper salon was owned by a woman. The first 100 shops were given only to women who, like Martha, were not rich. Martha trained these women. She also checked their salons to make sure the quality was high.
Martha cared a lot about customer service and comfort. She invented reclining shampoo chairs. These chairs are now common in salons everywhere. Her salons also offered scalp massages and child care. They even stayed open in the evenings. The hair products her company made were healthier than others at the time. They were mostly made with natural ingredients. Harper salons did not use fake dyes or harsh chemical perms.
Famous Customers
At its most successful, Martha's company had 500 franchises. It also made a full line of hair care and beauty products. Many famous people were Harper customers. These included British royalty and important American figures. Some were Susan B. Anthony, Woodrow Wilson, Grace Coolidge, Joseph P. Kennedy, Rose Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Lady Bird Johnson.
Martha's Company Legacy
In 1920, when Martha was 63, she married Robert McBain. He was an army officer, 39 years old. They ran the company together for 15 years. Martha retired at age 78. She gave control of the company to Robert.
The Harper Method Inc. company was later owned by different people. In 1956, Robert McBain sold the business. After that, it changed hands a few more times.
The last Harper Method franchise salon was in Rochester, New York. It was the country's oldest beauty shop. It stayed open until the early 2000s. The woman who owned it, Centa Sailer, died in 2014. Today, the place where Martha's lab used to be is a tire warehouse.
Martha's Later Life and Impact
Martha died on August 3, 1950. She was almost 93 years old. Her husband, Robert MacBain, lived until 1965. When Martha died, there were still over 350 Harper shops. She is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Rochester, New York. Her grave says Martha H. McBain.
Besides her business, Martha enjoyed cooking, traveling, and playing golf. She was a Christian Scientist. She was a member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Rochester. She also belonged to the Rochester Country Club and Oak Hill Country Club. She even took some classes at the University of Rochester.
In 2003, Martha Harper was honored. She was put into the National Women's Hall of Fame. She also joined the American Business Hall of Fame. She is remembered for helping other servants achieve their dreams. She hired them and allowed them to open their own Harper Method salons.
Images for kids
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Martha Harper's own long hair was the best advertisement for her products. This famous picture appeared in many of her early ads.
