Keckley, Elizabeth Hobbs

1818-1907 · Contribution: 1860-1868

Built a 20-seamstress dressmaking business; personal modiste and confidante to First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln

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Impact on the world

Keckley turned a craft into freedom and then into an independent business at the highest levels of Washington society, while using her position and earnings to organize direct relief for the newly freed during the Civil War.

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    National Women's History Museum

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