Keckley, Elizabeth Hobbs
1818-1907 · Contribution: 1860-1868
Built a 20-seamstress dressmaking business; personal modiste and confidante to First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Category
- Business & Misc.
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.
Sources
- National Women's History Museum
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