Notizen zu dieser Person
Stifterin des nach ihr benannten Woechnerinnenheims in Sindelfingen
sowie Lektorin fuer Kostuemkunde an der Universitaet Chicago
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New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
about Wilhe Moscherrosd
Name: Wilhe Moscherrosd
Arrival Date: 19 Dec 1886
Birth Year: abt 1866
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Ethnicity/Race-
/Nationality: German
Place of Origin: Württemberg
Port of Departure: Bremen, Germany and Southampton, England
Destination: United States of America
Port of Arrival: New York
Port Arrival State: New York
Port Arrival Country: United States
Ship Name: Werra
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1900 in Wills Street, Chicago
Julius Schmidt, 38, printer, born Germany
Minna, 34, dancing artist, b Germany
Edwin, 11, at school, b Illinois
Helmuth, 6, b Illinois
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1910 in Clark Street, Chicago
Julius Schmidt, 47, teacher, dancing school, b Germany
Minna, 43, costumer & dancing teacher, b Germany
Edwin H.J., 21, single, b Illinois
Helmut, 16, b Illinois
William Moscherosch, 73, father in law, widower, b Germany
Eugenia Kost, 18, servant, b Germany
Guido A Rocker, 40, single, lodger, b Germany
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1920 in Clark Street, Chicago
Julius A Schmidt, 57, manager costume rental, b Germany
Minna, 53, partner costume rental, b Germany
Edwin A, 30, single, clerk costume rental, b Illinois
William Moscherosch, nephew, 20, mechanic, garage, b Illinois
Florence Moscherosch, niece, 18, clerk, costume rental, b Illinois
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sailed Southampton - New York, ship Kroonland, arrival 17 Oct 1920
Mina Schmidt, 54, married, home 920 N. Clark St, Chicago
Emilia Lundgreen, 36, single, home 920 N. Clark St, Chicago
Florence Moscherrosch, 19, single, home 920 N. Clark St, Chicago
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1930 in North Clark Street, Chicago
Julius Schmidt, (70), costumer, costume house, b Germany
Minna, 64, b Germany
Marion, 3 years 4 months, granddaughter, b Illinois
1930 in Evanston, Cook Co, Illinois
Minna M Schmidt, 64, married, proprietor, costuming, b Wuerttemberg,
Helmut, 34, son, married, partner, costuming, b Illinois
Elaine, 29, married, daughter in law, b Wisconsin
Seymour, 33, single, relative, gardener, private house, b New York
Minnie, 38, widow, relative, sister, shopworker, costuming, b Northern Ireland
Peter J, 2 years 7 months, b Illinois
Emily Lundgreen, 42, single, lodger, saleswoman, costuming, b Missouri
house value $150 000
1940 in N Clark St, Chicago
Julius Schmidt, 78, b Germany
Minna, 74, proprietor costume shop, b Germany
Leone Rielly, 44, lodger, single, bookkeeper, b Wisconsin
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In 1933 Minna Moscherosch Schmidt published a book
400 Outstanding Women of the World and Costumology of their Time
which can be read online:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015037383554
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Feted in Evanston. Ill., on the 50th anniversary of her Schmidt Costume Co. was Mrs. Minna Moscherosch Schmidt,
70, Bavarian-born fancy-dress designer who at the age of five made her first costumes for the fairy story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, now rents out 50.000 costumes. In Northwestern University's Thome Hall. Costumologist Schmidt was introduced by President Walter Dill Scott, after her speech was presented a velvet cushion topped by a large gilt and tinsel crown.
(Time magazine, 11 Jan 1937)
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,757280,00.html#ixzz1UTLs0RrF
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American Biographical Library The Biographical Cyclopædia of American Women Volume II (1924)Daughters of America; or Women of the Century Schmidt, Minna The Chicago Historical Society page 142
SCHMIDT, MINNA (Mrs. Julius Schmidt), costumer, daughter of William and Friederike Leonhard Moscherosch, was born in Sindelfingen, Germany, March 18, 1866. On the feminine side, her ancestors were good housekeepers, usually the mothers of large families; on her father's side, lawyers, diplomats, soldiers, teachers, authors, tradesmen and farmers. For three decades a creator of historic and fancy dress costumes in Chicago, Mrs. Schmidt is not merely a dealer in costumes, a genius in her particular field, but she is a designer, and a connoisseur of art in woman's dress as well as an expert authority on all textiles. The founder of an institution which does an enormous amount of profitable business, she is also the creator of two collections of figurines, one showing the style of dress and coiffure of women through three thousand years of history, the other depicting the prominent women of Chicago from the beginning of that city as a rude military stockade down to modern times. Her intense loyalty to the country of her adoption, and especially to Chicago, has made her a public benefactor, a generous contributor to its civic and historic wealth. In rising from poverty to affluence, with its attendant opportunities for self-development, travel, study and benevolent service, she has proved conclusively that a woman can become whatever her imagination can picture. The eldest of seventeen children, the little girl who in later years was destined to do so much for herself and womankind found in the small German town where the family lived but few opportunities for satisfying her ambitious nature. There was only a grammar school for girls, and with parents in very meagre circumstances and allowances for education given only to boys, she received little even of this rudimentary instruction. One incident of these early days may be recorded as a proof of what the future might hold for the eager child. At kindergarten one day the children were told the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It fired the imagination of the child Minna and she ran home that evening so full of the story, with such a vivid picture of the characters in her mind, that she felt impelled to bring them in to actuality. Thrilled with the masterful feeling that she could create, her tiny fingers all a-tingle with the desire to make what her imagination saw, she rushed to her doll-house and set to work manufacturing the little princess of the story. She was not long in finishing and dressing Snow White, and thenof course there must be seven more figures to represent the seven dwarfs. Where where could she find so many little men? Puzzled, troubled, she appealed to her mother, who promptly told her she was crazy to think about such a thing at all; she would do much better to be looking after some of the household tasks, she said. Crestfallen, but undaunted by the reproof, [p.143] the child of five turned to some of the unending drudgery for awhile, secretly determined to take her problem next to her grandmother. The latter proved equal to the emergency. She not only lent a sympathetic ear but said she would help make the seven dwarfs, and proceeded to show the little girl how small potatoes for the bodies, sticks for the legs, wire for arms, carved chestnuts for heads, gray wool for hair and beards, could easily be assembled into the desired number of little men. It took a week to finish them all up and dress them, then she carried her doll-house with the princess and the seven little men to school and was the envy and admiration of all the other kindergartners. This incident furnishes the key to Mrs. Schmidt's unusual character and personality. It showed that keenness of imagination which was to characterize her later years, and the deftness and skill of hands in which lay a tremendous undeveloped power to bring the object of her mental vision into reality. It was an incident prophetic of a triumphant future filled with examples of the result of this same keenness of vision supplemented by the skill of the hands to bring into realization on a large scale the material things of life. As the child grew on to young girlhood she became weary of the incessant toil necessary in the raising of a large family, disgusted with the small home town conditions and the future she saw there, and determined to break away from it all and seek adventure, educationwhatever there was to be found in the great school of life. She was born with the dislike for small things. Mediocre standards were not for her, nor the beaten path of the crowd. She was suffocating in the small house; she wanted freedom. Consequently she dreamed of the world beyond the border of the town, the ocean, tunnels, mountains, palacessome day she would find that big world, find it and conquer it, even though she must overcome so many, and such tremendous obstacles. So she studied hard, making the most of such educational opportunities as were offered. Always keenly alive and mentally alert, she became conspicuous for her quick thinking and her willingness to take on any extra work at school. On exhibition days, or in emergencies, it was she who was called upon for recitations and she was always ready. At fourteen she finished grammar schoolwhich was all the little town affordedand was graduated with honors. Immediately she prepared to begin the working out of her greater destiny. She had heard of a sewing school in Stuttgart, founded by Queen Katharine of Wurtemberg, which gave the students a chance to work while learning. She now left Sindelfingen and entered this school. This was the severest test, for many times tears and prayers took the place of evening meals, but she learned the foundation of constructive sewing. The age of eighteen found her in the position of governess in Frankfort-on-the-Main, the birthplace of Goethe, the residence of Rothschild. Here she studied in an evening school the art of dancing and bodily training for two years, then came a call from Chicago for a governessto train children and sewwhich she answered, and was accepted. Fortified as a teacher, a dancer, well grounded in creating modern and festive clothing, full of romance yet willing to work, able to pay her way in the steerageshe came to America, to Chicago, in 1886. The following year she married Julius Schmidt, who came to Chicago that same year. The duties of wife and mother did not prevent her from carrying out the ambitious plans formed in early youth, and in 1894, with two children, Edwin and Helmut, she began to coach plays and to teach dancing, in the summer appearing as a solo danseuse and in the winter supervising her classes. All the time she was studying, absorbing, thinking, in ever-widening circles. She upset the tradition that dancers must be trained from childhood and founded the Locust Studios to teach the art of physical training, dancing, costuming and make-upher pupils ranging in age from six to sixty. Here she taught the [p.144] doctrine of self-preservation, not by "resting" but by exercise. Following the theory that gymnastics make the body strong, graceful and enduring, and that by the determination required to pursue this training, the mind is strengthened, she stressed the duty of acquiring a healthy body, a strong mind, an inspiring soul. In her studio, love of beauty and art was fostered. By proper forms of dancing the awkward beginner was transformed into a person of physical grace and ease. After proficiency was gained, beautiful costumes were adopted; corresponding with the improvement in posture, carriage and movement, the student acquired a mental refinement, the true beauty of health. In this studio work she caught the glimpse of a new racea race freed from the handicap of civilization and redeeming itself through the remedial activities of the dance. This studio work failed to give full outlet to her energies, however. There was something lacking. A vast amount of inherent power in her shapely hands was not being utilized. Her mind went back to the days when as a child she dressed her dolls to characterize her brain fancies of the fairy tales of the day. To make this talent useful, to harmonize it with the needs of an adult worldhow could she do it? These cogitations led to the discovery that there was in the swift-growing city of Chicago a great need for a costume shop which could supply with authority and absolute fidelity to detail period and fancy dress costumes to colleges, clubs, schools and society folk for plays, parties and masquerades. Thus she struck the true note, for in aligning herself on the serious side of the spirit of fun represented by the masquerade, she was selecting a work in which she not only could exercise her most pronounced instincts and talents, a work that utilized both imagination and manual dexterity, but it was a field giving unlimited opportunity for research work, making it necessary to delve into history, literature and religion. Approaching the task in this spirit, Mrs. Schmidt's success as a costumer and designer was assured beforehand, and from the first day of her venture the business grew, throve and flourished, her reputation as an authority became known to ever-widening circles, and it was but a few years till she was able to buy a plot of ground and erect a building to house the tremendous business thus created. She was also able to realize her desire to travel, and to give to others according to her own generous instincts. With a deep-rooted belief in the blessings of the simple life, it was not pleasure that beckoned her, but an intense longing to see, to learn. Devoid of fear, whether of man, woman, disease or death, as the horizon opened out before her she resolved to do whatever she wanted to do. If she was in Arabia and wanted to ride a camel, she rode it; in Palestine, she rode a donkey with as much nonchalance as she rides a horse in Chicago's Lincoln Park. While in Jerusalem on one of her journeys abroad she conceived a fancy to inspect the Leper Home there, and did it, her utter disregard for personal safety quite astounding the attending Sisters. If, as her fortune grew, she felt disposed to take along some one who could not afford the trip, she did so. But always she went with a woman's eyes, for observation and study. Like the busy bee, gathering honey for its hive, she wanted to bring back to America, to "her Chicago," the rich artistic and intellectual treasures of the Orient, of Italy, of France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Englandof everywhere.
zzz Faust
Queen Elizabeth 1895 Quaker MINNA SCHMIDT Roman Lady 1840 1820 Queen Victoria
Always in these observations it was the clothes worn, and the manner of wearing, that most attracted her. Before she had gone far in her observations she made the discovery that there was nothing new in clotheseverything had been used before. The museums, temples, castles, attracted her. Naturally she was drawn to those departments where figures and costumes were shown. In Kensington Palace she was fascinated by the study of a collection of dolls. Her quick eye soon detected the lack of proportion, absence [p.145] of symmetry, especially in the hands, to which apparently, no particular attention had been given, as they looked queer and ugly. She could do better, she thought. Always vitally interested in the sphere of women, her observations and reflections led her to devote most of her thought and effort to woman and her costumes. She gradually conceived the plan of depicting woman and her varying mode of dress through the agesbut it must be done in a thoroughly scientific, artistic and accurate manner, using figures correct in proportion and as near the subject in feature as possible. No flat figure, such as a photograph or drawing, had ever or could ever show this with fidelity. She must therefore make the figures herself, which meant manufacturing models in wax, attaching the hair, painting the face, then designing and making the dress, being careful in the latter not only to get the correct design but the right kind of material. It was a daring conception, but with the same spirit in which, as a child of five, she determined to have Snow White, and the dwarfs, she determined now to see these more mature brain-children materialize. Her son, Helmut, who is a sculptor, painter and musician, helped her. Beginning with Evea comparatively easy task as to costumeshe started on the slow journey through the ages. First the subject was modeled in clay to the minutest detail, then a plaster cast made of the model, the wax afterward being poured into this mould. When the wax was set the mould was removed, the figures chiseled and finally colored with oil paints, each made as near as possible a replica of the subject. While the wax was still warm the hair was attachednot glued on bodily but the root of each hair was imbedded separately in the wax. In this operation there was the same fidelity to detail as in the matter of clothes, so far as the details could be learned through the records of history and literature. For example: Eve was depicted with very long black hair, with no covering for the head. Next came the Cave Woman, also with long flowing hair, but slightly more elaborate dress, changed from fig-leaves and thorns to the skin of some animal. Egypt, Greece, Rome next appeared, then followed women of the Bible, Noah's wife, Deborah, Miriam, Delilah, Jephta's daughter, and Lot's wife, the latter a beautiful crystalline figure with delicate diaphanous draperies. Following these were Esther, Rachel, Leah, Ruth and Naomi, and later Martha and Mary. Reaching the year 500, we find that the lady wears her hair in two heavy braids, with a very simple dress. There is little variation in costume now till the Byzantine-Crusader periods, when the headdress appears, to be conspicuous through the fourteenth century, and the Renaissance. Reaching into tradition and literature, Mrs. Schmidt brought forth from the eleventh century Lady Godivaminus her famous horseman easy subject to dress, as she appears clothed only in her long loose hair, as though prepared for her famous ride. The lovely Lorelei comes soon after, with little clothing and long hair. From the pages of English history comes Anne Boleyn, to be followed later by the beautiful and tragic Mary Stewart. This same period ushers in the Puritan, plain and severe. From 1730 to 1786 Mrs. Schmidt's creations indicate the popularity of the "corkscrew curl," varying with white powdered wigs, and enormous skirts. The wretched Marie Antoinette comes within this period. Then follows unhappy Josephine of France, ushering in the age of the empire gown. Madame Recamier appears with scant clothingperhaps this is why she is referred to by chronicler and historian as "wrapped in mystery." Beautiful Queen Victoria is present in her coronation robes, and from 1835 to 1860 comes the big skirt, an age that knew the brilliant Eugenie, once Empress of the French, who, it may not be generally known, was the grand-daughter of a United States Consul by the unromantic name of Kirkpatrick. [p.146] After that the figurines of Mrs. Schmidt's creation become queerly familiar to those who have passed the age of innocence. Big skirts with bustles, big skirts with flounces, long full skirts with trains, long plain skirts "forty miles around the bottom," dragging in the mud and collecting all the microbes off the streets; mutton-leg sleeves that protrude so far as to necessitate the wearer's turning sideways to pass through a door; then the hobble, split up to the knee; and finally, the "flapper" style of 1924, plain and simple, the skirt eight inches above the ground. Thus is visualized, in one hundred twenty wax figures reduced in proportion to one-fourth the average woman's size, a pageant of woman's dress through three thousand years of history and literature. All beautifully made and clothed are these brain-children of Mrs. Schmidt'sbut how many who have been privileged to view them in her big Chicago establishment would suspect their cost in years of research, expenditure of time, money and patience, the many trials to procure the waxen figures in variety and suitability to personage and period ? Always eager to do something for the great city that had done so much for her, Mrs. Schmidt had for some time been seeking to devise a plan by means of which she might make, through her art, some fitting contribution to the material or historic wealth of Chicago. Naturally, she wished it to be something that would appeal to the feminine mind. In the course of her deliberations she discovered that practically nowhere except in the yellowed pages of a newspaper was there any record of the women who played a conspicuous part on the stage of Chicago when the background was a flat prairie covered with flowers of rainbow hue, and those who had been useful in the development of Chicago along the lines of culture, religion, philanthropy, political equality, civic betterment, art, music and literature. Even the Chicago Historical Society possessed few portraits or memorials of women, although Miss McIlvaine directing head of the Society, had been on the quest for such objects for years. As to the biographical dictionaries, it was discovered that nine-tenths of the space in such volumes was given over entirely to men. Therefore, Mrs. Schmidt conceived the idea not only of rescuing from oblivion the names of these worthy women, but of immortalizing them by the same means employed to depict woman's dress through the ages. As soon as her objective was fixed in her mind, she sent out requests for authentic data to guide her in the faithful representation of both features and costume. As many Chicago women had by this time been induced to serve on the Board of the Society and the majority of them were the daughters or granddaughters of the old pioneers, Mrs. Schmidt was fortunate in securing their coöperation, and family Bibles, photograph albums, daguerreotypes and miniatures, as well as wonderful early fabrics, were assembled and put at her disposal. The same process of casting the figures, the same fidelity to proportion, an extra amount of care in copying the features, were employed in this work. In some cases it was possible for her to make the costume out of the actual material worn by the women in real life. The plan was to include in the collection figures representing prominent women from the year 1803, which marked the establishment of Fort Dearborn (which later became the city of Chicago) down to modern times. Among these women were Mrs. John Kinzie, the first white woman to take up residence at Fort Dearborn, in 1804; Mrs. Curdon S. Hubbard, whose husband was a descendant of the famous Governor Salstonstall of Connecticut; Miss Nancy McVicker, who married Edwin Booth; Mrs. Mary Livermore, and the wife of Abraham Lincoln. Among the more modern type were Mrs. Potter Palmer, Doctor Sarah Hackett Stevenson, and Ella Flagg Young. After five years of painstaking labor the collection was completed at a cost of $5,000, and in the spring of 1924, in commemoration of her thirtieth year in the costume business, [p.147] Mrs. Schmidt announced her intention of donating the seventy-two wax figures to the Chicago Historical Society, there to be put in suitable glass cases and kept on view, as a reminder of what Chicago had produced in the way of noble women who had been a benefit to humanity. Her presentation of these figures was made the occasion of an impressive ceremony, attended by the socially elect of the city and by descendants of some of the women represented in the collection. On another occasion, when visiting the Historical Society Museum, Mrs. Schmidt noticed among the visitors viewing these figurines an old man, standing before the case talking to himself, the tears rolling down his cheeks. Wonderingly, she approached him and asked the cause of his tears. "This one"and he pointed to a white-haired woman of the group, "reminds me of my mother; this one, of my daughter; that one, of my wife in her wedding gown." What greater tribute could have been paid to the fidelity to detail evident in this work? Four or five years previous to this eventindeed, at about the same time she conceived the planlife developed for Mrs. Schmidt an entirely new urge. She always had wanted a college education, which business duties, buying real estate, or family ties had heretofore prevented her obtaining. She now resolved to have itat fifty-four! She entered preparatory school, was graduated, then entered the evening school of Kent College of Law in Chicago. After four years of evening attendance, during which she did not miss a single evening of five school nights a week, she was graduated, receiving the degree of LL.B. This achievement created widespread comment, and made her the subject of commendatory newspaper articles throughout the country. This, then, is the record made by Minna Moscherosch-Schmidt in her forty years on American soil. Now at the head of the largest business of its kind in the midwest, where as many as 6,500 costumes are rented out in a single day, she has crossed the ocean nine times, traveled all over the world, and won a law degree. If there is a dream as yet unrealized it probably is that of eventually winning back the modern woman to the lost art of needlework; of popularizing the making of beautiful and artistic garments in the home; of eradicating from the mind of the modern girl the foolish notion that in order to be tastefully gowned she must purchase at enormous prices garments designed and made abroad, and planting in its stead the ambition to create, to design, to build with her own hands the things of beauty she craves. To this end she is writing a textbook, and is trying to have created in a progressive University a Chair devoted to this industrial art. Her fortune and her success have not won her away from the simple life. Despite her right to the title of LL.B., she is equally proud of the more ancient, more homely titles of wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. A believer in universal sisterhood, she expects to use her legal knowledge not for personal gain but in the interests of women, or the poor and unfortunate. Chicago has been kind to her, and she has repaid that kindness by generous contributions to public charity, hospitals, old people's homes, orphanages, and by giving generously to many causes that affect the artistic and civic life of the city. Mrs. Schmidt is a member of many clubs and societies, among them the Chicago Historical Society; Art Institute; Alliance of Professional and Business Women; Women's Association of Commerce; founder of Chicago Costumers' Association; Friends of the Opera; United Charities; Travelers Aid; Girl Scouts; Illinois Women's Athletic Club; Hull House Woman's Club; Prairie Club; Women's Roosevelt Club; Civic Theatre Association; Speakers Bureau; and Chicago Bar Association.[p.148]
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A shorter biography can be viewed online from the book
European Immigrant Women In The United States
by Judy Barrett Litoff, Judith McDonell, ISBN:0824053060
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1ZyYa0cAPbkC&pg=PA266&dq=minna+schmidt+moscherosch&sig=JKhGQ-ncuxV_SFuPDwcQo0_T2uE
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"Lost German Chicago" tie in!
Also buried at Wunder's Cemetery and featured in
upcoming DANK exhibit
German born Minna Moscheroscht Schmidt started her
costume business designing outfits and wigs for children's
plays at her dance studio. In an age where costume balls
were in vogue with upper class society, her store and
factory at 920 North Clark would rent over 60,000
costumes a year
http://files.meetup.com/261548/DANKHaus%2006_26_09.pdf
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11 Sep 1958
Troy Record, New York State
Legal Notices
Heirs and next-of-kin of Hal C Moore (Harold Clinton Moscherosch), deceased:
Gertrude Thinger Maxham, PO Box 65, Lafayette, California
Clarence Thinger, 779 Pepper Dr, San Bruno, California
Charlette Leupp, 6531 Nenny Ave, N. Hollywood, California
Frank Hartman, 5038 Narrangansett Ave, San Diego, California
Richard Eshenhorst, 50 Lisbon Bl, San Francisco, California
Gene Bosche, Box 1669, Raton, New Mexico
Erwin Bosche, Box 1958, Raton, New Mexico
Minna Schmidt, address unknown
Henry Moscherrosch, William Moscherrosch, Florence
Moscherrosch, all address unknown
brothers & sisters of Mary Swanson Moscherrosch, the mother
of Hal C Moore deceased.
Hermann Moscherrosch, uncle of Hal C Moore, address unknown
Otto Moscherrrosch, uncle of Hal C Moore, address unknown
The children of Fred Moscherrosch, deceased
Petitioner: Michael Hippick, Middlesex Road, East Greenbush, New York
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Aus armen Verhältnissen
Wilhelmine Schmidt-Moscherosch stammte aus armen Verhältnissen. Sie wurde am 17. März 1868 in Sindelfingen geboren und hatte 14 Geschwister und das in einer Zeit, in der in Baden-Württemberg der Hunger grassierte und die Weichen für die Auswanderung vieler Armen in die "Neue Welt" gestellt wurden.
Bekannt ist, dass Mina Moscherosch das elterliche Haus nach ihrer Konfirmation verlassen hat und zunächst in Stuttgart als Kindermädchen arbeitete. Zwei Jahre später wurde sie in die Katharinenpflege aufgenommen. Dort lernte sie nähen.
Von Frankfurt nach Chicago
Weitere Stationen waren Erdingen, Tübingen und Frankfurt. Abends, nach der Arbeit, besuchte sie die Fortbildungsschule. Außerdem fand sie eine Trachtenschule, wo sie die Fächer Deklamation und Ballett besuchte. Nach zwei Jahren in Frankfurt fand sie eine Zeitungsanzeige, in der ein Kindermädchen für eine in Chicago lebende Familie gesucht wurde. Mina Moscherosch konnte die Reisekosten aus eigener Tasche finanzieren, ihr Pass und ihre Referenzen wurden in der neuen Heimat für gut befunden.
Als im Jahre 1887 ihr Jugendfreund Julius Schmidt aus Tübingen nach Chicago kam, wo er eine Stelle in einem Baugeschäft fand, begann eine neue Phase in Mina Moscheroschs Leben. Am 5. Oktober 1887 heirateten die beiden und unterstützten mit ihrem Einkommen zunächst Julius Schmidts früh verwitwete Mutter und in den nachfolgenden Jahren die Familien Moscherosch und Schmidt.
1892 erhielt das Ehepaar die amerikanische Staatsbürgerschaft und konnte sich um die Jahrhundertwende über zwei Söhne freuen. Die Jahrhundertwende brachte den USA eine kurze Depression. In dieser Zeit nutzte Mina Schmidt-Moscherosch ihre Fertigkeiten im Nähen und eröffnete neben einem Kostümgeschäft auch eine Tanzschule. Sie stellte Kostüme und Perücken aus verschiedenen Epochen der amerikanischen Geschichte aus.
Ihr Fachwissen war auch von Akademikern geschätzt, so dass sie am 29. Dezember 1936 in der North-West-University von Chicago einen Vortrag über "50 Jahre im Dienst der Kostümkunde in Amerika" hielt. Nicht nur für Sindelfingen erwies sich Mina Schmidt-Moscherosch als Wohltäterin. Sie wurde auch für Hilfsleistungen im Ersten Weltkrieg ausgezeichnet und als die Quäker 1920 zur Hilfe für hungernde Kinder aufriefen, spendete sie reichlich.
Ersparnisse verbraucht
1943 zog sich Mina Schmidt-Moscherosch aus dem Arbeitsleben zurück und verbrachte die letzten Lebensjahre im Schwesternheim der Heiligen Familie zu Nazareth in Chicago. Ihre Ersparnisse waren nach zwei Weltkriegen und zahlreichen Hilfeleistungen verbraucht.
Am 8. Dezember 1961 starb Wilhelmine Schmidt-Moscherosch. Eine Gedenktafel im Foyer des Städtischen Krankenhauses erinnert an sie.
Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Sindelfinger Zeitung / Böblinger Zeitung
http://www.adv-boeblingen.de/zrbb/sindelf/sindelf/gesch/mosch.html
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MINNA, FAMED AS COSTUMER; IS DEAD AT 95
Mrs. Schmidt Noted for Figurines
Minna M; Schmidt, whose earnings as a, seamstress in Germany paid her passage to America 75 years ago and who made a place for herself in Chicago’s life and history is dead. Mrs. Schmidt lived for the last five years in St. Mary’s hospital, where she died Friday. She formerly lived at Holy Family academy. 1444 Division St., where a room named for her contains one of her famed collections of figurines.
Fairy Tale Start
The fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven dwarfs, which she heard when, she was 5 year old, started Minna Moscherosch on the road to costuming and a career that saw her hailed by college presidents, artists, and people everywhere who remained young in heart. Minna went home from her kindergarten in a small city in southern Germany -and made a Snow White doll. Her mother was too busy to help her make the Seven Dwarfs, but her grandmother encouraged her and helped her in the project.
The oldest child in a family of 17, she learned early in life that the way to get what she wanted was to work for it. With needle and thread, she helped support the family and saved enough for passage to the United States, where she first worked as a governess. She married Julius Schmidt, her teen-age sweetheart, When he followed her from Germany, and immersed herself in the job of having and raising a family. Chicago’ s Columbian Exposition of 1893 enlarged her horizon and she opened a school.
Concentrates on Costumes
In this school she taught dancing and dramatics, The rehearsing of amateur plays and the translating of fairy tales left her little time for making costumes, and eventually she let an assistant take over the teaching while she concentrated on costumes. From a modest start - she designed and made the costumes in an 8 by 10 foot attic room-her costuming business flourished and became a Chicago institution. In 1915 she and her husband erected a building at 920 N. Clark St. that became one of the first in the country devoted entirely to the costume business. Thru her costumes, Mrs. Schmidt became known as a fairy godmother to thousands of Chicagoans.
Many Remember Windows
Thousands of Chicagoans also remember her shop windows, which displayed costumes of many eras in ! history., She made and costumed more than 1,000 figurines, and her collections won her fame everywhere.
The Century of Progress Exposition of 1933 and 1934 in Chicago featured her display of figurines showing “400 outstanding women of the world." She presented one collection of the dolls to the Chicago Historical Society and a collection of 129 figurines depicting famous Illinois women to the Illinois State Historical library.
Mrs. Schmidt retired in 1943 because of poor health, but the women and children to whom she had been a fairy godmother never forgot her. She leaves a son, Edward.
Services will be held at 2:30 p. m. tomorrow in the chapel at 2114 Irving Park rd.
Chicago Daily Tribune
Dec 10, 1961
p. A19
It also included a photo of Minna.
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Minna Schmidt, age 95, Dec. 8, 1961, wife of the late Julius; mother of Edwin and the late Helmut; grandmother of five; great-grandmother of 10; great-great-grandmother of two; sister of Eugene Moscherosch of Germany. Funeral Monday, 2:30 p.m. at Grein Funeral Directors. 2114 Irving Park road. Interment Wunders. JU 8-6336.
Source: Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec 10, 1961, p. A19
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EWHP Database
Minna Schmidt (Moscherosch)
Back
Birth Date March 18, 1866
Birthplace Sindelfingen Germany
Death Date December 08, 1961
Death Location St Mary's Hospital, Chicago Illinois, USA
Summary Minna Schmidt was an authority on the history of clothing. She owned the largest costume rental business in early 20th century Chicago. She also opened the Chicago Schmidt College of Scientific Costuming for the research and reconstruction of costumes. Schmidt lectured at the University of Chicago in the department of home economics from 1930-1937 and was the author of numerous books such as 400 Outstanding Women of the World & Costumes of Their Time (1933).
Significance Minna Schmidt was an artist who turned an interest in costumes into the largest costume rental business of the early 20th century. Born Minna Moscherosch in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart Germany in 1866, she immigrated to America at the age of 20. After arriving at Ellis Island, she travelled by rail to Chicago to start a tutor / caretaker job with a Chicago family. Her long time love arrived from Germany several years later and together they started a family in Chicago. As a means to an end, Schmidt taught dance and acting in her spare time, designing and manufacturing the necessary costumes for amateur plays and pageants. The demands of her creative endeavor soon became a full time occupation so Schmidt left her tutor / caretaker job and opened up the countries first shop dedicated to costumes and wigs, quickly growing the business into a thriving enterprise. The success of her company allowed Schmidt to pursue other interests and at the age of 58 she earned her Bachelors Degree from Kent School of Law and went on to earn her Masters in 1929. Schmidt compiled a list of 400 outstanding women in history and produced dolls for each of them for the 1933 World’s Fair, illustrating women in ethnic apparel. The collection was donated to Trinity College in Washington DC and she authored a book on the subject titled 400 Outstanding Women of the World and Costumology of Their Time. Schmidt was considered an early feminist because of her views about women supporting the structure of society. Her dedication to costumology is her tribute to the motherhood and sisterhood of the world.
Father Wilhem Moscherosch
Mother Friedericke Leondhardt
Spouse(s) and Occupation(s) Julius Schmidt(Tavern Owner)
Children Two; Edwin (1889), Helmut (1894)
Education Kent College of Law, MA in Law: 1929 Kent College of Law, BA in Law: 1924 Volksschule: Primary School
Years in Evanston 1927-
Sources EHC Bio Files Who's Who in Illinois: Women Makers of History Margaret Corwin, "Minna Schmidt: Business Woman, Feminist, Fairy Godmother to Chicago" in Chicago History, Winter 1978-79 Schmidt, Minna 400 Outstanding Women of the World and Costumes of Their Time (1933) Schultz, Rima Lunin, and Adele Hast, eds. Woman Building Chicago, 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary." Bloomington, IN: University Press, 2001.
Organizations
None
Professions/Avocations
None
Primary Address
2715 Sheridan Road
http://www.epl.org/ewhp/display.php?bioid=6
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11 Sep 2018 - Descendants of Minna Moscherosch donate one of Minna's figurines
to the Stadtmuseum in Sindelfingen (in German)
https://www.bbheute.de/nachrichten/ein-schaetzle-kommt-nach-hause-12-9-2018/
https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.sindelfingen-das-us-erbe-der-beruehmten-sindelfingerin.385cdc2b-b81c-498a-a1fc-93c086c392c9.html
http://www.leonberger-kreiszeitung.de/inhalt.sindelfingen-das-us-erbe-der-beruehmten-sindelfingerin.bc4cdd5d-f1f0-4fae-8f0f-6055dffd2c8d.html
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Biography, German:
http://www.zeitreise-bb.de/sindelf/sindelf/gesch/mosch.html
Promotional leaflet:
http://www.mainstreetfinebooks.com/shop/mainstreet/26587
Brief biographies of the figurines on display in the Illinois State Historical Library:
http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/isl/id/20270/rec/30
The Doll Collectors of America, INC. American Made Dolls & Figurines 1940:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Doll-Collectors-America-INC-American-Made-Dolls-Figurines-1940-/280872770764
Lot: 386. Wonderful Collection of 32 Historical Dolls:
http://www.theriaults.com/default/index.cfm?LinkServID=F1F6B52C-BDB9-3413-D6B0A7098C7BF120&cid=127&r=390&aid=35593
http://www.proxibid.com/asp/LotDetail.asp?ahid=409&aid=32276&lid=9477627#topoflot
Portrait photo:
http://www.heritage-images.com/Preview/PreviewPage.aspx?id=2490611&pricing=true&licenseType=RM
Wunders Cemetery tour:
http://l.b5z.net/i/u/6029620/f/Messenger_June_2010.pdf
EWHP biography:
http://www.epl.org/ewhp/display.php?bioid=6
various Moscherosch genealogy:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/l/i/e/John-Liegl/BOOK-0001/0018-0001.html
Karl
Held
