The Primacy of Place, Collaborations, and Alliances: Mapping Women’s Businesses in Nineteenth-Century Brooklyn

Abstract

Seeking opportunity in nineteenth-century Brooklyn, thousands of women opened small businesses. Concentrated in the fancy goods, millinery, and dressmaking trades, they sought out the best locations on the busiest of commercial streets in the city’s growing and dynamic economy. Most failed within several years, unable to get the requisite credit or attract the volume of business necessary to sustain themselves. A small number, however, remained in business for decades. This article examines the strategies utilized by those who succeeded, focusing on the importance of the geographic locations they chose, the partnerships they forged with friends and family, and the products they marketed to argue that running a successful business required entering into a variety of collaborations. Even so, this exercise in mapping reveals that few women succeeded in growing their businesses into major enterprises.