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Hickson & Company
| Name: | Hickson & Company |
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| Dates: |
1902 - 1920 (Life/Active Dates)
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| Biography/History: | Caroline “Carrie” Hickson Kennedy (c.1862-1915) was a fashion and hat designer, who went into the ladies’ apparel business in New York City in 1902 with her sister Kathryn (Kate) and brother Richard. The company began at 657 Fifth Avenue in New York City with an initial investment of $800 and was called Hickson & Company. Richard was credited as the company’s owner, but its success was attributed to Carrie’s business acumen, and, presumably, her designs. Later labels bore the address 436 & 438 Fifth Avenue, New York. Carrie, age 53, and Kate, possibly age 57, were on their way to the spring fashion shows in Paris aboard the Lusitania on 7 May 1915, when it was torpedoed by the Germans. Both sisters died in the incident, crushed by an errant lifeboat that pinned them and several others between the boat and the bulk head. Lost with the sisters was their wardrobe, furs and jewelry collection valued at $14,000. Richard Hickson was unable to manage Hickson & Co. without Carrie. He lost a $50,000 investment in a failed fashion magazine, and Hickson & Co. was gone by 1920. The courts rejected his claim that loss of Carrie’s genius and services caused the business to fail; they pointed out his “improvident financial ventures” and awarded him only the $14,000 value of wardrobe and jewelry lost in the disaster. All three siblings had been born and raised in Toronto, Canada; Carrie’s remains were recovered and buried next to her parents in Toronto’s Mount Hope Cemetery. |
| Related Objects: |
3096.1 (Dress, Wedding, Helen Campbell's Wedding Dress, 1917)
3096.1A (Dress, Wedding, Helen Campbell's Wedding Dress, 1917)
3096.1B (Dress, Wedding; Train, Helen Campbell's Wedding Dress Train, 1917)
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