Woman of the Week - Mary Phelps Jacob

For the next few months, we’ve decided to dig into the CR4 archives and expand upon some blog posts from 2007. Back then, we published a series of lists of women inventors and now we will write full blog posts about those who have yet to be featured. Do you know of a great person to be a subject? Let us know!

Mary Phelps Jacob, who was better known as Caresse Crosby, was the first recipient of a patent for the modern bra. She also spent most of her life as an American patron of the arts, and as a publisher and peace activist.

She was born in 1891 in New Rochelle, New York. Her family had a rich background with relatives ranging from knights of the Crusades and inventors. Her immediate family wasn’t extremely wealthy, but they could afford leisure activities like sailing and commissioning portraits.

At 19, she was getting ready for a debutante ball. In tradition, she put on a corset that used whalebone to keep its shape and cinched her waist as small as possible. For many women, a corset squeezed their waist as small as 16 inches and the tightness often lead to fainting. While she stood tall, breathing was difficult as was the case for many women of the time.

She decided to come up with a solution to the uncomfortable corset. She fashioned a simple brassiere out of two handkerchiefs and ribbon. After debuting her idea, her friends flocked and wanted one for themselves. She decided to pursue the concept.

In February 1914, she filed a patent for her invention. By November, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted her a patent for the 'Backless Brassiere.’ The design had shoulder straps and was able to be adjusted for comfort and around what kind of dress a woman chose.

The design was both comfortable and supportive enough that it was viewed as "so efficient that it may be worn by persons engaged in violent exercise like tennis."

While she wasn’t the first to file a patent for an undergarment like this, her idea took off the fastest.

In 1920, she founded Fashion Form Brassière Company and opened her manufacturing shop on Washington Street in Boston. She and another woman manufactured the product. However, running a business was not something she had any interest in.

So, she sold the brassiere patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for $1,500 (about $25,600 today).

When World War I began, women started working in factories and filling in other jobs while men were fighting the war. The need for comfortable practical undergarments became even more in demand.

The U.S. War Industries Board also asked women to stop buying corsets to free up metal for war production. The comfortable, wireless design was a perfect solution. This came after she sold the patent, but her idea has proven itself popular even to this day.

Her first husband, Harry Crosby left her a significant amount of money. Crosby committed suicide in 1929 alongside a young girl he was having an affair with. News reports speculate that they died either by both killing themselves or in a murder-suicide, but no one knows for sure.

For the remaining years of her life, she dedicated herself to writing, publishing and art. She also founded politically charged programs such as Women Against War and Citizens of the World.

She died in 1970 due to complications of pneumonia.