Martha Matilda Harper is the inventor of the international retail franchising concept and the reclining shampoo chair and cutout sink.
Indentured at the young age of seven, Martha Matilda Harper would remain a Canadian servant with few objective prospects to change her life. Yet, when Harper’s last Canadian employer died and bequeathed his proprietary hair formula to her, she seized the recipe and immigrated to Rochester, NY in 1882 where she remained a servant for six years.
Then, in 1888, she boldly opened the first beauty salon for women (a no-no in the Victorian era) and invented the first reclining shampoo chair and cut-out sink to assure customers their clothing would be spared from messing their lovely clothes or getting soap in the customers’ eyes.
Socialite Bertha Palmer from Chicago came to Rochester and fell in love with Harper’s Shop. She insisted Harper open a shop in time for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair so she could show it off.
After Palmer delivered written signatures from 25 of Palmer’s friends confirming they would patronize the Chicago Harper shop, Harper needed a means to fund her shop expansion. Since bank financing and venture capital were not readily available to women at that time, Harper conceived of a whole new system – international retail franchising, where she would control the training, products, methods, and select all franchisors who would pay for the privilege of being associated with the Harper Method. Not only did Harper successfully open that Chicago shop in time, but she had over 500 shops worldwide. Notably, Harper also pioneered social entrepreneurship since she insisted the first 100 of her shops had to go to poor women enabling them to change their lifetime prospects.
The Harper Method manufacturing arm was sold in 1972, but many retail Harper shops continued operating until 2008.
Her website: www.marthamatildaharper.org
Photos Courtesy of Jane Plitt
