One fateful day in the mid-1930s, Edith Lucy Hogan hurried up Peach Street. She was headed to a popular restaurant her friends had been talking about. On her lunch hour, she soon arrived at Howard’s Dinor at 11th and Peach for a quick meal. In her early 20s and single, Edith was a clerk in the accounting offices of the ‘Boston Store,’ a large department store in Erie, PA. Said to be ‘good with numbers,’ she had quickly established herself as a valuable employee in the office. Sitting in the dinor having a look at the menu, her life was about to take an interesting turn.
20th Century Cultural Norms
In the early 20th century, women who worked outside the home were rare, and nearly all of them were young and unmarried. Like Edith, these women made up the bulk of the female workforce at the time, as societal expectations largely excluded married women from paid employment. As Janet L. Yellen notes in her 2020 Brookings essay, The History of Women’s Work and Wages and How It Has Created Success for Us All, “only 20 percent of all women were considered ‘gainful workers’ by the US Census Bureau, and of those, just 5 percent were married…
The fact that many women left work upon marriage reflected cultural norms, the nature of the work available to them, and legal strictures. The occupational choices of those young women who did work were severely circumscribed. Most women lacked significant education—and women with little education mostly toiled as piece workers in factories or as domestic workers, jobs that were dirty and often unsafe. Educated women were scarce. Fewer than 2 percent of all 18- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in an institution of higher education, and just one-third of those were women. Such women did not have to perform manual labor, but their choices were likewise constrained.”
Edith had dropped out of high school in the 11th grade. Her father had died in 1911 when she was just 1 year old. Her mother had remarried, but then her stepfather died in 1926 when she was 16. Needing to help support her family, Edith left Academy High School and entered the workforce, taking an entry-level clerical job at the Boston Store. Bright and with an aptitude for accounting, she quickly contributed to the various bookkeeping needs of the large store.
Fortunately for Edith, Yellen explains, “Despite the widespread sentiment against women, particularly married women, working outside the home and with the limited opportunities available to them, young women did enter the labor force in greater numbers over this period, with participation rates reaching nearly 50 percent for single women by 1930 and almost 12 percent for married women. This rise suggests that while the incentive—and in many cases the imperative—remained for women to drop out of the labor market at marriage when they could rely on their husband’s income, mores were changing.
Between the 1930s and the mid-1970s, women’s participation in the economy continued to rise, with the gains primarily attributed to an increase in work among married women. By 1970, 50 percent of single women and 40 percent of married women were participating in the labor force. Several factors contributed to this rise. First, with the advent of mass high school education, graduation rates rose substantially. At the same time, new technologies contributed to an increased demand for clerical workers, and women increasingly filled these roles. Moreover, because these jobs tended to be cleaner and safer, the stigma associated with working for a married woman diminished. And while there were still marriage bars that forced women out of the labor force, these formal barriers were gradually removed over the period following World War II.”
The Tiffany Girls
An excellent example of these slowly changing norms can be found within Tiffany & Company, specifically in the iconic leaded glass lamps and stained glass windows that Tiffany produced in New York City from the late 1800s to the 1930s.
Under the direction of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), Tiffany & Co. emerged as a leader in material innovation, particularly in the fields of stained glass and Art Nouveau jewelry. His pioneering work with iridescent glass, opals, and enamel introduced techniques that fused organic forms with rich, luminous colors. These materials—used in bold, light-catching combinations—became signature elements of the firm’s style and helped cement its reputation at the turn of the 20th century. Yet it was the striking stained glass lamps, crafted from these same innovative materials in the Tiffany glass foundries, that truly set the company apart in the decorative arts of the early 1900s.
While the lamp designs were previously assumed to be the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany and his male staff of designers, it has recently been revealed that this was not the case. Within his studios, there were other artists who, in fact, were the geniuses behind the lamp and other stained glass designs. Foremost among them was Clara Wolcott Driscoll (1861-1944), born in 1861 in Tallmadge, Ohio. Fresh from her education at the Cleveland Institute of Art and subsequently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Tiffany recognized her artistic potential. At the age of 27, in 1888, he hired her to work at the Tiffany Glass Studios.
Clara quickly became an essential member of the Tiffany Studio. However, engaged or married women were not allowed to work at the company, so Driscoll had to leave when she married in 1889. Three years later, her husband, Francis Driscoll, died in 1892, and she was able to resume her work at Tiffany & Co. By the early 1900s, she was not only designing lamps and lampshades but also managing a large department of young women—known as the “Tiffany Girls”—which numbered 35 at one point. She remained at Tiffany Studios for another 16 years until her marriage to Edward A. Booth in 1909. She was then required to leave again and was never able to return to Tiffany. Slowly changing cultural norms still had a long way to go.
It has been confirmed that we have Clara to thank for more than thirty lamp designs produced by Tiffany Studios, among them the Wisteria, Dragonfly, Peony, and, from all accounts, her first — the Daffodil, the design of which she created on her lunch hours. Today, these lamps are featured in important collections worldwide, often bringing auction prices of well over $1 million each.
With credit to Mr. Tiffany, the female studio designers, while remaining relatively anonymous, were paid on par with his male designers. Clara gained some recognition when Tiffany entered one of her lamp designs at the Paris International Exposition in 1900. A 1904 New York Daily News article mentioned that Mr. Tiffany had credited her with designing the Dragonfly lamp that had won a prestigious prize at the Exposition.
Howard’s Dinor
Turning back to Erie, Howard’s Dinor located at 1109 Peach Street was established in 1931 by Paul Howard (1898-1983), the great-grandson of Levi Howard (1812-1869), who first settled at Howard Falls. The children of Levi T Howard (1873-1974) and Mattie Hinds Howard (1878-1966), Paul, his four brothers, Lawrence, Leroy, and Kenneth, Perry, and his sister, Dorothy, were raised at Howard Falls.
The Howard family also operated a butcher shop at the Erie Central Market with Levi T Howard and his son, Leroy Howard (1904-1977) as proprietors. That fateful day, while Edith Hogan was having lunch at the Howard Dinor, in walked Leroy Howard, delivering meat and produce to his brother, Paul. The paths of Edith Hogan and Leroy Howard had finally crossed.
Out of The Great Depression
While in her 20s, Edith and her mother enjoyed trips to major venues across the eastern US. That love of travel to see new places would stay with her for the rest of her life.
In 1933, Edith, her mother, and her three brothers traveled to the Chicago World’s Fair, “A Century of Progress.” Designed largely in Art Deco style, the theme of the Fair was technological innovation, and its motto was “Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms,” conveying the message that science and American life were closely intertwined. Its architectural symbol was the Sky Ride, a transporter bridge perpendicular to the shore on which one could ride from one side of the Fair to the other.
One description of the Fair noted that the world, “then still mired in the malaise of the Great Depression, could glimpse a happier not-too-distant future, all driven by innovation in science and technology.” The exposition “emphasized technology and progress, a utopia, or perfect world, founded on democracy and manufacturing.”
In 1936, the Great Lakes Exposition was held in Cleveland, OH, commemorating the centennial of Cleveland’s incorporation as a city with a theme of “The Romance of Iron and Steel.” Conceived as a way to energize a city hit hard by the Great Depression, it highlighted the progress that had been achieved in the Great Lakes region in the last 100 years and indicated the path for future progress. Spanning over 135 acres of Cleveland’s lakefront, the Fair featured numerous attractions, including rides, sideshows, botanical gardens, cafes, art galleries, and much more.
Living only 100 miles away in Erie, it doesn’t sound like something Edith and her mother would miss! Indeed, in that year, Edith and her mother visited the Cleveland Museum of Art, which had opened just two decades earlier in 1916. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, just south of where the Great Lakes Exposition was held, the museum was already gaining a reputation for its impressive and growing collection. At the time, visitors could view significant holdings in Asian and Egyptian art, as well as notable examples of European painting, classical antiquities, and decorative arts.
In the image below, Edith and her mother are pictured seated in the Fine Arts Garden located in front of the museum. A space designed to connect visitors with the cosmos through art and nature. The sculptures throughout the garden symbolize cosmic and planetary forces, rendered in bronze and marble.
The garden itself was the result of a 1923 initiative by the Garden Club of Cleveland, whose library was housed at the museum. Seeking to enhance the museum’s outdoor setting, the Club commissioned the landscape architecture firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, best known for designing New York’s Central Park. They are seated at the Fountain of the Waters, created by American sculptor Chester Beach and carved from fine Georgia marble. The main sculptural groups represent the waters flowing into Lake Erie and out from the land, while the fountain’s central basin symbolizes Lake Erie itself. High-relief carvings of children on the north and south faces of the fountain represent the flowers that grow along the riverbanks.
In 1939, Edith and her mother traveled east to experience the New York World’s Fair and to visit other sites in the metropolitan area. The Fair included exhibitions, activities, performances, films, art, and food presented by 62 nations and 35 US states and territories, with 1,400 organizations and companies participating. Its theme was based on “The World of Tomorrow,” with an opening slogan of “Dawn of a New Day.” The 1,202-acre fairground consisted of seven color-coded zones, as well as two standalone focal exhibits incorporating about 375 buildings.
One of the venues that drew their attention was the Glass Incorporated Pavilion, which featured the shared history and contemporary applications of materials made from glass. A mirrored cube was located at the pavilion, and Edith took the opportunity to take a clever 1939 ‘reflective selfie’. She also posed outside of the Italian Pavilion, below a cascading 150-foot waterfall. Perhaps her visits to Howard Falls by then had made her particularly fond of cascading water!
Edith’s “Dawn of a New Day”
The details of what exactly transpired after Edith and Leroy met that day in mid-1930s at the Howard’s Dinor will never be known, but their relationship developed, for on June 21, 1937, they eloped to Brocton, Chautauqua, New York. There must have been serious discussion between them about planning their marriage, and for the following two years, they kept their marriage a secret from all but their very closest family.
The reason for this secrecy was simple; even in the late 1930s, the Boston Store would still not employ married women, and Edith would have been terminated. Thus, Edith continued to live at home, while Leroy moved into an apartment at 413 West 29th Street, just a few blocks away. The arrangement was not ideal, but they managed to keep their union a secret for about two years.
The 1940 US census indicates that in the Fall of 1939, Edith had lost her job at the Boston Store and was unemployed. In addition, Edith and Leroy had taken an apartment together at 620 West 5th Street, where they would reside for the next five years. Their marriage was no longer a secret. While details are lacking, indications are that Edith had become pregnant with a child in 1939 and had to reveal her marriage. Whether the Boston Store terminated her or if she resigned is not known. However, she would go on to lose this pregnancy and needed time to recover from that tragedy.
The impending involvement of the United States in World War II was imminent, and societal mores began to change much more rapidly. Women were increasingly needed in the workplace as men joined the armed forces. Again, for reasons unclear, the Boston Store reached out to Edith in late 1940 and offered her a position back in the accounting department, which she accepted. Now, with the US fully involved in the War, her position was more secure. The value of women in the workforce had finally been accepted.
In 1944, Edith became pregnant again and, by mid-year, had voluntarily resigned her accounting position. In September, she gave birth to what would be her only child, a son born on September 26, 1944. Edith took the next 5 years off from her employment. During this time, she and Leroy bought a home at 1063 West 31st Street and settled in to raising their son.
In 1949, a chance encounter with her former accounting manager resulted in the Boston Store offering her the position of head bookkeeper, which she accepted. Edith would go on to have a full and rewarding career at the store, finally retiring in 1975 with 46 years of service. During these years, Edith had witnessed firsthand how women gained acceptance in the workplace, and she was incredibly proud of the years of service she had dedicated to the Boston Store.
Legacy
Howard’s Dinor in downtown Erie provided the crossroads for the chance meeting of Edith and Leroy, and all that followed; the legacy of that union lives on. Levi and Mattie Hinds Howard had a family of six sons and one daughter, but only one son had children, and their daughter had one daughter who never married. Thus, the only child of Edith and Leroy was also the only grandson of Levi and Mattie, and the progenitor of all of the current Howard descendants that call Howard Falls “Home.” Thank goodness for Howard’s Dinor.
Paul Howard on the left, with friend
DDHoward
May 2025
Citations:
Yellen, J. L. (2020, May 7). The History of Women’s Work and Wages and How It Has Created Success for Us All. Brookings.
Eidelberg, M. P., Gray, N., Hofer, M. K. (2007). A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls. United Kingdom: New-York Historical Society.