Research Catalog
Bettie Esther Parham collection
- Title
- Bettie Esther Parham collection, 1945-1981.
- Author
- Parham, Bettie Esther
Available Online
Items in the Library & Off-site
Filter by
1 Item
| Status | Container | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schomburg Center to submit a request in person. | Folder 1 | Mixed material | Use in library | Sc MG 496 Folder 1 | Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives |
Details
- Description
- 1 folder.
- Summary
- The Bettie Esther Parham collection contains information about the company she founded, the National Beauty Supply Company. The products of its subsidiaries are represented via advertisements and price lists. There are a few scattered letters regarding business expansion in the United States and Nigeria, as well as a list of equipment needed for the company's branching out to Nigeria and a "A Plan for the Development of Esther Parham Products in the United States and Africa," 1977. Financial and personal documents, and the pamphlet "How to Get Money through Positive Thinking" by Parham complete the collection.
- Subject
- Parham, Bettie Esther
- National Beauty Supply Company
- Hair preparations industry > United States
- African American women executives > New York (State) > New York
- African Americans in business
- African American women in the professions
- Leadership in women > United States
- Beauty culture > United States
- Cosmetics industry > United States
- Note
- Scrapbooks of Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
- Source (note)
- Esther Parham
- Biography (note)
- Parham was born and raised in North Carolina, and received degrees in education and chemistry. She took additional advanced courses at colleges in North Carolina and New York, and taught chemistry at Dillard University in New Orleans. She also wrote articles in newspapers and magazines in exchange for advertising space, and authored a pamphlet entitled "How to Get Money through Positive Thinking."
- Call Number
- Sc MG 496
- OCLC
- NYPG05-A0
- Author
- Parham, Bettie Esther.
- Title
- Bettie Esther Parham collection, 1945-1981.
- Biography
- Bettie Esther Parham was owner and founder of the National Beauty Supply Company and its subsidiaries, which provided products geared towards black women. Beauty products were made and sold to beauty shops, with a full line of cosmetics added for the consumer trade. The company operated out of New York City, and in the 1940's Parham became the first black retail owner on 125th street in Harlem. The subsidiaries were Esther Beauty Aids Company, manufacturing cosmetics; The Esther Beauterias, beauty salons in Brooklyn and Manhattan; and Esther Hair Goods Division, which manufactured wigs and other hair goods. In 1959 Parham became the first African American to expand her business to Africa by exporting her line of products to Nigeria. In the 1970's she entered the food business, marketing sauces.Parham was born and raised in North Carolina, and received degrees in education and chemistry. She took additional advanced courses at colleges in North Carolina and New York, and taught chemistry at Dillard University in New Orleans. She also wrote articles in newspapers and magazines in exchange for advertising space, and authored a pamphlet entitled "How to Get Money through Positive Thinking."
- Connect to:
- Added Author
- Parham, Bettie Esther. How to Get Money through Positive Thinking.
- Research Call Number
- Sc MG 496