1. Bertha Matilde Palmer was an American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist.
34 Facts About Bertha Palmer
1. 2.
Bertha Palmer was the wife of millionaire Potter Palmer and early member of the Chicago Woman's Club, as well as president of the Board of Lady Managers.
3.
Bertha Palmer is most known for her work during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, as well as her donation of her impressionist art collection to the Art Institute of Chicago.
4.
Bertha Palmer's family moved to Chicago in 1855, when Bertha was six years old.
5.
Bertha Palmer was one of six children, and the oldest of the Honore daughters.
6.
Bertha Palmer was a graduate of Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, and attended St Xavier Academy.
7.
Bertha Palmer graduated in 1867 with high academic achievements which included multiple fields of science, literature, and algebra.
8.
Bertha Palmer married the Chicago millionaire Potter Palmer in 1870.
9.
Bertha Palmer was a Quaker merchant who had come to Chicago after failing twice in business.
10.
Bertha Palmer made customer service a priority and carried everything from dry goods to the latest French fashions for ladies.
11.
Bertha Palmer sold his vast store to a consortium, and it would eventually become Marshall Field's.
12.
Bertha Palmer then opened a luxury hotel, Bertha Palmer House, and invested in real estate, eventually owning a vast portfolio of properties.
13.
Bertha Palmer had to rush off to wire the east so that Palmer could re-establish credit, borrow money and rebuild his holdings.
14.
Shortly after the fire, Bertha Palmer changed Potter Palmer's mind about leaving Chicago.
15.
Bertha Palmer was unusually poised for one so young, and together, the Palmers re-established their fortune.
16.
Bertha Palmer was an early member of the Chicago Woman's Club, and part of the General Federation of Women's Clubs; this group of working women met to discuss social problems and develop solutions.
17.
Bertha Palmer was an early member of the Fortnightly Club of Chicago, alongside Jane Addams and Ellen Martin Henrotin, and was a patron of the Women's Trade Union League that worked to start unions and safe working conditions for factory girls.
18.
Bertha Palmer approved of Jane Addams' work at Hull House and gave aid when needed to the civil service.
19.
Bertha Palmer was a socialite women who followed the problems and difficulties of the classes lower than her own.
20.
Women had a large presence in the fair and the plum position was the President of the Board of Lady Managers, which Bertha Palmer was selected to lead in 1891.
21.
Apparently, it was Bertha Palmer who chose the theme of "Primitive Woman" and "Modern Woman" for the two murals and Hallowell and Bertha Palmer's first choice for both murals was Elizabeth Jane Gardner, an experienced academic painter and the paramour of William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
22.
Bertha Palmer enjoyed her role as a cultural leader and tastemaker.
23.
In 1905, Hallowell finally convinced Mrs Bertha Palmer to sit for Rodin.
24.
Bertha Palmer's husband indulged her and did not mind that she was in the limelight.
25.
Bertha Palmer traveled throughout Europe, dining with kings and queens and mixing with industrialists and statesmen.
26.
Potter Palmer dictated in his will that a sum of money should go to whoever next married Bertha.
27.
Bertha Palmer maintained homes in London and Paris and, following her husband's death in 1902, rumors abounded that she would marry a titled man.
28.
Bertha Palmer became a progressive rancher, land developer, and farm developer who introduced many innovations to encourage the Florida ranching, citrus, dairy, and farming industries.
29.
Bertha Palmer was one of the first famous people to winter in Florida, beginning a now-common practice.
30.
Bertha Palmer encouraged wealthy friends and associates in her international social circles to spend winters along Sarasota Bay and her other Florida land interests and promoted the development of many land parcels; today much of that land is still known as Palmer Ranch.
31.
Bertha Palmer proved herself to be an astute businesswoman: within sixteen years after her husband's death, she managed to double the value of the estate he had left her.
32.
Bertha Palmer died of breast cancer on May 5th 1918, at her winter residence, The Oaks, in Osprey, Florida.
33.
Bertha Palmer's body was returned to Chicago to lie in state at the Castle, the sumptuous mansion Potter Palmer had built on Chicago's Gold Coast.
34.
Bertha Palmer is buried alongside her husband in Graceland Cemetery.