62 - The Journey of Ollie Monroe - Part 2

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Today we’re finally going to continue our journey to explore the amazing career of Olive Monroe. Since it’s taken a little longer than I’d hope to finish Mrs. Monroe’s story, if you need  to refresh your memory about how this all started, here’s a link to Part 1 of Ollie Monroe’s story.

First, let’s talk a little about her ads. Below we see Mrs. O.H. Monroe’s special deal offered in 1891 to any woman who could show that she voted in an election in Kansas (remember, women had the right to vote long before the U.S. Federal law changed):

Mrs. Monroe was really brilliant at creating eye-catching ads. Here’s an example from later in her career, when she was running a studio with one of her sons. Her use of a photo montage is quite striking and somewhat unusual for the period.

But then, photo montages were something of her specialty. She used some excellent examples in  two photo books she produced when she lived in Elyria, Ohio, in 1903 and 1906:

1. Elyria 1903 book: Picturesque Elyria. Her enterprising citizens and her industries
   This entire book is freely available on the Internet archive – click here  to access it.

Among the many photos by Mrs. Monroe in the book we find a photo of Mrs. Monroe herself, pictured on the page with all the prominent business women in town:

Click here to see that full page in the book, which includes not only the photos of the women, but all information about them and their businesses.

2. 1906 book: Lorain County Ohio, her Beautiful Children, Progressive People and Marvelous Development, by Mrs. O. H. Monroe. You can find information here about the book, but there is currently no online copy freely available.  There’s a digital version that has been available in the past behind the paywall at the Ohio Geneological Society Digital Library. If you can find a copy of the book, it has come great images that make you feel like you’ve step back in time into the life of the town.  You’ll even have a chance to “stop by” Mrs. Monroe’s studio, as there are photos of that and other businesses in town.

Also, as I mention in this episode, the  Lorain County Historical Society (@LorainCountyHistoricalSociety)  published a piece about Mrs. Monroe’s 1906 book back in November as part of their #FamilyResearchFriday series. Click here to view their post, which includes a nice example of one of the baby montages by Mrs. Monroe. Mrs. Monroe wrote this book as well as took most of the photos;  as I mention in the episode, 2 of her sons also contributed photos and artwork.

Now, in an odd twist, I happened to notice today that  p.134