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Harriet Hubbard Ayer: An American Society Matron, Cosmetic Entrepreneur, & Journalist (Women's History Series)
3/4/2002
By Amy Yard
It was her face cream, a secret recipe that she allegedly found in Paris, that landed her on the map. While she may be best known for being the first of many women to make a fortune in the cosmetics industry, Harriet Hubbard Ayer (1849 - 1903) lived larger than the title of cosmetic entrepreneur. She was also a wife, mother, society matron, journalist and author.
Ayer’s life began in Chicago, where she was born and educated. That life quickly turned into an unhappy one. Her father died in 185; her mother was semi-invalid. And at the age of 16 she married Herbert Crawford Ayer, who became the father of Ayer’s 3 children—the second of whom died tragically as a baby in the Chicago Fire in 1871.
Despite the tragedies, Ayer lived as a wealthy society matron between 1866 and 1882. She became a patron of the arts, cultivating an intense passion that eventually led to her separation from her husband in 1882.
Her failed marriage didn’t hold Ayer back; she moved to New York immediately after the separation. When her husband’s business failed in 1883, she supported herself by working as a saleswoman in prestigious furniture shops.
Three years later, once Ayer’s divorce was finalized, she began her life as an entrepreneur, manufacturing and selling her facial cream. Claiming that she discovered this secret formula in Paris, she publicized widely (and very successfully) that it was used by none other than Madame Recamier, the famous salon hostess and society maven in late 18th- and early 19th-century Paris, known for her great beauty and charm. Factual or not, the publicity worked, and Ayer became the first of many women to make a fortune from the cosmetics industry.
During her reign as a cosmetics expert, she was noted for her Puritanism, especially in regards to "odours" and perfumes. Quoted as stating, "Fastidious women are as delicately refined in their selection of sweet odours as in every other personal appointment. A high-bred woman does not associate herself with musk or patchouli. The shadow of the clear pungent lavender may precede her but the most sensitive, refined women shrink intuitively from the odours that attract the parvenu. Some of us, in these days of musk and suffocating rose, have frequently wished the promiscuous use of these powerful odours might be restricted."
Although Ayer was on top of the entrepreneurial ladder for a while, her happy times soon turned sour once again.
She lost everything due to a feud with one of her sponsors, the father-in-law of her daughter Harriet. He initiated litigation, claiming she was too unstable to manage the business, and eventually had her placed in a New York lunatic asylum in 1893. Although her lawyer obtained her release 14 months later, her business career was over.
In traditional Ayer fashion, she rebounded as a journalist upon her release and began writing a beauty advice column for the New York World from 1896 until her death. During this time, Ayer also published a bestseller, Harriet Hubbard Ayer's Book: A Complete and Authentic Treatise on the Laws of Health and Beauty (1899). After her death, Ayer’s legacy lived on as her daughter Margaret succeeded her column.
In addition to these varied accomplishments, she is also immortalized in an Eastman Johnson (1824-1906) painting ( see it here), where she sat for a portrait as a society matron in 1881.
SOURCES: Ayer, Harriet Hubbard (1849 - 1903), The Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography http://www.xrefer.com/entry/359241 ;
M.H. Ayer: The Three Lives of Harriet Hubbard Ayer (1957);
http://www.vivelavie.com/mastergate/secured/fashion/100perfumes.htm .
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