The Seven Sutherland Sisters was a singing group which included the seven daughters of Fletcher and Mary Sutherland of Lockport, New York. [1] They appeared with Barnum and Bailey's from the late 1880s to the early 1900s. [2] Their distinguishing feature was their long hair; publicity about the length and texture of their hair enabled the Sutherlands to create a successful line of patent medicine hair and scalp care products. [3]
The Seven Sutherland Sisters was a family act from Niagara County, New York that performed worldwide to great acclaim. [4] Daughters of Fletcher and Mary (Brink) Sutherland, they started doing concerts with a brother in the early 1880s, and three years later the sisters were traveling with Barnum and Bailey's "Greatest Show on Earth." [4]
The children of Fletcher and Mary Sutherland included: [5]
Fletcher and Mary Sutherland were buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Lockport, as were most of the sisters. [6]
With fans fascinated by their hair, which reached a collective length of over 37 ft (11 m), Fletcher Sutherland went on to create a patent medicine, "The Seven Sutherland Sisters Hair Grower", which was mostly witch hazel and bay rum, along with traces of hydrochloric acid, salt, and magnesium. [3] [8] [9] The tonic quickly became a best seller, and the line of Sutherland Sisters hair products expanded to include a scalp cleanser, brushes and combs, and "Hair Colorators." [3] In addition to wholesaling their products to retail stores, they also made public appearances at retail outlets, and maintained several outlets of their own – "parlors" where customers could consult with a salesperson and make purchases—including one in New York City. [4] When Naomi died in 1893, the Sutherlands auditioned for a replacement, and hired Anna Louise Roberts to join their act. [6] Roberts made headlines in 1927 when she was over 60 and her husband and she became destitute as the result of a house fire. [10]
The Sutherlands resided in a mansion they built in Warrens Corners, New York, which burned down in 1938. [11] [12] Even though hairstyles changed over time, and the short hair of the flappers became fashionable in the 1920s, [6] the Seven Sutherland Sisters hair care products were successful for years after their singing act ended in the mid-1910s; print ads for them appeared in newspapers until the mid-1920s. [13]
Published accounts indicate that the sisters did not save or invest wisely, and some of them later became destitute. [6] When the last living sister, Grace, died in 1946 at age 92, she was buried in an unmarked grave. [6]
Cambria is a town in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 5,743 at the 2020 census. Cambria is an early name for Wales.
Phineas Taylor Barnum was an American showman, businessman and politician remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus with James Anthony Bailey.
Lockport is both a city and the town that surrounds it in Niagara County, New York, United States. The city is the Niagara county seat, with a population of 21,165 according to 2010 census figures, and an estimated population of 20,305 as of 2019.
A patent medicine is a non-prescription medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name, and claimed to be effective against minor disorders and symptoms, as opposed to a prescription drug that could be obtained only through a pharmacist, usually with a doctor's prescription, and whose composition was openly disclosed. Many over-the-counter medicines were once ethical drugs obtainable only by prescription, and thus are not patent medicines.
Minoxidil is a medication used for the treatment of high blood pressure and pattern hair loss. It is an antihypertensive and a vasodilator. It is available as a generic medication by prescription in oral tablet form and over the counter as a topical liquid or foam.
Birdsill Holly Jr. was an American mechanical engineer and inventor of water hydraulics devices. He is known for inventing mechanical devices that improved city water systems and patented an improved fire hydrant that is similar to those used currently for firefighting. Holly was a co-inventor of the Silsby steam fire engine. He founded the Holly Manufacturing Company that developed into the larger Holly Steam Combination Company that distributed heat from a central station and developed commercial district heating for cities in the United States and Canada.
A hot comb is a metal comb that is used to straighten moderate or coarse hair and create a smoother hair texture. A hot comb is heated and used to straighten the hair from the roots. It can be placed directly on the source of heat or it may be electrically heated.
Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone was an American businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist. In the first three decades of the 20th century, she founded and developed a large and prominent commercial and educational enterprise centered on cosmetics for African-American women.
Kinky hair, also known as afro-textured hair, is a human hair texture prevalent in the indigenous populations of many regions with hot climates, mainly sub-Saharan Africa, Melanesia, and Australia. Each strand of this hair type grows in a tiny, angle-like helix shape. The overall effect is such that, contrasted with straight hair, wavy hair, or curly hair, kinky hair appears denser.
Edwin Wiley Grove, commonly known as E. W. Grove, was an American business magnate, entrepreneur, and self-made millionaire. He founded the Paris Medicine Company, creating and producing its most well-known patent medicine products, Grove's Tasteless Chill Tonic and Laxative Bromo Quinine tablets. He later invested in and developed properties in cities in the southern United States, including Atlanta, Georgia, and Asheville, North Carolina.
The Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company, founded as Cowles Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company, and Cowles Syndicate Company, Limited, formed in the United States and England during the mid-1880s to extract and supply valuable metals. Founded by two brothers from Ohio, the Cowles companies are remembered for producing alloys in quantity sufficient for commerce. Their furnaces were electric arc smelters, one of the first viable methods for extracting metals.
Bird Millman O’Day was one of the most celebrated high-wire performers of all time. During the “Golden Age of the American Circus,” she was a premiere attraction with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
William John Aloysius Bailey was an American patent medicine inventor and salesman. A Harvard University dropout, Bailey falsely claimed to be a doctor of medicine and promoted the use of radioactive radium as a cure for coughs, flu, and other common ailments. Although Bailey's Radium Laboratories in East Orange, New Jersey, was continually investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, he died wealthy from his many devices and products, including an aphrodisiac called Arium, marketed as a restorative that "renewed happiness and youthful thrill into the lives of married peoples whose attractions to each other had weakened."
The Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company was a cosmetics manufacturer incorporated in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1910 by Madam C. J. Walker. It was best known for its African-American cosmetics and hair care products, and considered the most widely known and financially successful African-American-owned business of the early twentieth century. The Walker Company ceased operations in July 1981.
Martha Matilda Harper was an American businesswoman, entrepreneur, and inventor who launched modern retail franchising and then built an international network of 500 franchised hair salons that emphasized healthy hair care. Born in Canada, Harper was sent away by her father when she was seven to work as a domestic servant. She worked in that profession for 25 years before she saved enough money to start working full-time producing a hair tonic she invented. The product, and the creation of special hair salons that utilized it, was successful. Harper began franchising the salon model to low-income women, and by its peak the company included more than 500 franchises and an entire line of hair care products.
Brandon M. Stickney is an American journalist, author, and documentarian. He was a newspaper reporter at the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal from 1990 to 1995. He is the author of All-American Monster: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh and The Amazing Seven Sutherland Sisters: A Biography of America's First Celebrity Models. Released in late 2020, Stickney's memoir is The Five People You'll Meet in Prison.
Lyda D. Newman was a hairdresser and inventor who was also an activist for women's suffrage. She held a patent for a novel durable hairbrush with synthetic bristles.
Frederick Walter Fitch (1870–1951) was an American businessman who specialized in hair products.
Mary Anna Buck Evans, usually published under the name M. A. B. Evans, was an American poet.
