October 1880 – Move to Saratoga Street

Founders
Isabella Tyson, Mary T. King, Mary N. Perry, Mary Stow, and Anne T. Kirk

“For the purpose of endeavoring by sympathy and practical aid to encourage and help needy women to help themselves by procuring work for them and establishing a salesroom for the sale of woman’s work and otherwise”

Source:
“Fifty Years of Utilizing Home Work.” The Baltimore Sun, 28 Dec. 1930.

Margaret Wilson Brown (Mrs. J. Harman) converted her victorian parlor to an Exchange.

Margaret Wilson Brown (Mrs. J. Harman)

Mrs. J. Harman established the Woman’s Industrial Exchange from her home on Saratoga Street for the purpose of helping Baltimore women obtain financial security following the devastation of the Civil War. She was born on December 26, 1811 and died on August 22, 1888. She married J. Harman Brown, who worked for the Register of Wills in Baltimore City. Harman was a Quaker.

When Mrs. Harman opened the Exchange, local women were encouraged to bring in their own consignments to sell to improve their financial situations after being left widowed or without fathers or male relatives who supported the family through their own income.

“Mrs. Brown justified their hopes by promptly converting her Victorian parlor into an exchange where her friends could- and did- buy and sell.  In addition to their treasures, the needy consignors also made and sold fine needlework, hand-painted articles, bread, cake and cookies.”