Discover Ellen Quinlan Donnelly Reed’s major contribution to 20th Century fashion in the story below!
Ellen/Nell Quinlan was born in Kansas in 1889, the daughter of an Irish immigrant railroad worker. She worked as a stenographer after graduating high school before marrying Paul Donnelly. She was then the only married student attending Lindenwood College.
Nell always wanted to look well dressed, even while working at home. Many women at the time wore cheap .69c dresses. Nell made ruffled dresses and aprons in hardwearing fabrics for herself, family and friends. In 1916, she started selling her designs to the Gregory Peck department store. Her first order was for 216 dresses which Nell and her neighbours made up in her attic. They sold out quickly despite being more expensive than the average housedress at $1 each.
In 1919, Nell and Paul established the Donnelly Garment Company. It grew rapidly in the 20s, becoming known for good fit and durability combined with attractive design. Nell made sure that her designs would look good on a wide range of sizes.
In 1927, Nell was voted the city's most illustrious businesswoman for her success in turning Kansas City into a successful ready to wear production centre. They remained successful through the Great Depression. By 1931, they had annual sales of $3.5 million and employed over 1000 people, mostly women.
Nell had a child out of wedlock in 1931, which Paul ended up officially adopting. Rather dramatically, she was kidnapped and held for ransom that December, which created a huge media sensation.
She and Paul got divorced in 1932 and he was removed as a shareholder in the company. She remarried in 1933, to Senator James A Reed, the father of her child who had also been involved in her kidnapping case! Paul also remarried but died by suicide at an asylum in 1934- that’s a whole other story!
During WWII, the company designed the pattern for and made many of the uniforms for women in the military and factories, and made all of the underwear for men in the US military. By the end of the war, revenues had reached $14 million.
Nell focused on her employees’ welfare, providing life insurance, medical fee support, a pension plan, an on-site cafeteria and medical care, and funded employees’ evening classes at the local college. She even started a scholarship fund for her employees children. Her factory became the first in Kansas City to have air conditioning! Her employees resisted joining the ILGWU until 1968.
By 1953, the company was the largest manufacturer of women’s clothing in the world. She retired in 1956 and the company was rebranded to Nelly Don and went public. Unfortunately, a subsequent owner was not as successful as Nell at running a business and it was bankrupted by 1978.
After her retirement, she was involved with many local organizations, donated land for conservation and served on the Kansas City School Board. She died in 1991 at the age of 102.
Nell was one of the first self-made female millionaires. Her company manufactured 75 million dresses from 1916 to 1978, making it the largest dress manufacturer of the 20th century. They were one of the first companies to apply assembly line techniques to clothing manufacturing.
A documentary film was made about the company titled “Nelly Don: A Stitch in Time” in 2006.
The Nelly Don musical debuted in Kansas City in 2019 and a film adaptation was released in 2023, both produced by Nell’s grand-nephew Terence O’Malley.
Below are some of the Nelly Don pieces in our rentals collection, along with some of their labels.
Nelly Don 1930s white wide leg pants ("Just Try One On" tagline):
1940s printed rayon day dresses:
1950s solid colour day dresses:
1960s dress and bolero jacket set:
