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Montage of photos of 8 women inventors

Top row: Marion O'Brien Donovan, Tara Astigarraga, Madison Maxey, Marilyn Hamilton. Bottom row: Michelle Khine, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, Alexis Lewis, Ellen Ochoa

A sepia-toned 3/4 profile studio portrait photograph of Sarah Breedlove Walker, known as Madam C. J. Walker. She is wearing a shawl with tassels adorning the neckline, fastened with a brooch, and she wears drop earrings with matching necklace and a brooch.

Madam C. J. Walker

March 22, 2021 by Joyce Bedi

Throughout American history, women with diverse backgrounds and interests created inventions that change our lives every day.

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“Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come . . . get up and make them!”

Madam C. J. Walker

Sarah Breedlove McWilliams Walker (1867–1919), known professionally as Madam C. J. Walker, was born to parents who were once enslaved. She started life as a farm laborer and laundress, but became a pioneer of the modern African American hair care and cosmetics industry. 

Seeking to remedy her own hair loss, she invented a system of hair and scalp hygiene and treatment. She incorporated her company in 1911, and it grew into a successful international business that made her a millionaire. An innovator, entrepreneur, activist, and philanthropist, Walker once advised, "Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come . . . get up and make them!"

Listen to a two-part podcast with A'Lelia Bundles, Madam C. J. Walker's great-great-granddaughter >>

archivescenter-scurlock-walker-madam-cj-ac0618-001-0000033-450-inline-edit.jpg

A sepia-toned 3/4 profile studio portrait photograph of Sarah Breedlove Walker, known as Madam C. J. Walker. She is wearing a shawl with tassels adorning the neckline, fastened with a brooch, and she wears drop earrings with matching necklace and a brooch.

Madam C. J. Walker, Scurlock Studio, around 1912. Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, AC0618-001-0000033. © Smithsonian Institution

artifacts-walker-madam-cj-shop-sign-2014-4967-750-inline-edit.jpg

An orange metal sign with black lettering, reading “Authorized Agent (highlighted in yellow). Mme. C. J. Walker’s System and Preparations.” Mme. C. J. Walker’s is written in cursive across the diagonal of the sign, from lower left to upper right. The other words are written in block letters.

Shop sign advertising “Madam C. J. Walker’s System and Preparations,” 1920s. © Smithsonian Institution; photo 2014-4967 


Source for quote above: A’Lelia Bundles, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker. New York: Scribner, 2001: 153.

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  • Woman’s Building, 1893 World’s Fair

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