Lilian Evelyn Gilbreth: Leading the Way in Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Lilian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth was an American industrial engineer and psychologist. She was known as the first female engineer with a Ph.D. and the first industrial and organizational psychologist. Together with her husband Frank, the Gilbreths are experts in human factors and motion study.

Gilbreth was born on May 24, 1878 in Oakland, California. She earned his doctorate degree at Brown University after she failed the compliance requirements of University of California. Her dissertation was entitled “Some Aspects of Eliminating Waste in Teaching”.

While working as an industrial engineer, Gilbreth helped her peers to understand the psychological dimensions of work. She did it through a synthesis of scientific management and psychology. The Gilbreths believed that Frederick Winslow Taylor’s revolutionary ideas were not sufficient and were not easy to implement. They came up with a constructive critique of Taylor’s ideas.

Together with her husband, Gilbreth established the Gilbreth Inc. to provide consulting services in the fields of time and motion. Through this consultancy company, the Gilbreths did in-depth researches in fatigue study and became the forerunners of ergonomics.

Amadeo Giannini: Story of Success Through Difficult Times

Amadeo Pietro Giannini was an American banker who was more popularly known as the founder of Bank of America. He was also known as A.P. Giannini or Amadeo Peter Giannini. He was born on May 6, 1870 in San Jose, California. His parents immigrated from the Kingdom of Sardinia (now a part of Italy) to the US to take part in the California Gold Rush of 1848-1855.

Giannini’s father, Luigi, was murdered by an employee over a pay dispute in 1876. His mother, Virginia, took over the family’s business until Giannini was an adolescent. In 1880, Virginia married Lorenzo Scatena, who founded the L. Scatena & Co. Giannini dropped out of school and worked for l. Scatena & Co. as produce broker.

When Giannini became successful in his career, he married Clorinda Cuneo. His father-in-law was a wealthy real estate businessman. Giannini retired at 31 to take care of his father-in-law’s estate, including his interest in the Columbus Savings and Loan. Giannini became a director of the bank. While there, he noted the opportunity to service the burgeoning immigrant population, however, the other directors did not share Giannini’s sentiments. In his frustration, Giannini resigned from the bank’s board to start his own bank.

On October 17, 1904, Giannini established the Bank of Italy. The bank started in a converted saloon in San Francisco, which Giannini called “an institution for the ‘little fellow’. His bank serviced the hardworking immigrants which were ignored by other banks.

When an earthquake hit San Francisco in 1906, Giannini opened a temporary bank that collected deposits and released loans. Immediately after the earthquake, Giannini moved his vault to protect it from fires caused by the earthquake. While other banks closed for weeks, Giannini was the only one who provided loans.

By 1916, Giannini opened began branching out. He believed that branch banking would help stabilize his bank during hard times, like what happened in San Francisco in 1906. He acquired a number of banks in California, bringing the number of his bank’s branches to more than five hundred.

Giannini sealed a merger with Bank of America in 1928. The merger kept the name of Bank of America. Giannini was credited for a number of banking principles, including the holding company structure.

Carolina Bucci’s Woven Gold Jewellery Takes the Spotlight

If there’s one thing Italian designers are known for, it’s their creativity, innovation and above all, passion for their craft. This has rung true for Carolina Bucci, one of the world’s most prominent jewellery designers, and still rings true today. A native of Florence, Bucci has made her name synonymous with luxury and contemporary taste, creating classic, timeless pieces.

Carolina Bucci grew up in a family that crafted gold jewellery. Having been exposed to the industry at an early age, Bucci took up jewellery design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She then began working for other labels before creating her own, using traditional techniques employed by her grandfather – particularly the weaving of gold and silk threads that became the Bucci signature. With a flagship store located in Belgravia, London, Carolina Bucci jewellery is available at high-end department stores such as Harrods, Bergdorf Goodman, Luisa Via Roma and other similar stores.

Caroline Reboux: The Girlish Milliner Turned Artist

The great country of France is known for many things: culture, literature, art, food, architecture and of course, fashion. As one of the world’s largest fashion capitals, Paris has always been the converging point of many a young artist or designer hoping to make his or her mark on the industry. This comes as no surprise, as many of the major couture houses and celebrated fashion figures are French, one of them being Caroline Reboux, who made her name in one of the most creative branches of fashion – millinery or hat-making.

Born in Paris in 1837, Caroline Reboux already had the French passion for fashion in her blood, fostered all the more by her environment. The daughter of a noblewoman who had come upon hard times and a literary man, Reboux taught herself the art of hat-making and with her talent and skills, created a whole new form of artistic hats that quickly gained public notice. Opening shop at Avenue Matignon in Paris, Reboux soon found herself a favorite among celebrated clientele, including Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich who popularized Reboux berets, the Princess Pauline von Metternich and the Empress Eugenie. Contemporary milliner Lilly Dache trained with Reboux to perfect her own craft.

Caroline Reboux is credited with having nourished the roots of haute couture fashion in her hats. She later expanded to open shops in other areas of Paris and in London, then trained others to establish shops in New York and Chicago. Dubbed the “Queen of the Milliners”, Reboux was the first designer to add a veil to a woman’s hat, the inventor of the cloche hat made famous in the 1920s and reinvented straw hats. She collaborated with Europe’s leading fashion names and theatrical production companies, designing unique yet wearable hats as well as costume headwear. While most of Reboux’s work is now on display at the Musee de la Mode et du Textile in Paris, she has remained an icon in millinery and a strong example of the power of imagination.

Elbert Gary: A Stern County Judge with a Soft Heart for Workers

Elbert Gary is an American industrialist and lawyer. He was born in 1846 in Wheaton, Illinois. He became a popular lawyer and his popularity led him to become a mayor of Wheaton. He was also a two-term county judge and became known as Judge Gary.

Gary was instrumental in the founding of the American Steel and Wire Company. In 1898, JP Morgan appointed Gary to form the Federal Steel Company. He also organized the US Steel Corporation in 1901, where he served as chairman of the board. He held the position until his death in 1927.

As the chairman of US Steel, Garry possessed a dominant personality. He was hands-on with the company’s physical expansions. He pioneered the implementation of management cooperation policy. He held what were called “Gary dinners” where he discussed policies and informal agreements.

The US government tried to dissolve the monopoly of Gary’s company but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gary in 1919. Gary believed that employees deserved high pays and were entitled to benefits that promote their welfare and safety. Gary also introduced employee stock ownership.

John Gates, aka Bet-a-Million

John Gates was known as a Gilded Age industrialist for having pioneered the promotion of barbed wire. Gates, who also earned the moniker “Bet-a-Million”, was born on May 18, 1855 in Winfield, Illinois. He started his career in 1876 as a salesman of San Antonio, Texas-based barbed wire company Washburn-Moen.

A little later, Gates moved to St. Louis, Missouri to join Southern Wire Company. In 1888, Southern Wire merged with Braddock Wire Company and formed the Consolidated Steel and Wire Company. By 1898, Gates has monopolized the wire industry in the US.

Gates co-founded a Texas company which is known today as Texaco Oil Company. Gates also played a significant role in the development of port Arthur City, Texas when he took over the helm of Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad in 1899. According to reports, he forced the previous owners and Port Arthur founder Arthur Edward Stilwell into bankruptcy which resulted to his takeover of the company.

On the downside, Gates was known as a compulsive gambler. He was first called “Bet-a-Million” in 1900 in an England horse race where he bet and won $600,000. The winning was rumored to have escalated to more than $1 million; thus the nickname “Bet-a-Million”. When he was on a train trip from Chicago to New York, Gates joined a marathon poker, a game which lasted for one week. In another occasion, Gates lost a million dollars in a betting game – which of two raindrops on a glass window would be first to reach the bottom.

Gates died of an unsuccessful surgery to remove a tumor on his throat in 1911 in Paris, France. His wake was held in New York’s Plaza Hotel and was buried in Woodland Cemetery. In memory of Gates, his widow funded Port Arthur’s Gates Memorial Library. The library used to be Port Arthur’s public library. Today, it is the campus library of Lamar Sate College.