Mary Shannon Strudwick was born in Columbus, Ohio, 1908. She graduated from the Columbus School for Girls in 1926 and attended Smith College for two years before she left to marry Austin Shannon, 1928. The two divorced in 1939 and she also had a short-lived second marriage. After spending many years as a single woman, she married again in 1976 to the actor Sheppherd Strudwick, who died in 1983. Professionally, Mary Shannon Strudwick was a self taught fashion designer and consultant. She got started in the profession by helping her first husband in his interior design business. After moving to New York City in 1939 she sold fashion ideas to stores. Later, when she was living in La Luz and Sante Fe, New Mexico, she designed store windows and displays. After World War II she moved back to New York, became an ad agency executive, and later worked for Macy's, Bonwit-Teller, and other retailers. As the founder and driving force behind "Mary Shannon, Inc.," which existed from 1949-1956, she consulted with industry leaders, most notably Cone Mills, on the styling and promotion of textiles. Strudwick also acted as a consultant for the American Craftsmen's Council, Catalina, and Levi Strauss. Her most notable achievement was her pioneering effort to promote denim as "fashion."

The Mary Shannon Strudwick Papers consist of four volumes of scrapbooks and one volume of her self-published memoir, Mary Telling. The scrapbooks, like the memoir, document the story of Strudwick's life from 1929-1994, and are artfully arranged. Many photographs of Strudwick's family, her travel, and her design work, along with fabric samples, are interspersed within the text. The collection could be a useful source for researchers interested in women's careers in business in the mid-20th century, the fashion industry, retailing, advertising, and marketing.

NOTE: The container list for this collection is available in the Sophia Smith Collection. Please contact us to request a copy.