Clara B. Welles: A New Woman for a New Century, by Sharon S. Darling

Clara Barck Welles in 1906.

Clara Barck Welles is best remembered as a Chicago entrepreneur whose Kalo Shop launched a generation of Chicago area silversmiths and jewelers. But she was also a prominent leader in advancing women’s suffrage and increasing women’s participation in the arts in Illinois. 

Although Welles’ name evokes silver products defined by elegance and luxury, she was a self-made businesswoman with humble beginnings. Clara Pauline Barck grew up in a family of six daughters. Her father John had emigrated from Finland around 1850, when it was under the rule of Russia; her mother was a native of Switzerland. John was a shoemaker in the village of Ellenville, New York, when Clara was born on August 4, 1868. When she was ten years old, the family moved to a farm in Oregon City, near Portland, Oregon. Her father died when she was 15, leaving the women to run the farm. After high school, Clara worked as a weaver at the Oregon City Manufacturing Co. for several years. After completing the course at the Portland Business College in 1890, she worked as a bookkeeper and then in sales at large department stores in Portland and San Francisco. 

Clara’s coming of age coincided with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the 20th century. The term “New Woman,” first used in 1894, stood for the progress of middle-to-upper class women’s increasing self-sufficiency, and her movement from the home to the workplace. The concept of the New Woman captured the interest and imagination of writers and image makers alike. Articles appeared in magazines, journals and newspapers and set off debates pro-and-con about the evolving role of women. Despite the uproar, there was widespread agreement that women should be trained to be self-supporting. And, like Clara, many young women identified paid work as a major vehicle of woman’s emancipation.

In 1898, with her share of proceeds from the sale of the family farm, Clara left Oregon to enroll in the Department of Decorative Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This was a new degree program, primarily attracting women, that offered training in art and design, along with crafts such as pottery, jewelry making, and graphic design. 

The Kalo Shop

Clara received her degree in June 1900, and within weeks launched a business with five of her fellow graduates. I had always assumed that Clara was older than most of her classmates. But it turns out that four of the partners in the new business were at least 30 years old. So, it appears that the women who founded The Kalo Shop on September 1, 1900, were all New Women serious about utilizing their new skills in the arts and crafts. They choose the name Kalo, from a Greek word meaning “to make beautiful.” They designed book plates, jewelry, and textiles, and worked in metals and leather. Since she had a business degree, Clara was the logical manager.

Clara standing by the Kalo Shop window in 1937. The shop operated at 222 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, from 1936 through 1970.

By the time Clara married Park Ridge resident George S. Welles in 1905, most of Clara’s original partners had moved on to other endeavors. That year she incorporated the Kalo Shop with the backing of several women investors. In 1906 she moved the workshop to Park Ridge, where the couple operated the Kalo Arts Crafts Community in a large rambling farmhouse. They produced a variety of salable crafts, while operating a popular school that taught classes in jewelry and metalworking. Utilizing her marketing skills to promote the enterprise, she organized traveling exhibitions and lectured to women's clubs and organizations on her favorite topic, “Woman in the Arts and Crafts.” 

Clara actively campaigned for the betterment of industrial conditions affecting women. After all, she had first-hand experience, having been a factory worker and a shop girl for a decade before becoming a business manager and owner.  In 1912, she was one of 32 women organizing the Park Ridge Improvement Association (now the Twentieth Century Club) and served as its first president. In addition to educating her neighbors about the need for women to have the vote, Clara led the women in agitating for cleaner alleys, better food sanitation, and other civic improvements. At the time, she was described as “a woman with the two necessary talents for leadership – executive ability and the power of imagination to formulate new endeavors.” 

Paralleling her involvement in Progressive politics was her role in the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association. In 1912, she served on its executive board and was chairman of the state’s publicity committee. In the association, she worked closely with many of Chicago’s most famous women. Board members included social workers Jane Addams and Mary McDowell, and society leaders like Mrs. Medill McCormick and Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen.

Suffrage Parade in Washington, 1913

In 1913, the Illinois Association decided to send a large delegation to Washington to march in a big suffrage parade on March 3, one day before the inauguration of President-elect Woodrow Wilson. Clara, as state publicity chairman, was made head of the Illinois delegation. She sent out invitations to all the leagues and associations in the state and designed buttons, banners, pennants, and costumes. 

Clara arranged for a special train to take the women to Washington. She was determined they would enjoy all the comforts provided for male politicians when they traveled, except smoking. And, with ladylike decorum. “We shall talk over a cheerful cup of tea and listen to suffrage speeches,” she told reporters, but “refrain from saying anything unkind about our opposition, like calling them dishonest and liars.” In Chicago, mounted police and a band led the women as they marched down Michigan Avenue to the train station to leave for Washington. 

Clara, holding flag, with members of the Illinois delegation preparing to leave Chicago for the suffrage march in Washington, D.C., in March 1913. Clara designed the bonnet and sash worn by the Illinois women in the suffrage colors of yellow and white.

Thousands of spectators turned out for the parade in Washington. As the women marched, the crowd, large composed of unruly men, was allowed to insult, jeer, spit upon, and abuse the marchers without even an attempt on the part of the police to restrain them, reported the Chicago Tribune, which also noted that the Illinois women were the best drilled of any of the delegations.

According to one participant, “Things were said to women that I can’t repeat. Mrs. George Welles is the only one from Illinois who was caught hold of. She was at the head of the band, keeping time with the baton, and a man grabbed her. She brought the baton down on his head in perfect time, and he let her go.”

The women’s experiences led to major news stories, and even congressional hearings, but resulted in little action. However, the parade gave the suffrage movement a new wave of inspiration and purpose. In June 1913, Governor Edward F. Dunne signed the Illinois Municipal Voting Act that gave women the right to vote, making Illinois the first state east of the Mississippi to do so. 

But it was not a complete victory. Illinois women could now vote for presidential electors, mayor, aldermen and most other local offices, but not for governor, state representatives, or members of Congress. That would have to wait until the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920.

Although Clara resigned as publicity chairman after the march, she continued to support suffrage activities. In July 1914, a group of prominent Chicago society women hosted a “self denial” drive. They donated gold and silver trinkets to be converted into bullion to raise money for the national suffrage campaign. The melting pot was installed in the Kalo Shop, with Clara in charge. With Mrs. Medill McCormick, wife of the managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, serving as mistress of ceremonies, the event was attended by nearly 100 women, each of whom dropped a piece of gold or silver into the melting pots.

Clara, center, melting silver and gold objects in the Kalo Shop on Self-Denial Day in 1914

Clara’s work with the suffrage movement and her involvement in the arts paid double dividends. She understood that independent businesswomen were most likely to be successful if they could exploit a niche market catering specifically to other women. Handwrought silver and jewelry were luxury items, and Clara’s friendships with the city’s civic and social leaders resulted in publicity and patronage for the Kalo Shop.

As Clara became more involved with women’s suffrage, cracks surfaced in her marriage. In 1916, when Clara filed for divorce, she shocked the court when she asked for no alimony, saying that she was a businesswoman with a good income, and that George had no business whatsoever. Clara consolidated the Kalo shops retail and manufacturing operations in Chicago.

Occupational Therapy Pioneer

In 1918, when the First World War ended, Clara became the first person in the United States to begin training teachers to instruct crippled soldiers returning from France. In a letter to her sister Wilhelmine Duniway, Clara wrote “I was chosen because of my vocational training, my experience in handling men, and because of my understanding of the economic value of the work.” As a first step, she suggested training teachers in a practical workshop, and offered her own shop and services

The Kalo Shop flourished in the 1920s, employing 36 workers. But in the 1930s, the Great Depression took its toll, reducing the number of workmen to four. In 1936, Clara moved her retail shop to Michigan Avenue, a new location that offered greater visibility for the shop’s products. It remained in the same spot for the next 34 years. 

Clara moved to San Diego, California, in the 1940s. Although in her 70s, she was only partially retired, and periodically returned to Chicago to check on the shop’s activities. In San Diego, she was heavily involved in local politics and campaign activities. She organized a group called the Republican Minute Women to map out plans for candidates to win local and national campaigns. 

In 1959, when she was 91, Clara gave the Kalo Shop to its four remaining employees. They continued the business until January 1970. 

Clara died in her 96th year on March 14, 1965. Although no physical monument commemorates her life, Clara Barck Welles would have been pleased to know that work from the Kalo Shop is widely appreciated by collectors, and that women have assumed powerful roles in politics today.