Women at Work

Grace Fisher, 1888-1954

Considered a brilliant businesswoman, Grace M. Fisher was a true pioneer in downtown Cumberland’s development as an entertainment center. From the mid-1920s and well into the late 1950s she was a dominant figure in Cumberland’s movie theatre establishment. Those who knew her credit this success to her knowledge of films, technology, and business dealings within the movie theater and film industry.

Donna S. Edwards, Labor Leader and Women's Trailblazer

Women Active In Business Life Of Cumberland

Women as shop owners or business heads were few in the earlier history of the city. It has only been in the last few decades that the feminine invasion in the fields of commerce or the professions has been noted, and the exact number would be difficult to state, since so many women are identified with their firms although their names do not appear.

Early Business Women

It was not that long ago when the only newspaper positions commonly available to females were that of fashion or women's page editor, and their only bylines appeared in the social section. Today, women constitute a major portion of the Cumberland Times-News editorial staff.

On May 4, 1987 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that women could not be excluded from Rotary on the basis of gender. The Rotary Club of Cumberland was established in 1921. Sixty-seven years later, in 1988, Anne Gormer became the first female member. Shirley Giarritta and Carolyn Brown also joined that year. In 1994 Amy Schwab-Owens was elected as the Cumberland Rotary Club's first woman President. (Al Feldstein had served as President in 1993 and Amy was his First Vice-President.)

Clockwise from top left -Anne Gormer, Carolyn Brown, Amy Schwab-Owens, and Shirley Giarritta

The Maryland Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW/MD) was chartered in 1929. Cumberland, whose charter is also believed to have been established in 1929, is the second "local" BPW chapter within the state organization (with Baltimore being the first). The following article and Cumberland BPW photograph are from the Cumberland Times-News, September 25, 1988:

BPW CHAPTER SETS CONFEREENCE OCTOBER 1, 1988 AT FSU Cumberland Sunday Times - September 25, 1988

Cumberland Times-News

June 26, 2014

Memorial Hospital School of Nursing celebrates 60th anniversary

In 1954, students were to bring full slips and cotton undergarments, black stockings and shoes and a plastic or rubberized apron for anatomy lab.


Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND -- The 1954 class of Memorial Hospital School of Nursing recently celebrated 60 years of nursing at the Cumberland Country Club.

Memorial Hospital nurses celebrate 50-year class reunion

Marthalena Irby, clinical instructor, 93, is special guest

GRANTSVILLE — Armed with photographs and memorabilia, former nurses from the Memorial Hospital School of Nursing class of 1963 gathered at Penn Alps restaurant Friday to celebrate their 50-year reunion.

About 32 people were in attendance at the reunion including spouses, some of whom traveled from California, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Cumberland Nursing Schools - Memorial and Sacred Heart

Cumberland's former hospitals, Memorial and Sacred Heart, both had training schools for nurses. Memorial and Sacred Heart Hospitals affiliated in 1996 to form the Western Maryland Health System. Below is a brief history of the two hospitals and the nursing programs.

The following business ads, placed by women, appeared in an 1899 publication entitled, Cumberland, Its Industries and Its Men

-       Mrs. A.M. Hodell, 54 Baltimore Street, millinery and manufacturer of hair goods such as wigs, toupets, bangs, switches, doll wigs, and ornaments.
-       The Maryland House, on Queen City Pavement, is one of the most home-like, pleasant, and well-kept stopping places in Cumberland. Conveniently located, a table abundantly laden, and beds that are soft and clean. Your landlord, Mrs. Sutton.