Wikipedia

Myrtle Fahsbender

Myrtle Ernestine Fahsbender (January 12, 1907 – May 1, 2001) was an American lighting expert. She was director of home lighting at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, where she worked from 1936 until 1970.

Myrtle Fahsbender
A young white woman with light hair cut in a wavy bob with a sidepart
Myrtle Fahsbender, from the 1928 yearbook of the University of Illinois
Born
Myrtle Ernestine Fahsbender

January 12, 1907
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedMay 1, 2001 (age 94)
Freehold Township, New Jersey, U.S.
OccupationLighting expert

Early life and education

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Fahsbender was born in Chicago, the daughter of Ernest Fahsbender and Sophia Carlberg Fahsbender. Her father was a barber, born in Germany, and her mother was born in Sweden. She graduated from the University of Illinois in 1929,[1] with further studies at the Moser Business College in Chicago.[2] She was a member of Kappa Delta sorority.[3]

Career

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Fahsbender began her career as a stenographer. By 1942, she was director of home lighting in the lamp division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation in New Jersey.[4] She retired from Westinhouse in 1970.[5]

Fahsbender gave talks and wrote articles about residential lighting, often aimed at women decorating or updating homes,[6] or at professional decorators and landscape designers.[7][8][9] For example, in 1939, she gave a lectures about the effects of blacklight on patterned fabrics.[10][11] During World War II, she presented ideas for home blackout procedures at the Chicago Lighting Institute, and to audiences of air raid wardens.[4][12] Also during the war, she wrote an instructional booklet with photographs, on repairing frayed electrical cords and changing fuses.[13] She studied domestic lighting fashions in six European countries in 1951,[14] and made a national lecture tour in 1956.[2]

In 1948, Fahsbender was the first woman elected to a directorship in the Illuminating Engineering Society, and the second woman to be named a fellow of the society.[15] In 1951, she was the first American woman delegate and presenter at the International Commission on Illumination, a gathering of lighting engineers in Stockholm.[16] In 1963, she received the first Salute to Women in Electrical Living award, from the New York chapter of the Electrical Women's Round Table, and the New York State Department of Commerce.[17]

Publications

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  • "Keeping the Blackout Outside Your Home" (1942, pamphlet)[4]
  • Residential Lighting (1947, a textbook)[18][19]
  • "An Evaluation of Methods and Fixtures Used for Bathroom Mirror Lighting" (1947, with Beryle Priest)[20]
  • "Better See-Ability" (1952, booklet)[21]
  • "'Light' Work for Your Eyes" (1952)[22]
  • "The Forecast is a 'Light' Christmas" (1956)[23]

Personal life

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Fahsbender was engaged to marry Ernest V. Goller in 1933.[24] She died in 2001, at the age of 94, in Freehold Township, New Jersey.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Myrtle Fahsbender Heads Commerce Party for Women". The Daily Illini. September 28, 1928. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b "Myrtle Fahsbender to Conduct Home Lighting Clinic Wednesday". Abilene Reporter-News. January 15, 1956. p. 38 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Benefit Chairman". Chicago Tribune. March 29, 1931. p. 53 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b c Massee, Kate (December 26, 1942). "Women in War Work". Chicago Tribune. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b "Myrtle Fahsbender of Freehold, 34 years with Westinghouse". The Star-Ledger. May 4, 2001. p. 124 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Petty, Margaret Maile. "Threats and Promises: The Marketing and Promotion of Electric Lighting to Women in the United States, 1880s–1960s." West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture 21, no. 1 (2014): 3-36.
  7. ^ "Woman Lighting Expert to Speak in City Tomorrow". The Daily Times. February 7, 1955. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Myrtle Fahsbender to Discuss Lighting". The Sunday News. November 19, 1961. p. 71 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Trim Your Tree the Expert Way to Save Trouble". The Daily Notes. December 21, 1959. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Myrtle Fahsbender Gives Address on 'Black Light'". The News. March 2, 1939. p. 52 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Lighting Specialist to Talk at School No. 25". The Morning Call. March 1, 1939. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "'Don't Sit in Dark' is Blackout Rule". Chattanooga Daily Times. April 23, 1942. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ McCarroll, Marion Clyde (May 17, 1943). "FIx It This Way". The Waukesha County Freeman. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Richards, Alice (December 3, 1951). "U.S. Not Too Bright with Lighting Designs". The Atlanta Journal. p. 23 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Woman is Elevated as Society 'Fellow'". Press of Atlantic City. September 14, 1954. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "200 Attend Opening of Home Buyer Series". The Sunday News. March 17, 1957. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Soloway, John (June 11, 1963). "Jersey Business". Star-Ledger. p. 21 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Walton, Clarence (September 24, 1947). "Book Markers". p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Fahsbender, Myrtle (1947). Residential Lighting. Internet Archive. D. Van Nostrand Company.
  20. ^ Fahsbender, Myrtle, and Beryle Priest. "An Evaluation of Methods and Fixtures Used for Bathroom Mirror Lighting." Illum. Engg 42 (1947): 999-1024.
  21. ^ "Booklet Guide on Home Light". Daily News. June 18, 1952. p. 67 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Fahsbender, Myrtle. "'Light Work for Your Eyes" Southern Planter (October 1952): 24-25; via Virginia Chronicle.
  23. ^ Fahsbender, Myrtle. "The Forecast is for a 'Light' Christmas" Adams Outlet 5(10)(December 1956): 4-5.
  24. ^ "Myrtle Fahsbender, E. V. Goller, Arrange September Wedding". The Daily Illini. September 10, 1933. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
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