K-State’s Justin Hall gallery features exhibit about Kansas City garment giant Nelly Don
Monday, October 29th, 2007
MANHATTAN — The story of Nelly Don — the woman, the company and the legend — is being told in an exhibition at Kansas State University.
Kansas-born Ellen Quinlan Donnelly Reed, better known as Nelly Don, was a pioneer in the clothing industry and a political force in mid-20th century Kansas City. In 1949, the woman-friendly Donnelly Garment Company factory was the world’s largest dress manufacturing plant.
The exhibit, “Nelly Don: Dresses That Worked for Women,” is built around K-State’s Historic Costume and Textile Collection and items on loan from Terence and Heather O’Malley, the University of Missouri at Columbia, Randy Bray and Union Station in Kansas City. Terence O’Malley is Nelly Don’s great-great nephew.
Nelly Don garments offered style, quality, fit and fine workmanship at moderate prices, said Marla Day, curator of K-State’s Historic Costume and Textile Collection.
“Her story is a dramatic one, filled with success, loss, tragedy and triumph,” Day said. “Her company was one of the most influential garment companies in the U.S. and she was one of the first female self-made millionaires in America,” Day said.
Exhibit hours 1:30-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Tuesdays, and 1:30-5 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays. The exhibit, in 328 Justin Hall, closes Nov. 11. Admission to the gallery is free.
More information on the K-State’s Nelly Don collection is available in the Winter 2007 Focus Newsletter.
Source: Marla Day, 785-532-1328, mday@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Jane Marshall, 785-532-1519, jpm2@k-state.edu
This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 and is filed under Events.