THE SILENT PARTNER: MARY MEHAGAN HILL AND THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY

At a time when large corporations were just becoming commonplace and the term “corporate wife” was more than a half-century from entering the vernacular, Mary Mehagan Hill, spouse of Great Northern Railway founding partner and president James J. Hill, exemplified what many in modern American busines...

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Main Author: Christiane Taylor
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Economic & Business History Society 2006-06-01
Series:Essays in Economic and Business History
Online Access:http://ebhsoc.org/journal/index.php/ebhs/article/view/169
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author Christiane Taylor
author_facet Christiane Taylor
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description At a time when large corporations were just becoming commonplace and the term “corporate wife” was more than a half-century from entering the vernacular, Mary Mehagan Hill, spouse of Great Northern Railway founding partner and president James J. Hill, exemplified what many in modern American business would come to view as the good corporate wife. Her diaries and private correspondence between 1884 and 1920 reveal that she ably performed the business functions company executives expected corporate spouses to perform: the evaluative, the motivational, and the diplomatic. Although her public face never betrayed that she undertook these tasks reluctantly, she fulfilled her corporate duties so well that her obituary called Mary her husband’s “silent partner.”
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spelling doaj.art-231544cc13e146f1b9366862cce17d0e2022-12-21T18:24:13ZengEconomic & Business History SocietyEssays in Economic and Business History0896-226X2006-06-01241THE SILENT PARTNER: MARY MEHAGAN HILL AND THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAYChristiane TaylorAt a time when large corporations were just becoming commonplace and the term “corporate wife” was more than a half-century from entering the vernacular, Mary Mehagan Hill, spouse of Great Northern Railway founding partner and president James J. Hill, exemplified what many in modern American business would come to view as the good corporate wife. Her diaries and private correspondence between 1884 and 1920 reveal that she ably performed the business functions company executives expected corporate spouses to perform: the evaluative, the motivational, and the diplomatic. Although her public face never betrayed that she undertook these tasks reluctantly, she fulfilled her corporate duties so well that her obituary called Mary her husband’s “silent partner.”http://ebhsoc.org/journal/index.php/ebhs/article/view/169
spellingShingle Christiane Taylor
THE SILENT PARTNER: MARY MEHAGAN HILL AND THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY
Essays in Economic and Business History
title THE SILENT PARTNER: MARY MEHAGAN HILL AND THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY
title_full THE SILENT PARTNER: MARY MEHAGAN HILL AND THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY
title_fullStr THE SILENT PARTNER: MARY MEHAGAN HILL AND THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY
title_full_unstemmed THE SILENT PARTNER: MARY MEHAGAN HILL AND THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY
title_short THE SILENT PARTNER: MARY MEHAGAN HILL AND THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY
title_sort silent partner mary mehagan hill and the great northern railway
url http://ebhsoc.org/journal/index.php/ebhs/article/view/169
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