Amanda Melvina Lougee

Born: 1842, United States
Died: 1922
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA

The following is republished with permission from the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.

Amanda Lougee (1842-1922) was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts to Robert W. Lougee and Sarah Lougee. She worked for many years with her brother in the Clifton Manufacturing Company in its Hyde Park factory and took over the business when he died. At that time, the company was in the rubber gossamer field, but she expanded it to include the manufacturing of double textured clothing, mould work and electrical tape. She was one of the very few women at the time in charge of such a large enterprise. The Clifton Manufacturing Company employed over 275 people and in addition to the factory in Clarendon Hills in Hyde Park had offices in New York and Chicago.

Lougee was also an inventor. She earned many patents, including for electrical conduits, fireproof fabric, fireproof wire, and fireproof conductors. Her most widely used invention was for a method of covering buttons with cloth over metal; this became the precursor of political and all other kinds of advertising buttons.

Lougee was a prominent figure in the Boston suffrage movement. She served as treasurer of the Massachusetts Women’s Suffrage Association and worked with Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and others. Lougee was one of the women honored in 1920 at a celebratory dinner after the nineteenth amendment allowing women to vote was ratified.

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Posted in Activism, Activism > Suffrage, Activism > Women's Rights, Business, Inventor.