Journalist, writer, suffragist, home economist, food historian, business consultant
Notable work
The Art of Tablesetting
Claudia Quigley Murphy (1863-1941)[1] was an American journalist, home economist, food historian, business consultant, and suffragist.[2] She was included in the 1893
A Woman of the Century.
Early life and education
Murphy was born to Edward and Eliza (Sidley) Quigley in Toledo, Ohio, on March 28, 1863. She studied at
Ursuline Convent of the Sacred Heart from the age of 5 until 1881. From 1881 she studied medicine with
Elmina M. Roys Gavitt, but "her eyes gave out".[2]
Career
Around 1888 she began working as a journalist, becoming the Toledo correspondent for the Catholic Knight, a Cleveland newspaper, and then managing editor for the Michigan Catholic of Grand Rapids. She helped organize the Michigan Woman's Press Association. She worked as a staff writer for the Toledo Commercial and then as editor and publisher of the Woman's Recorder, which had a suffragist mission. In December of 1891 she was the Ohio president of the International Press League. She was active in the
women's equality and
suffrage movements.[1][2][3]
She became a home economist, advisory counsel, and business consultant.[4] She advised the Women's National Economic Committee.[4] She was a "lecturer on
House Sanitation" at the
University of Tennessee and wrote a regular column on the subject for Success magazine.[5]
How to Make the Best Preserves, Jellies and Marmalades
A History of and Suggestions in the Making of Biscuits, Quick Breads and Cake
Bread, the Vital Food: Illustrated with Plates on Copper from Authentic Sources, Including a Glossary of Bread Terms, Also a Selected List of General and Historical References to Bread
A Collation of Cakes: Yesterday and Today (1923)
Personal life
In 1883 she married Michael H. Murphy.[2][7] They had a daughter, Helen, born in 1887. Murphy's husband died in 1913 and her daughter in 1917 at age 29. Murphy died October 2, 1941, and is buried in
Woodlawn Cemetery.[7]
^
abFoley, Margaret (1920). "She Created Her Own Job: How Mrs. Claudia Quigley Murphy Became an "Economic Consultant"".
The Green Book Magazine. Story-Press association.