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Myrtle Fahsbender

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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

(1907-01-12)12 January 1907
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died1 May 2001(2001-05-01) (aged 94)
Freehold Township, New Jersey, U.S.
OccupationLighting expert

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.

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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