Daisy E. Nirdlinger

Daisy E. Nirdlinger, Gerhard Sisters Photo, 1914

Daisy Ella Nirdlinger (March 14, 1879 - May 28, 1950) was the first president of the Women's Advertising Club of St. Louis and an author of children books.^[1]

Early life

Daisy Nirdlinger was the daughter of Maximillian Nirdlinger, Sr. (1846-1902), a writer and inventor. Her mother was Julia Marie Myerson (1852-1908), of St. Louis. Nirdlinger was born on March 14, 1879 at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where her paternal grandfather, Frederick Noerdlinger Nirdlinger (1810-1873), was one of the first settlers and the city's most noted philanthropist. She had six siblings: Samuel Lambert (1871-1902), Maude Louise (1872-1971), Eli Frederick (1874-1875), Clarence Dawson (1876-1950, married Marion Hollway), Maximilian (1881-1966, married Elsie Florence Hoffner and Adelaide E. Ernst, an architect of some notoriety in Philadelphia)^[2], Albert Patrick Gabriel (1887-1952, married Nellie Turner).^[3][4]

Nirdlinger received a convent school education in Milwaukee, and took a post-graduate course in Literature at Drexel University, Philadelphia.^[3]

Career

Daisy Nirdlinger's business career began at the beginning of the 1900s as a solicitor for a well-known advertising company. After two years she accepted the position of advertising manager of the Mercantile Trust Company, and while with this company founded and edited the first trust company monthly magazine, "The Mercantile." At the end of a year she purchased an interest in and was made secretary and treasurer of the Fisher-Steinbruegge Advertising Company, which was incorporated around that time, with three officers and four employes. Ten years later the organization had twenty-five people employed, and was the only advertising agency in St. Louis that, under one roof, could produce copy, designing, engraving and printing for every class of advertising.^[3]

Nirdlinger's work consisted of calling upon the St. Louis manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, in the capacity of an advertising counselor. If they were national advertisers or had a product that can be profitably advertised to the consumer, she talked Agency service — the planning and placing of the copy in newspapers, magazines, farm papers, or other mediums, as the case may require. If they were users of catalogues, booklets, circulars, and special advertising literature, she could execute that part of the work perfectly. With the modern equipment of her company. Nirdlinger could handle a simple envelope and enclosure printed in one color, or an elaborate trade catalogue of three hundred pages. She had arranged and delivered complete catalogues, illustrating men's and women's fashions, shoes, stoves, machinery, fire-brick, toys, jewelry, automobiles and beautiful designed booklets on numerous subjects.^[3]

Nirdlinger was the author of a series of books for children as "D. Ella Nirdlinger": Althea, or, the children of Rosemont plantation (illustrated by Egbert Cadmus (1868-1939), published by the Benziger Brothers in 1908)^[5], Dear Friends and The Alvoyds. The first book in the series was adopted by the Commissioners of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition as the official souvenir for young people.^[3] Egbert Cadmus was the father of Paul Cadmus, American artist best known for his egg tempera paintings of gritty social interactions in urban settings, and Fidelma Cadmus, who married Lincoln Kirstein, a philanthropist, arts patron, and co-founder of the New York City Ballet.^[6][7]

Nirdlinger was the first president of the Women's Advertising Club of St. Louis: active membership were open only to women who were and had been, as a means of livelihood, actually engaged for a period of at least three years, in one of the phases of advertising (creation, production, executive).^[8]

Nirdlinger was volunteering at the Guardian Angel Settlement Association, Tenth and Menard Streets, where she conducted business women's literary class. The motto of the class was "Let me live by the side of the road and be a friend to man." Founded in 1859 by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, as an orphanage for young girls Guardian Angel Settlement Association is one of the longest-enduring charitable organizations in the St. Louis area.^[9] She was also volunteering at the Methodist Episcopal Home, 4310 Morgan Street, an honor home for girls, where she conducted weekly class in good reading. The Methodist Episcopal Home project was the beginning of a new system for the lending of a helping hand to the helpless when they needed it most.^[3]

Nirdlinger was one of the founders of the Papyrus Club, one of the earliest writers' clubs in St. Louis, and was also a member of the Vortex Club. The purpose of this organization was the mutual advancement and benefit of the business trade or profession of its members, by trading or doing business, one with the other, in order to develop a close comradeship.^[3] The Vortex Club became a Lions Club charter on July 25, 1917.^[10]

Personal life

Daisy Nirdlinger died on May 28, 1950 and is buried at Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne.^[4]

References