Bowden Pioneer Museum in BOWDEN Alberta, Canada

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The Irene Wood Avon Collection:

Over 6000 piece acquired from Irene Wood of Red Deer, Alberta in August of 2003.

The Avon Story
American pioneers split rails to build homes, mined gold in far away California, built railways: hardy, dedicated people.
And Avon's name is linked to those pioneers. There were no cosmetics when Avon started; no beauty industry existed. There were no creams, no lipsticks, no face powder.
In 1886 David H. McConnell, owner of a door-to-door book business had an idea. To not only manufacture products of rare quality and to sell them through direct sales to consumers in their homes but he sought to use saleswomen a truly radical concept in 1886. In those days everyone knew a woman's place was in the home answering doors, not knocking on them.
What would they sell? He chose perfume. He named his new business the California Perfume Company in honor of the first investor, a friend who had moved to California.
The Legacy of Mrs. Albee:
Mrs. P.F.E. Albee, a 50 year old widow and friend of the McConnells, who needed money to support her brood. Mrs. Albee, a native of New Hampshire, traveled the large New England territory by train and by horse drawn wagon; and during this period she also recruited other ladies who eagerly sought work in their own towns.
Ladies in long skirts and poke bonnets began knocking on doors, first in New England then in the middle West, launching a tradition that today continues to echo on millions of doors around the world.

The legacy of Mrs. Albee, the first ‘Avon Lady' lives on. As the pioneer of the ‘Avon Calling' tradition she has the title ‘Mother of the California Perfume Company'.
In 1928 with distribution spreading into almost every one of the 48 states, it was decided that the name California Perfume Company was too regional for such a far reaching Company. With the development of a new line of products call ‘Avon' the name was extended to all of the Company's products by November 1936.
Irene began collecting Avon in about 1972 while attending various Conventions throughout the States.