Mary Ann Magnin (1850–1943) was a Dutch-American businesswoman. She was the co-founder of I. Magnin, an upscale "specialty store" in San Francisco, California.
Early life Mary Ann Cohen was born in 1850 in Scheveningen, The Hague, the Netherlands.Kahn, Ava F.. "Mary Ann Cohen Magnin." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on December 7, 2014) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/magnin-mary-ann-cohen>.Harriet Rochlin, Fred Rochlin, Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000, pp. 176-177 Jeanne E. Abrams, Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail: A History in the American West, New York City: New York University Press, 2006, pp. 123-124 Her father was a rabbi. She immigrated to England with her parents, settling in London, where she grew up.
Career In the wake of the California Gold Rush, she decided to immigrate to the West coast of the United States with her husband and children.Anne Evers, Emporium Department Store, Arcadia Publishing, 2014, p. 8 They arrived in San Francisco in 1875, traveling via Cape Horn. She established a clothing store in Oakland, where she sold baby clothes, lingerie, and bridal trousseaux.Robert P. Swierenga, The Forerunners: Dutch Jewry in the North American Diaspora, Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 1994, pp. 309-312 James David Hart, A Companion to California: Newly Revised and Expanded with Illustrations, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1987, p. 299 Two years later, in 1877, she moved the business to a larger store in San Francisco, and it became known as I. Magnin.Virginia G. Drachman, Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press Books, 2002, p. 77
Even though she retired in 1900, she kept visiting her store daily until her death.
Personal life She married Isaac Magnin on October 8, 1865, at the Great Synagogue of London. She was only fifteen years old. They had eight children: Samuel, Henrietta, Joseph, Emanuel John, Victor, Lucille, Flora, and Grover. They resided at the Saint Francis Hotel on Union Square. San Francisco artist May Slessinger painted miniature portraits of Mary Ann Magnin and her son Grover.
Death She died on December 15, 1943, in San Francisco, California. She was ninety-three years old. She is buried at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma, California.
References