Elizabeth Arden (ca.1878-1966) was instrumental in the development of the modern cosmetics and beauty salon industry. She was also an astute businesswoman.

The 30 years of prosperity that followed the bitter depression of 1893 to 1897 set Americans on the road to the "affluent society" and swept away the old ideas of behavior that had ruled the Victorian age. Particularly notable was the greater freedom achieved by women, who entered the world of daily affairs and began to pay increasing attention to their personal appearance. No one capitalized more effectively on these fundamental trends than Elizabeth Arden, whose dictum to American women--"hold fast to youth and beauty"--helped to create the modern cosmetics and beauty salon industry and made her the sole owner of a $60 million business.

Arden was born Florence Nightingale Graham in 1878 (") in Woodbridge, a suburb of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to immigrant parents, her father Scottish and...