Shampoo tin and original box

Entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker (1867–1919), born Sarah Breedlove to former slaves in Louisiana, was a pioneer in the black hair-care and cosmetics industry, a leading philanthropist in the African American community, and the first female self-made millionaire in America. She founded the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company in Denver in 1906 and began selling Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower, a scalp conditioning and healing formula which she claimed had been revealed to her in a dream. Her Vegetable Shampoo was also introduced that year, followed by Tetter Salve (to treat severe dandruff) and Glossine (a protective ointment for hair straightened with a hot comb). Walker’s marketing emphasized hygiene and the prevention of baldness rather than hair straightening, although she was later credited (erroneously) with inventing the straightening comb.

Madam Walker settled in Indianapolis in 1910 but continued to market her products throughout the country through door to door sales, demonstrations in churches and lodges, and the education of Walker “hair culturists” at her training schools. Following her daughter, A’Lelia Walker, who moved to New York City in 1913, Madam Walker settled in Harlem in 1916. She commissioned black architect Vertner Tandy to design a new townhouse (108 W. 136th Street, demolished in 1941), which functioned as both home and Walker salon. Tandy also designed Walker’s mansion, Villa Lewaro in Irvington-on-Hudson. Walker continued to oversee her Indianapolis-based beauty empire from the New York office and became heavily involved in the social and political life of Harlem.