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Tag Archives: Obed Baker

Betsey Baker, straw hat maker

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By Shelly Santaniello Hometown Weekly Correspondent Betsey Metcalf Baker (1786-1867) was an inventor and entrepreneur long before it was socially acceptable for women to be independent thinkers and/or wage-earners. At age twelve, the native Rhode Islander devised a method to make her own straw bonnets. She couldn’t afford the expensive ones imported from England at...
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