ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Martha Matilda Harper created a hair salon franchise with customers that included Susan B. Anthony, British royalty, and a number of first ladies. So why was so little known about her?  

The marker at Rochester’s Riverside Cemetery mentions nothing of the vast accomplishments of the woman who’s buried there. Martha Matilda Harper’s success story was mostly lost — until years after her death.

“The history books are written by those who are in power," said author Jane Plitt. "And they were not anxious, necessarily, to recognize what this immigrant servant girl was able to create."

Harper was born in Oakville, Ontario, Canada in 1857, a servant from age 7 until well into her 30s. Harper’s last Canadian employer was a holistic doctor who taught her about healthy hair care. As the story goes, on his deathbed, the doctor bequeathed her with a copy of a secret formula for hair tonic.  

Well into her 30s, Harper moved to Rochester and opened the city’s first hair salon for women on the fifth floor of the historic Powers Building. When Plitt’s firm was hired to document the building’s history, that’s when she first heard about Harper.

She was fascinated.

"I said, if I don't write her story, nobody will," said Plitt. "And that’s how it began."

Plitt has written three books about Martha Matilda Harper. Plitt is the former executive director of the National Organization for Women and was the first female hired by Rochester Telephone. Among her many endeavors, Plitt was an entrepreneur and visiting scholar at University of Rochester. Both women are part of the "Changemakers" exhibit at Rochester Museum and Science Center, which is documenting stories of women who helped change the world

"The story about Martha is determination and daring to dream," said Plitt, who now lives in Sarasota, Florida. "But simultaneously doing good for others."

It was Harper who invented the reclining shampoo chair, with part of the sink cut out so the neck can rest more comfortably. When Chicago businesswoman Bertha Palmer insisted on a salon in that city, Harper convinced her to round up a group of investors, creating what would become the first modern retail franchise. The first 100 shops belonged to poor women. The franchise eventually grew to 500 shops worldwide.

The Harper Method hair parlor chain needed a headquarters. The only sign of that remaining today at the building on East Main Street in Rochester is Harper’s name on the facade. It’s where she developed a vast line of products and taught other women the ropes of the salon business.

"She was an extraordinary pathblazer," said Plitt. "And today, franchising is the fastest growing part of retailing."

Martha Matilda Harper died in Rochester in 1950 at the age of 92. A long underappreciated entrepreneur and inventor whose remarkable story, says Plitt, needs to be told.

"The power that Martha had to change these, particularly women's, lives was just remarkable," said Plitt.

Author Jane Plitt will share more on how she unearthed the story of Martha Matilda Harper on March 26 as part of the RMSC Changemakers book club.