Mother of Invention
Look around Cincinnati and you can see their impact everywhere.
Music Hall. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Cincinnati Opera. The Art Academy. The Cincinnati Art Museum. CCM. The Taft Museum. Juneteenth.
The book “Imagineers | Impresarios | Inventors: Cincinnati’s Arts and the Power of Her,” edited by Kathy Merchant, tells the stories of the women who helped create Cincinnati’s remarkable cultural community.
But it also tells a bigger story.
Cincinnati didn’t simply become an arts city. Women made it one.
They Built Things That Last
Mary Emery used her fortune to support the arts, Cincinnati Opera and public access to art, while also creating Mariemont, an ambitious experiment in community building.
Patricia Corbett invested heavily in the infrastructure that allowed Cincinnati’s performing arts to flourish, including Music Hall, Cincinnati Opera, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and other performance spaces.
Louise Nippert supported generations of musicians and cultural institutions, ultimately establishing an $85 million fund to support classical music in Cincinnati.
Irma Lazarus, Cincinnati’s “First Lady of the Arts,” understood that great institutions need future audiences. She helped create Young Friends of the Arts to introduce young people to Cincinnati’s cultural community.
They weren’t simply philanthropists. They were civic entrepreneurs.
They Created the Art, Too
Cincinnati’s women didn’t only fund creativity. They created it.
Mamie Smith, born in Cincinnati in 1883, became a groundbreaking figure in American music. Her 1920 recording of “Crazy Blues” became a commercial sensation and helped open the recording industry to Black performers.
Edie McKee Harper built a remarkable career across painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and other media while balancing her work with family life. You may also know of her husband, Charley.
Harriet Beecher Stowe developed as a writer during her Cincinnati years, using storytelling to influence the national conversation about slavery, even as the racial portrayals in her most famous work remain debated today.
Lydia Morgan brought Juneteenth to Cincinnati in 1988. About 1,500 people attended the first celebration, despite virtually no advertising. Her idea grew into a Cincinnati tradition.
Different women. Different generations. Same instinct: Create something. Bring people together. Make Cincinnati better.
Who Are the Next Imagineers?
That’s the question this history should make Cincinnati ask today.
Who is our next Mary Emery?
Our next Mamie Smith?
Our next Edie Harper?
She could be a filmmaker in Walnut Hills. A designer graduating from UC. A musician performing in OTR. A young entrepreneur launching a creative company. Or a girl experiencing the arts for the first time.
Cincinnati’s next economic-development strategy should make sure she has a reason to build her future here.
Because creativity creates a powerful cycle:
Artists create experiences. Experiences attract audiences. Audiences become patrons. Patrons become donors. Investment creates jobs. And great cultural communities attract more talented people.
Cincinnati’s women have been proving that formula for more than 150 years.
The women profiled in “Imagineers | Impresarios | Inventors” didn’t wait for Cincinnati to become a great arts city.
They built one.
Now Cincinnati has the opportunity to build on their legacy and make creativity an even bigger part of our economic future.
The Power of Her helped build Cincinnati. Imagine what the next generation will build.
– Jackie Reau