Making a Home
A Community in Conflict
Working for a Living
Farming in the Great Corn Belt
Abraham Lincoln in McLean County
Applying Innovations
Local manufacturers found ways to utilize technologies developed during World War II.
Featuring:
Kathy Musselman Kaufman, (1948 – ), hairdresser
Kathy Musselman Kaufman (1948- ) graduated from Bloomington’s University Beauty School in 1967 and got a job at the Fashion Plate, located inside Roland’s department store at Eastland Mall. Nine years later she was ready to open her own hair salon.
Kathy Musselman Kaufman
Kathy lived in Danvers where the cost to open a shop was cheaper than in Bloomington. But with fewer customers in Danvers, she wanted to keep her expenses down.
How could she have done that?
Kathy purchased a used Lady Aire hairdryer and other tools from a hairdresser who had closed her shop. Instead of opening a stand-alone salon, she set up a small salon, “Kathy K’s Kurl,” in the basement of her Danvers home.
Kathy’s hairdryer was made at Bloomington’s L.S. Watlington Company. The company manufactured the clear plastic hoods for these hairdryers using technology developed during World War II to create cockpit domes for airplanes.
An unidentified worker drilled ventilation holes in the hairdryer hood shaped from a flat piece of acrylic using a vacuum process developed during WWII.
Watlington Lady Aire hairdryer, curlers, permanent rods, hair clips, and other item, circa 1970
View this object in Matterport
Kathy served Danvers area clients from 1967 until 1981, when she closed her shop and began a new career as a unit medical secretary at Mennonite Hospital.
Donated by: Kathy Kaufman
2010.039, 2016.46
