Hazel Bishop, 1906-1998

Hazel Gladys Bishop was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1906, the daughter of Henry and Mabel (Billington) Bishop. After attending Bergen School for Girls in Jersey City, she enrolled in Barnard College, graduating with a B.A. in chemistry in 1929. Bishop originally hoped to become a doctor, but financial considerations required that she give up medical school, and she began her career in bio-chemical research as a chemical technician at the New York State Psychiatric Hospital and Institute (1930-1935), while taking night school classes in biochemistry at the College of Physicians & Surgeons at Columbia University. She then became a research assistant to dermatologist A. Benson Cannon (1935-1942). During the war she was an organic chemist for the Standard Oil Development Company (1942-1945), working on the development of aviation fluids for jet engines; she continued her work in petroleum research until 1950 with the Socony Vacuum Oil Company. (Standard Oil and Socony were the chief predecessors of Exxon and Mobil.)

From early on, Bishop's mother told her, "Open your own business, even if it's only a peanut stand," and Bishop took this advice to heart. Her goal was to create a new cosmetic formulation and during the 1930s she developed two products, a pimple concealer and mentholated tissues. Neither of these was marketed, but she continued to experiment. Concluding that her previous projects had appealed to a limited market--people with colds and pimples--she determined to develop a product with a broader appeal. Upon reading that 98% of women wore lipstick every day, she began work on a nondrying, nonirritating, long-wearing lipstick, using her home kitchen as a laboratory.

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