CHRISTINE ISOBEL (MACGAFFEY) FREDERICK, 1883-1970

CMF was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 6, 1883. Her parents, Mimi (Scott) and William R. Campbell, separated soon after her birth; in 1894 her mother married Wyatt MacGaffey, a lawyer who adopted Christine. In 1907 Christine McGaffey (the spelling she later chose) married Justus George Frederick, a business executive, writer, and editor.

After their marriage the Fredericks moved to New York where CMF began a career as a home economist, lecturer and author. She and her husband helped found the Advertising Women of New York in 1912, because women were refused admission to the men's advertising club. She campaigned for more efficiency in the kitchen, arguing that women ought to have more efficient equipment and experiment with improved techniques just as businessmen and farmers were doing. To test her theories, CMF set up and directed a model kitchen, the Applecroft Home Experiment Station, on Long Island. She was credited with bringing about the standardization of the height of kitchen counters and work surfaces, and with encouraging the design of kitchens to save steps for the women using them. CMF lectured on the Chautauqua curcuit, 1917; was a contributing or consulting editor for several magazines (including Ladies Home Journal, The Designer, Shrine, and The American Weekly), 1912-1948; wrote several books on household management and the role of women as consumers; and raised four children (David Mansfield [died 1952], Jean, Phyllis and Carol). In 1950 she moved to Laguna Beach, California and began a new career as an interior decorator and instructor at Orange Coast College, retiring in 1957(?).

Christine Frederick died of heart disease on April 6, 1970 at the age of 87. For further biographical information, see Notable American Women, The Modern Period (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980).

From the guide to the Papers, (scattered), 1883-1970, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)