Gertrude A. Muller

Gertrude Agnes Muller (June 9, 1887 – October 13, 1954) was an American businesswoman, entrepreneur, and inventor. She was dedicated to developing safer childrearing standards and is credited with inventing the first folding potty chair and one of the first children's car seats. Additionally, she was a pioneer in the use of crash testing for product safety.

Biography At different points throughout her life, Gertrude was a member of the Business and Professional Women's Club, the American Home Economics Association, the Fort Wayne Saddle & Bridle Club, and the Fort Wayne Women's Club. As an adult, she became an active member of the local Congregational church and dressed as Uncle Sam to sell war bonds during World War II.

Early life Gertrude Agnes Muller was born on June 9, 1887, in Leo, Indiana to Victor Muller and Catherine Baker. She was the third of the couple's five eventual children and the second of their three daughters. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was the son of one of the founders of the town of Leo, Indiana. Her parents owned two farms, an apple orchard, and a gravel pit, in addition to both the town's post office and its general store. Gertrude's early childhood was relatively carefree until Victor Muller's unexpected death in 1893 when she was only six years old. Gertrude served as the assistant to the president of the company, which manufactured wooden toilet seats, for four years before she was promoted to assistant manager in 1914.

Business In the late 1910s, while Gertrude was still working at Van Arnam Manufacturing Company, her younger sister Margaret had a mortifying experience while traveling with her young daughter, Helen. The first seats were made by Van Arnam Manufacturing until Gertrude tried and failed to sell her product through plumbers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, mothers weren't particularly interested in buying children's products from the men who fixed their toilets, so her initial product was not successful. Her products could be identified by their unchanging trademark logo, two sentry rabbits that framed the name of whatever product they adorned. At the time of Gertrude's death in 1954, The Toidey Company was purchased by a group of investors who continued to manufacture baby furniture under the Toidey name until the late 1970s.

The most popular pamphlet distributed by The Toidey Company was "Training the Baby." Initially published by Juvenile Wood Products in 1930, the pamphlet was continuously updated and revised through 1950. "Training the Baby" was packaged with every Toidey seat and encouraged parents to "make their baby comfortable" and to "be relaxed about toilet training."

Crash testing Gertrude Muller's number one priority was the safety of children, a determination that only increased with the growing popularity of automobiles. The National Safety Council named her a National Veteran of Safety for her efforts to improve children's lives. At the time, Gertrude was only the third woman to receive such a nomination. Toidey One-Step, (1931). Little Toidey, (1949). Toidey Specimen Collector, (1948).

Toilet training Gertrude Muller's first and most notable invention was the Little Toidey, one of the first potty chairs. The product was initially manufactured in metal and wood, though models made after 1945 were made of plastic. The seat appeared alongside toilet training advice in the childrearing manual Mother and Baby Care in Pictures written by Louise Zabriskie in 1935.

Eventually Muller's company also offered the "Little Two-Step," a small set of steps to aid a toddler in independently accessing a standard-height sink or toilet. An advertisement published in 1938 included images of the Little Two-Step being used by a toddler to access his Little Toidey safely. The same advertisement, published in Volume 16 of Hygeia: A Journal of Individual and Community Health, included the claim that doctors recommended the Little Toidey for toilet training infants. The Comfy-Safe seat featured a metal frame that anchored between the bottom and back of the car seat and allowed children to sit approximately a foot higher than they would have otherwise, providing them with the opportunity to look out of the windows of the car. The seat also featured a buckling nylon strap to prevent the child from falling out in the event of a sudden stop or collision.

Legacy Though she never married or had children of her own, Gertrude dedicated her life to advancing the safety and comfort of children everywhere. Her free time was spent with her family, even living with and supporting her aging mother for many years. Additionally, Gertrude paid for her nieces and nephews to receive college educations.

Collections For the bicentennial of Indiana's statehood in 2016, the Fort Wayne History Center organized a yearlong exhibition of 200 objects that they determined to have been most influential in the history of the area titled 200@200. Included in the Forward Through Innovation section of the exhibition was a late 1940s, plastic model Toidey Seat that had been used by the donor's young children.