Kate E. Griswold

Kate E. Griswold (May 9, 1860 – October 6, 1923) was an American editor, publisher, and proprietor of Profitable Advertising, a monthly trade journal for advertisers. She was "one of the most respected women in turn-of-the-century advertising".

Griswold made a distinct business success of this publication, which was one of the pioneers in advertising journalism. She also made it a standard authority on advertising and similar subjects. Her work was represented at the World's Fair in an exhibit displaying an array of the covers which appeared on Profitable Advertising for years back.

Early life and education Kate E. Grisworld was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, May 9, 1860. She passed her early girlhood there. Her ancestry could be traced back through various lines to conspicuous early colonists of her native State, she being also a "Mayflower" descendant, deriving through both father and mother from William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Plantation. Her father, John Belden Griswold, was born in 1828, son of Josiah Wells and Mary Ann (Belden) Griswold. Her mother, whose maiden name was Cornelia Arnold Jones, was born at East Hartford in 1830, daughter of Joseph Pantra Jones and his wife, Sarah Comstock.

A brother three years older than Griswold, died in early childhood. He had been the joy of his father's heart, and Griswold came to take this brother's place. The love the father had bestowed on the boy and the pride he took in him were somehow inherited by the little daughter, fortunately for both the father and the child.. So soon as she was old enough, Griswold was this father's shadow wherever he went. She followed him to the fields, she sat uon the reaping machine and drove the horses. She milked the cows, and raised vegetables; she reared chickens and calves. Once, she helped shingle a barn.

She was educated in the high school of her birth, and took a finishing course at Woodside, a school for young women in Hartford, Connecticut.

Her first money was earned at poultry rearing and vegetable gardening, which she had made financially profitable. At one time, she had 200 to 300 chickens. Her knowledge of the chicken industry enabled her to write with practical intelligence on the subject. When very young, she wrote of chicken and eggs for The Poultry World and wrote so well that she was invited to take a desk at its office.

She was a lover of the outdoors and was known to indulge in pastimes such as golfing and fishing.

Career At the age of 16, she entered the office of The Poultry World, at Hartford, where she handled much of the correspondence pertaining to the advertising department of that paper. Later, she worked in the office of the National Trotting Association, where her close application resulted in nervous prostration, which compelled her to retire from the business world for some time.

When her health recovered, flattering offers were at Griswold's disposal, but she turned from them all to take up the management of the organ of a local charitable enterprise. To The Hartford City Mission Record, and to the cause in general which it represented, she devoted herself for the next four years. Toward the close of this period of charitable work, she entered into several prize competitions for advertising designs, carrying off the honors in a number of cases, including a competitive examination of 800 applicants, Grlawold winning because she wrote rapidly and showed herself to possess a high, degree of general business acumen. The attention which this attracted -a woman's success as an "ad" writer- led to an offer from Boston, as general ad writer and correspondent in the office of the C. F. David Advertising Agency.

Soon demonstrating her fitness as an editor, C. F. David Advertising Agency engaged her to edit Profitable Advertising. The agency could not make a success of the publication, and finally it was turned over to Griswold as a failure. She would not give up, however, and after dealing with difficulties, she made it a success, and all this in the face of the fact that there were several well-established journals of the same character in the field prior to the time she entered it.

Advice Griswold said:

She continued:

Death Kate E. Griswold died October 6, 1923.