Ella Grant Wilson (1851-1939), florist, publicist, and author of Famous Old Euclid Avenue, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, but moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1860s where she lived the remainder of her life. In the late nineteenth century, she established her own floral company, arranging decorations for over 300 weddings and 1,000 funerals. For 18 years she designed for both the Chamber of Commerce and Hollenden House until, in 1909, a cyclone destroyed her greenhouse and almost buried one son alive in the debris. After leaving the florist business, Wilson founded the Floral Syndicate, a publicity service which specialized in promoting conventions, community-wide activities and other items of interest relating to the floral industry. From 1918 to 1924 she worked as the garden editor for the Plain Dealer and, in 1929, began a Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine series about historic Cleveland, often focusing on "Millionaires Row" located on Euclid Avenue. The materials for this series came from her recollections as a florist who had served some of Cleveland's wealthiest and most prominent citizens as well as from her scrapbooks on the history of Cleveland. These represented just one portion of a huge collection of scrapbooks compiled primarily from clippings and relating, not only to local history, but also to local personalities, the floral industry, and horticulture. It was these articles that formed the basis of her 1932 book, Famous Old Euclid Avenue, which featured anecdotes, history, and biographies relating to the homes and personalities of Euclid Avenue from East 30th Street to East 79th Streets. The second volume, published in 1937, continued the story to include East 79th Street through East 105th Street. Wilson died two years after the publication of her second volume, having raised five children and outlived two husbands, James A. Campbell and Charles H. Wilson.
The Ella Grant Wilson Papers, 1864-1938 and undated, consists primarily of correspondence, reminiscences, writings, and memorabilia relating to Wilson's personal life and family, the floral industry, her organizational affiliations, and her compilation of materials for Famous Old Euclid Avenue. These manuscript materials were removed from her scrapbooks which area also maintained in the library of the Western Reserve Historical Society.
This collection primarily pertains to women in business and entrepreneurship, the floral industry in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Midwest, public relations, and the history of Cleveland. There is also some genealogical material on the Grant Family.
The collection is arranged in five series. Each series is arranged by subject, then by document type, and then chronologically.
The researcher should also consult PG 151 Ella Grant Wilson Photographs.
Processed by Bari Oyler Stith in 1988.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4302 Ella Grant Wilson Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Ella Grant Wilson, ca. 1938.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.