May Cosgrove's Corset Shop (3 Pleasant Street)

Like many of Worcester's corsetieres, May Byrne Cosgrove's shop moved from one downtown address to another over the thirty-plus years of her business as she searched for better locations, cheaper rent, or snazzier display cases. Her introduction to corsets came via retail, having sold them as a young store clerk at both a downtown department store and a corset boutique.

Mary E. Byrne, also called May, joined Worcester's large Irish community when she was born in 1884 to parents William and Anastasia. Both her parents were natives of Ireland, making May a first generation Irish American. She lived the first years of her life above a saloon where her father worked at 100 Mechanic Street, a block from the downtown green space of City Common.

During May Cosgrove's teenage years, two local companies manufactured corsets on an industrial scale: Globe Corset and Worcester Corset Company (precursor of Royal Worcester Corset company). The army of corsetieres that dressed the city in the 1900's had not yet arrived. In 1904 the first of the sole proprietor corsetieres -- Junia Johnston -- provided custom work at 4 Walnut Street. Mary was then twenty years old. The following year, another corsetiere appeared (Emma Kemp, 340 Main Street). Two years later, we see even more female self-employment, with four women selling their custom corsetry skills. So as a young woman living downtown, May would have been aware of the possibility of corset-making as a way to support herself.

In 1911, May left the realm of groceries for work as a milliner, a job that must have suited her as she kept at it for the next five years. She married William J. Cosgrove on April 24,1916 in Worcester. He, too, was the child of Irish immigrants. Two years later, after retail corset jobs at the Adrian Corset Shop and the John Maclnnes department store, she was in business for herself at a shop in the busiest intersection of the city: on Pleasant at Main St. Potted palms, oriental carpets, vases with flowers, and freshly washed windows set the mood for an upscale corset fitting at 3 Pleasant. The national trade publication "Corset and Underwear Review" announced the opening of Cosgrove's shop in 1918, proclaiming that she was by then "well known throughout corset circles." Her retail corsetry experience helped launch her solo career.

The high quality of her products was matched only by her dogged persistence at finding the right spot for the store. Cosgrove moved the shop from one downtown address to another: 3 Pleasant, 516 Main, 26 Pearl, 21 Pearl, 18 Pearl, and 476 Main. Her final city directory corsetiere listing appeared in 1952. She spent the last years of her life working at downtown department store Barnard, Summer & Putnam Co. and later at -- of all places -- John C. Maclnnes Co., standing again behind a counter at the Maclnnes store, fifty years after her first job there as a young corseted sales clerk during World War I. Although she had surely been in the store many many times during those fifty years, she would have still been amazed by the changes the 20th century had brought to the building, the people, the cash registers, the attitudes, and of course the underwear.

Her 1952 obituary tells us that "she leaves several cousins." This comment adds another piece of the corsetiere story. During the time in history when May ran her downtown business, it would have been close to impossible for her to do so while raising a family.

A Proper Fit (working title), Anne Marie Murphy. TidePool Press 2025, www.cityofcorsets.com.

The Corset and Underwear Review, August 1918, p.38.

"Mrs. Cosgrove, Corsetiere, Dies in Hospital," Worcester Telegram, June 9, 1954, p. 21.