Margaret Andrews Alcorn (11 July 1868 – 1 November 1967) was an interior decorator and business owner in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand.

Early life

Alcorn was born in Hokitika on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

of New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

in 1868 to Samuel Wesley and Jane Alcorn (born Andrews). Samuel and Jane had emigrated to

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, married there in 1865, and then moved to the West Coast. She had one older sibling, Mary and six younger siblings: Ethel, Olive, Winifred, John, William and Kathleen. Samuel was a draper in Hokitika but in 1874 the family moved to Wellington. Samuel bought property in the city on Lambton Quay opposite the department store

Kirkcaldie & Stains Kirkcaldie & Stains (known as ''Kirks'') was a mid-sized department store in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1863 by John Kirkcaldie and Robert Stains with a capital of £700. The first store was opened on Lambton Quay. In 1868 ...

. He opened a draper shop downstairs and the family lived upstairs. The drapery business was successful, and the Alcorn children enjoyed a prosperous household with a governess and private schools. This life changed dramatically, however, in 1877 when a fire in the shop destroyed the business and killed a younger daughter of the family, Winifred, aged four. The family moved to Ashburton and the children attended school there. Margaret became a dressmaker after finishing her schooling.

Business

In 1895 some of the Alcorn family moved back to Wellington. Margaret started studying art and design at the Wellington Technical School, and also became the librarian there. In 1902 she won a class prize in design, and in 1903 she won the South Kensington National Book Prize in an art competition run from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Alcorn's winning entry was of stencilling on fabric, a skill taught by Maud Kimbell, who became a life-long friend of Margaret's. In 1906, Alcorn and her sister Mary opened a shop in the new Kennedy Building on Lambton Quay, Wellington called "Liberty's Wellington", specialising in art furniture and furnishings, and started selling goods they imported themselves from Liberty department store in

. The sisters also offered professional advice and design ideas for their customers' homes. Margaret had a long involvement with the business of Arthur Riley, who had been the principal of the

Wellington Technical College , seal_image = , motto = Excellence in Learning , type = State secondary , established = 1886 , streetaddress = 249 Taranaki Street , city = Wellington , postcode = 6011 , country = New Zealand , ...

when she had studied there, and whose premises were also in the Kennedy Building. Margaret was Riley's company secretary, accountant and later a company director. Riley's importing business is still in operation: Arthur D. Riley & Co. Ltd. In the early 1920s the Alcorns' shop expanded into larger premises further along Lambton Quay, taking over Thomas Pringle's embroidery shop and business. At this time the Alcorns also hired a local artist and embroiderer,

Marjory Mills Marjory Hinemoa Mills (11 November 1896 – 22 May 1987) was a New Zealand embroiderer who was an artist and business owner. Early life Mills was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 11 November 1896. Her parents were Thomas, a journalist, a ...

, to design embroidery patterns for their shop. After Mary died in 1928, Margaret managed the shop alone, including opening a second shop in Burlington Arcade (pictured). The shops struggled to survive during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and the business went into liquidation in 1934. Although Margaret did not legally need to clear the business's debts, she took in boarders until they were paid. Margaret died at her home in Oriental Bay in 1967 and is buried in a family plot at the Bolton Street Cemetery.

References

External links

Image of a pewter jug
purchased at "Liberty's Wellington" {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcorn, Margaret 1868 births 1967 deaths People from Hokitika 19th-century New Zealand businesspeople 19th-century New Zealand businesswomen New Zealand women in business Burials at Bolton Street Cemetery