PC; BISSELL
Anna Bissell took charge of the family business in 1889 and became the first female chief executive in the United States. She led the company for 42 years, overseeing its growth into an international household name, according to BISSELL. Melville and Anna Bissell ran a small crockery shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1876. In 1883, production moved from a makeshift shop to a five-story factory on Mill Street. The factory was struck by fire in 1884, but staff cleared the debris and resumed shipping products just 19 days later. In 1889, she succeeded Melville and became America’s first female CEO. She remained at the helm for 42 years, from 1889 to 1931. By the late 1880s and 1890s, the company had grown to 250 associates and said it held 75% of the world market. In 1890, the BISSELL sweeper crossed the Atlantic, and Queen Victoria insisted that her palace be ‘Bisselled’ every week. The Grand Rapids Sweeper won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition in 1900. Anna’s 42-year tenure ended in 1931, when Melville Bissell Jr. became president and took the company into the middle of the 20th century. In 1956, it introduced the ShampooMaster carpet shampooer, which the company said made scrubbing carpets on hands and knees a thing of the past. It launched its first electric product and combination vacuum and floor scrubbers in 1960. The company’s 150-year history presents these developments as part of a line of innovation that began with Melville’s carpet sweeper in 1876.
The company also reported that it had sold more than two million sweepers during its history, reflecting the product’s reach in homes and markets beyond the United States. Bissell ran a crockery shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A problem with sawdust in the shop led Melville to invent an improved carpet sweeper, giving the couple a new product to sell. Anna was closely involved in the company from its early days, helping run its operations and market its sweepers. Its account traces the business from a small shop to a major carpet-sweeper manufacturer. Sawdust was a constant problem in the shop, prompting Melville to invent an improved carpet sweeper. The product gave the couple a new business opportunity. They travelled to Philadelphia to sell the sweepers to distributors, dividing the work between them on State Street. Anna eventually outsold Melville, selling five or six dozen sweepers to Wanamaker’s, a high-fashion department store. Anna was involved in the business from its earliest days, working in operations as well as marketing and sales. During that period, BISSELL expanded and became an international household name. The carpet sweeper gained recognition beyond the United States during Anna’s leadership. The product later received awards at major international exhibitions. Four years later, the BISSELL Sweeper received the Grand Prize at the World’s Fair in St. Louis. These milestones formed part of the company’s expansion during the period after Anna took charge. The business continued to build its reputation around the carpet sweeper, the invention that had emerged from the sawdust problem. The business continued to develop products for household cleaning in the decades that followed. BISSELL later expanded into deep-cleaning machines, upright vacuums and products designed for homes with pets. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
The business had begun several years earlier, when Anna and Melville R.