Who can forget the halcyon days when Administrative Professional Day was called National Secretary’s Day ? When a working woman was a working girl. Lovingly called “the girl” by her boss whether a secretary, receptionist or file clerk, she was happy to oblige when the boss said “my girl will call your girl.” Starting in 1952 the office girls were recognized for their hard work and got a holiday filled with flowers and chocolates. Promotions, not so much. Just like the girls on Mad Men, I’m sure Administrative assistants would have preferred recognition and growth opportunities over flower, candy or lunch. A year after the establishment of National Secretary’s Week a love letter to the ladies of the secretarial pool from John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company ran as an ad. Even a hard-working girl can’t get away from housekeeping as the headline suggests: “She Keeps House for a Nations Business.” “You make a phone call, and its her voice that answers,” begins the ad.

“You dictate a letter, and it’s she who writes it down.” “You need a speech that somebody made 2 or 3 years ago..or was it four?…or was it a magazine article? You can’t recall but she can and has it on your desk in twenty minutes.” “Who is this girl who turns up wherever business is done, remembering what you forget, doing what you haven’t time to do making the nations office as bright and orderly as a well-kept kitchen?” “The personnel cards say she’s Miss Jones, secretary; Mrs Brown receptionist, Miss Perry file clerk; Miss Hoyt accounting machine operator. They tell you she’s 21 or 43, that she’s worked here and there that she went to this or that school.” “Maybe the cards should tell you more.” “Perhaps they should mention that Miss Jones has an invalid mother, and never lets her problem show in the face you see from 9 to 5.” Perhaps they should say that Mrs Brown is supporting a son in college that Miss Perry practices shorthand during her lunch hours, that Miss Hoyt, bringing some softening touch of life into the places where jobs are done?”

“Take a letter Miss Jones.” the copy continues. “To whom it may concern:thanks for your help.” “Thanks for spelling better than I do, and for knowing what I don’t.” “Thanks for remembering when a collective noun takes a singular verb, and for wearing a flower on rainy mornings and for being cheerful when I’m not, and for knowing how to work hard and still be human.” “Thanks for being everywhere that a bright mind, a willing hand, and a pleasant way are needed.”vacuum cleaner store barrhaven “Mail it to yourself Miss Jones. jovis corded handheld vacuum cleanerSign it, “Very sincerely yours.”hyundai 1400w vacuum cleaner review © Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2014.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Media Made Women Working GirlsNew York is bracing itself for another spending spree of at least $1 billion (£657 million) next month when Sotheby’s and Christies hold their major spring sales of Impressionist and modern art, followed by contemporary art. But if you look closely, it is clear the lion’s share is likely to go to contemporary art – ie, art from the Fifties to the present. In a trend increasingly apparent since the latter half of 2010, the once dominant sales of earlier Impressionist and modern art (ie, from the 1860s to the Forties and including late Picassos) have been falling behind to the point at which, last autumn in New York, they fetched only half as much as the contemporary sales.

Next month, the swingometer is predicted to stay that way as the first week of Impressionist and modern art sales, without any $100 million Munchs or Picassos, is estimated to bring only $383 million, while the contemporary sales in the second week are looking at over $700 million. The trend appears to be particular to New York. In London, the swing to contemporary has not happened because there is not the same massive input of American abstract expressionist and pop art. Here, the Impressionist sales, with their strong contingent of Russian, Middle Eastern and Asian buyers, still rule the roost and even outstripped New York earlier this year for the first time. The different contrast between the two markets in New York is clearest at the top end, where only one earlier work, a still life of apples on a table by Cézanne, comparable to any of his highest-selling still-life paintings, is estimated at $25 million. In the contemporary sales there are seven $25 million plus paintings including works by Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter, Barnett Newman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jackson Pollock and Roy Lichtenstein.

This, of course, is not to say that good Impressionist and modern art is worth less than good contemporary art. Cézanne’s Card Players sold privately to the state of Qatar last year for a reported $250 million, while Steve Wynn has finally sold Le Rêve, the Picasso he stuck his elbow through, now repaired, for $150 million to hedge fund supremo Steven A Cohen. It’s just that the auctioneers are finding it harder to come by. Half the value of Sotheby’s main evening Impressionist and modern art sale, for instance, comprises works that have come from deceased estates. The most impressive is a 200-piece collection worth $65 million belonging to the vacuum-cleaner designer Alex Lewyt, who died in 1988, and his wife, Elizabeth, who died last December. This includes two of Sotheby’s top lots – the simultaneously Old Masterly and modern Cézanne still life, and L’Amazone, a swaggering, vampish portrait of a French baroness in her riding regalia by Modigliani, estimated at $20 to $30 million.

With the top Picasso of the season, the Child with a Dove that was on loan to the National Gallery, selling privately through Christie’s to the state of Qatar for £50 million, the top Picasso at auction is one of four known unique painted metal sculptures of the 19-year-old model Sylvette David ($12 to $18 million at Sotheby’s) whom Picasso drew and painted incessantly in 1954 when he was 69. Sotheby’s also has a strong selection of Rodin bronzes from one collection, including a choice rare and early lifetime bronze cast of The Thinker ($8 to $12 million) complete with the plaque Rodin attached to it to signify that he had overseen the casting process. After last November’s Impressionist sales fell short of their target in New York, estimates have generally been kept within reason. None the less, a handful of works are set to fetch record prices. At Christie’s a portrait of a pastry chef by Chaim Soutine is guaranteed at $16 to $22 million, which is in record territory. Similarly, André Derain’s portrait of Madame Matisse in a kimono carries the highest estimate ever for the artist, at $15 to $20 million.