For most 19^th century women, few income-producing jobs were available.  School teaching was an acceptable position; dressmaking was another one.  Caroline “Carrie” Burnam Taylor was a well-known Kentucky modiste, and at the turn of the century her name was synonymous with fine clothing.   In 1903, Bowling Green native Caroline B. Taylor paid $3000 for a lot on which she erected the Mrs. A.H. Taylor Company.

Many of the fabrics used in Carrie Taylor’s dresses came from Louisville and Nashville.  But she also made frequent trips to New York and Europe.  In Paris, she attended fashion exhibits, sketched designs and bought silk, velvets, and laces.   Government records indicate the dressmaking firm was the state’s largest employer of women.

  Caroline Taylor based her success on quality, business acumen and a sense of fashion and style.  The A.H. Taylor Company closed its doors in 1927, ending a half-century of service to fashion-minded women across the nation.
--Nancy Disher Baird, Kentucky History Librarian, Library Special Collections, Western Kentucky University