(BUSINESS.)

Walker, Maggie. Pair of oversized photographs of Ms. Walker and her staff, posed in front of her St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, 25x37 inches; in elaborate, uniform period frames. [Richmond, VA, circa 1910] Businesswoman Maggie Lena Walker (1867-1934) was born to an ex-slave mother and a Northern abolitionist father in Richmond, VA. In 1886 she married Armistead Walker, a building contractor. In 1899 she became the executive secretary-treasurer of Mary Prout's Independent Order of St. Luke, a fraternal buisness organization. She began publication of the St. Luke Herald in 1902 and within a year founded the St. Luke Penny Bank of which she was director. An attempt at a department store failed, but the bank thrived, absorbing smaller banks along the way. It eventually became The Consolidated Bank and Trust Company in 1929. Walker served as director of the bank until her death in 1934.