Mabelle Kelso
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Mabelle Kelso | |
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| Born | October 10, 1883 Pennsylvania, USA |
| Died | July 9, 1975 Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Spouse | Lt. James Shaw |
Mabelle Kelso was the first woman in the United States to hold a government license as a radio operator, which she earned while she lived in Seattle, Washington. In fact, the Navy lieutenant who administered her exam reportedly said "she passed with the highest mark of any applicant for a certificate who has ever appeared before him.”[1]
Early Career
Mabelle Kelso was born on October 10, 1883 in Pennsylvania. Kelso got her start as a stenographer for a Washington lumber company. In 1908, she began her study of Morse code at Pittsburgh Technical College, and after graduating she was hired by Western Union and Postal Telegraph. In 1910, United Wireless Telegraph Company (UWTC) decided to train two women, and Kelso was accepted as one of them, in part because of her knowledge of Morse code.[2] There, Kelso studied continental wireless code and learned how to make minor repairs to the equipment.[1]
Later Career and Life
On June 6, 1912, Kelso received a government-issued Certificate of Skill in Radio Communication at Bremerton Navy Yard in Seattle,[3] the first woman to do so. On July 1 of that same year, she was assigned as the shipboard operator aboard the S.S. Mariposa, a ship that was later assigned the call sign WHP.[4] She was placed in charge of performing radio communications and maintaining the wireless equipment while the ship travelled to and from Alaska.[1] It is important to note that Mabelle Kelso was not the first woman to serve as a shipboard operator, but she was the first to be granted a license once such licenses were required.
In September 1912, American Marconi bought UWTC and would not allow women to operate aboard ships. So, Kelso was transferred to a shore station where she performed menial clerical duties, including keeping the books and transmitting from the shore station to the downtown office over a buzzer. The passage of the Radio Act of 1912 shortly thereafter meant that all previously issued licenses were void, and operators had to pass a standardized exam and receive a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade license. As a result, Kelso was suspended until she returned to Bremerton Navy Yard and was issued a 1st grade license in February of 1913[3]. Following this, Kelso was demoted to a stenographer position at Marconi, until she quit to pursue a higher paid stenographer job. On March 28, 1917 Kelso married a man named Lt. James E. Shaw, and starting in 1924 began work as a "doctor of chiropractic."[3] By 1930, now Mabelle K. Shaw, and her husband had moved to Los Angeles, California.
References
- ^ a b c "San Francisco Call 16 June 1912 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
- ^ Gessler, Anne (2014-02-01). ""Purifying the Upper Atmosphere": Women's Work in Early Radio, 1905-1913". American Studies in Scandinavia. 46 (1): 87–102. doi:10.22439/asca.v46i1.5152.
- ^ a b c Sando, Louisa (1958). "YL Marine Operators". CQ YL: The Story of Women in Amateur Radio: 100–102.
- ^ Radio Stations of the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1913.