Materials related to the domestic service career of Nora Cavanaugh.
Collection consists of three letters of recommendation from Nora Cavanaugh's employers and one advertisement for the employment agency she used to find work.
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Description or title of item, PSNCA.H.035: Nora Cavanaugh recommendation letters, Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport, RI.
The collection is organized chronologically, in a single series.
Nora Theresa Cavanaugh (variously spelled Kavanah, Kavanaugh, Cavenaugh, or Kavanagh) was born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States at the age of 25 in spring 1926, joining several of her siblings. She began serving as third housemaid for Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt (most likely Grace Wilson Vanderbilt, but possibly Rachel Littleton Vanderbilt) at the Vanderbilt mansion at 640 Fifth Avenue in 1923, departing in 1927 at her own request. From October 1928 through May 1929 she was a chambermaid for Countess Szechenyi at the Szechenyis’ Washington, D.C. residence at 2929 Massachusetts Avenue. In summer 1929 she worked for Mrs. Robert Wilson Goelet (Roberta Willard Goelet, 1891-1941) at Ochre Court in Newport, Rhode Island.
She married Joseph Sarsfield, a milkman, in 1933 while working for Countess Szechenyi in Washington, D.C. She left domestic service at this time. The Sarsfields had three children in the 1930s.
Note: There is an error in this letter; Nora did not arrive in the United States until 1926, so had not been in the service of the Vanderbilts for four years as the letter states.