The term "secretary" is derived from the Latin word secernere, "to distinguish" or "to set apart", with the connotation of something private or confidential, as with the English word secret. A secretarius was a person, therefore, overseeing business confidentially, usually for a powerful individual, such as a king or pope. For instance, Saint Jerome was secretary to Pope Damasus from AD 382 to 385.
From the Renaissance until the late 19th century, men involved in the daily correspondence and the activities of the powerful assumed the title of secretary. For instance, in 1498 Niccolo Machiavelli was promoted to the rank of second chancellor and secretary to Florentine head of state Piero Soderini. This post he retained until the year 1512.
Shortly after his priestly ordination, Desiderius Erasmus accepted the post of secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai, Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters.
For a period in 1736, the founder of the US state of Georgia James Oglethorpe's secretary was John Wesley's brother, Charles, later well known as the hymn writer of Methodism.
After the chemist and inventor Humphry Davy damaged his eyesight in an accident with nitrogen trichloride, he employed the young Michael Faraday as a secretary.
From 1743 to 1744, Jean Jacques Rousseau had an honorable but ill-paying post as a secretary to the Comte de Montaigue, the French ambassador to Venice. Rousseau's employer routinely received his stipend as much as a year late and paid his staff irregularly. After 11 months, Rousseau quit, taking from the experience a profound distrust of government bureaucracy.
In 1870, Sir Isaac Pitman founded a school where students could qualify as shorthand writers to "professional and commercial men". Originally, this school was only for male students.
The Mexican president, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna who led the sacking of the Alamo fortress in San Antonio was exiled in Staten Island, New York. In 1871 he asked his secretary Thomas Adams to find a substitute for rubber. Adams first tried to formulate the gum into a rubber suitable for tires. When that didn't work he made the chicle into a chewing gum called Chiclets, which is still produced today
The inventor Nikola Tesla openly expressed disgust for overweight people. Once, he fired his secretary solely because of her weight.
In 1914 the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy married Florence Dugdale a Dorchester JP who was his secretary. Thomas was 74 and Florence a feeble, slight, drab, manipulative 35-year-old brunette.
With an increasingly busy social schedule due to husband Franklin Roosevelt’s new political responsibilities, Eleanor Roosevelt hired a personal secretary, named Lucy Mercy. Eleanor was shocked when, in 1918 she learnt of her husband's prolonged public affair with Mercy.
Eleanor Roosevelt campaigned for her husband's election to the American presidency but whilst he was in the White House Franklin took several mistresses including another secretary Marguerite “Missy” Lehand.
With the invention of the typewriter in the 1880s more women began to enter the field and during the upcoming years, especially since World War I, the role of secretary has been primarily associated with women. By the 1930s, fewer men were entering the field of secretaries.
Laura Ashley (1925-85) began her career as a secretary with the Women’s Institute.
Irving Berlin never learned to read music or to write it. He hummed or sung his songs to a secretary, who took them down in musical notation.
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| Saint Jerome by the Le Nain brothers, 1642-43 |
Shortly after his priestly ordination, Desiderius Erasmus accepted the post of secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai, Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters.
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| Holbein Erasmus |
For a period in 1736, the founder of the US state of Georgia James Oglethorpe's secretary was John Wesley's brother, Charles, later well known as the hymn writer of Methodism.
After the chemist and inventor Humphry Davy damaged his eyesight in an accident with nitrogen trichloride, he employed the young Michael Faraday as a secretary.
From 1743 to 1744, Jean Jacques Rousseau had an honorable but ill-paying post as a secretary to the Comte de Montaigue, the French ambassador to Venice. Rousseau's employer routinely received his stipend as much as a year late and paid his staff irregularly. After 11 months, Rousseau quit, taking from the experience a profound distrust of government bureaucracy.
In 1870, Sir Isaac Pitman founded a school where students could qualify as shorthand writers to "professional and commercial men". Originally, this school was only for male students.
The Mexican president, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna who led the sacking of the Alamo fortress in San Antonio was exiled in Staten Island, New York. In 1871 he asked his secretary Thomas Adams to find a substitute for rubber. Adams first tried to formulate the gum into a rubber suitable for tires. When that didn't work he made the chicle into a chewing gum called Chiclets, which is still produced today
The inventor Nikola Tesla openly expressed disgust for overweight people. Once, he fired his secretary solely because of her weight.
In 1914 the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy married Florence Dugdale a Dorchester JP who was his secretary. Thomas was 74 and Florence a feeble, slight, drab, manipulative 35-year-old brunette.
With an increasingly busy social schedule due to husband Franklin Roosevelt’s new political responsibilities, Eleanor Roosevelt hired a personal secretary, named Lucy Mercy. Eleanor was shocked when, in 1918 she learnt of her husband's prolonged public affair with Mercy.
Eleanor Roosevelt campaigned for her husband's election to the American presidency but whilst he was in the White House Franklin took several mistresses including another secretary Marguerite “Missy” Lehand.
With the invention of the typewriter in the 1880s more women began to enter the field and during the upcoming years, especially since World War I, the role of secretary has been primarily associated with women. By the 1930s, fewer men were entering the field of secretaries.
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| Secretary at typewriter 1912 Wikipedia |
Laura Ashley (1925-85) began her career as a secretary with the Women’s Institute.
Irving Berlin never learned to read music or to write it. He hummed or sung his songs to a secretary, who took them down in musical notation.
Traudl Junge worked as Adolf Hitler's last private secretary, from 1942 to 1945, typing out his last will and testament the day before his suicide. At 22, she was the youngest of his private secretaries, and years later said she felt guilty for, "liking the greatest criminal ever to have lived."
Joseph Stalin had an office in the Kremlin where his faithful secretary, Poskrebyshev kept the days paperwork ready for the Russian leader.
The invention of typing correction fluid is credited to Bette Nesmith, the mother of former Monkee Mike Nesmith. In the 1950s, Mrs. Nesmith was a typist. One day, she brought with her to work a small brush and a bottle of white paint which she used to correct her typos. She shared her "Mistake Out" with other secretaries, and was soon approached by an office supply company to market her invention. She later renamed the product Liquid Paper, and in 1979, sold the rights to the Gillette Company for $47.5 million.
In 1952, Mary Barrett, president of the National Secretaries Association, C. King Woodbridge, president of Dictaphone Corporation, and American businessman Harry F. Klemfuss created a special Secretary's Day holiday, to recognize the hard work of the staff in the office. The holiday caught on, and is now celebrated during the fourth week of April in offices all over the world. The day has been renamed "Administrative Professional's Week" to represent the more challenging roles of secretaries today.
In 1957, at the age of 68, T.S.Eliot married Esmé Valerie Fletcher, who was 30. She had been his secretary at Faber and Faber since August 1949.
Four-letter words used by angry footballers set a problem for the British post office in the mid 1960s. Reports on bad language offences had to go by post to the FA Disciplinary Committee. To avoid embarrassing FA secretaries, the envelopes were marked ‘Not to be opened by females’.
Martin Luther King confessed in a 1965 sermon of his secretary having to remind him of his wife's birthday and the couple's wedding anniversary.
The first laptop was made in 1982. It was priced at around $20,000 in today's money and weighed 11 pounds, but it was the keyboard that led to its failure: typing was associated with the secretarial pool – no self-respecting businessman would be seen dead typing on a keyboard.
After graduating from Exeter in 1986, JK Rowling moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International. She was dismissed from her job as a secretary for daydreaming too much.
Joseph Stalin had an office in the Kremlin where his faithful secretary, Poskrebyshev kept the days paperwork ready for the Russian leader.
The invention of typing correction fluid is credited to Bette Nesmith, the mother of former Monkee Mike Nesmith. In the 1950s, Mrs. Nesmith was a typist. One day, she brought with her to work a small brush and a bottle of white paint which she used to correct her typos. She shared her "Mistake Out" with other secretaries, and was soon approached by an office supply company to market her invention. She later renamed the product Liquid Paper, and in 1979, sold the rights to the Gillette Company for $47.5 million.
In 1952, Mary Barrett, president of the National Secretaries Association, C. King Woodbridge, president of Dictaphone Corporation, and American businessman Harry F. Klemfuss created a special Secretary's Day holiday, to recognize the hard work of the staff in the office. The holiday caught on, and is now celebrated during the fourth week of April in offices all over the world. The day has been renamed "Administrative Professional's Week" to represent the more challenging roles of secretaries today.
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| Pixibay |
In 1957, at the age of 68, T.S.Eliot married Esmé Valerie Fletcher, who was 30. She had been his secretary at Faber and Faber since August 1949.
Four-letter words used by angry footballers set a problem for the British post office in the mid 1960s. Reports on bad language offences had to go by post to the FA Disciplinary Committee. To avoid embarrassing FA secretaries, the envelopes were marked ‘Not to be opened by females’.
Martin Luther King confessed in a 1965 sermon of his secretary having to remind him of his wife's birthday and the couple's wedding anniversary.
The first laptop was made in 1982. It was priced at around $20,000 in today's money and weighed 11 pounds, but it was the keyboard that led to its failure: typing was associated with the secretarial pool – no self-respecting businessman would be seen dead typing on a keyboard.
 |
| Pixibay |
After graduating from Exeter in 1986, JK Rowling moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International. She was dismissed from her job as a secretary for daydreaming too much.
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