 She trained and worked as a teacher before marrying a wealthy doctor in 1910, at which point she started buying clothes from department stores in Bold Street, Liverpool, as well as having bespoke items made by a local dress maker.Her collection, which has been donated to the National Museums Liverpool, contains over 700 items and is the largest from an individual owned by a museum in the United Kingdom.The clothes are of high quality, with many items still unworn in their original tissue paper and boxes, the price tags and delivery information still attached.