The Bissell Carpet Sweeper

Another look inside the museum at our collection-

The Bissell Carpet Sweeper

History of the Bissell Carpet Sweeper

A Simple Start: Spilled Sawdust…Anna and Melville’s Crockery Shop

Like a lot of well intentioned people who plan on having a relaxing Saturday, we didn’t really mean to start cleaning—it just happened. In 1876, Melville R. Bissell and his wife, Anna, were running a small crockery shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Sick of constantly cleaning sawdust off the shop’s carpet, Melville invented and patented a one-of-a-kind sweeper. It didn’t take long for friends and customers at the shop to ask about buying the sweeper, and when they did, a new business was born

A Woman’s World: America’s First Female CEO

When Melville passed away in 1889, there was no question who would take the reigns at BISSELL®. Anna stepped in, making her the first female CEO in America. Anna aggressively defended the company’s patents while also marketing sweepers across North America and Europe. It didn’t take long for BISSELL® to get its first famous fan, Queen Victoria, who insisted her palace be “Bisselled” every week. We like to think the palace attendants were also fans, loving the free time they had thanks to how easy the BISSELL sweeper made cleaning up royal messes.(Wikipedia)

You can see these artifacts in the Pioneer Room on the second floor