Women's Business; Exhibit Showcases Achievements

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Byline: Gabriella Boston, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

We're used to hearing about our Founding Fathers and businessmen who helped make this country what it is today. The National Museum of Women in the Arts, with its "Enterprising Women: 250 years of American Business," reminds us that women, too, were and are involved in that enterprise.

Mary Katherine Goddard (1738-1816), for example, was a newspaper publisher, the postmistress of Baltimore and, last but not least, printed the first copy of the Declaration of Independence with the typeset names of the signers.

Martha J. Coston (1826?-1902?), an inventor and entrepreneur, patented a pyrotechnic night signal, a type of maritime communication tool that helped give the Union's naval power the edge over the South in the Civil War.

Both women are among 40 of America's most successful businesswomen featured in the exhibit, which will run through Feb. 29. Besides short biographies of the women, the exhibit includes plenty of …