Henrietta Duterte, the first female mortician

Henrietta Duterte (July 1817 - December 23, 1903) was an abolitionist, philanthropist, and funeral director. Born into the prominent Bowers family of Philadelphia, she was one of thirteen children. 

Her siblings included abolitionist and entrepreneur John C. Bowers, and Thomas Bowers, a concert artist referred to as “The Colored Mario.” The latter was so-named due to the similarity between his voice and that of Italian opera singer Giovanni Mario, though he disliked the moniker. 

In 1852, Henrietta married Francis A. Duterte, a Haitian-American undertaker who owned his own funeral home. None of their children would survive past infancy, and Francis died in 1858. Henrietta, in defiance of contemporary social mores, took over the business at 848 Lombard Street, becoming the first American woman to do so. Before this, she worked as a seamstress, making clothing for the middle and upper class.

Henrietta Duterte's funeral home 

This ledger shows that Duterte ran the funeral home in her own name 

Though women have always been at the front of death care and preparing bodies for burial, they have historically been excluded from the industry. Today, most mortuary science students (roughly 60%) are women, and as a result, so are most incoming funeral directors. 

In addition to being prosperous, the Duterte funeral parlor was a stop along the Underground Railroad. Henrietta would often hide the self-liberated in coffins or disguise them to blend in with funeral processions. Though slavery had been abolished in Philadelphia, it was still treacherous to pass through. The city was also uniquely positioned to be a major hub for abolition. It sat just 15 miles above the Mason-Dixon line and was part of the Metropolitan Corridor, which was a network of Black activists who smuggled the formerly enslaved up North. 

The business thrived, driven by Henrietta’s reputation for compassion, professionalism, and efficiency. By the time of her death in 1903, the funeral home was pulling in roughly $8,000 in annual revenue, which is something like $211,000 in today’s dollars. This allowed her to financially support organizations such as the Philadelphia Home for Aged and Infirmed Colored Persons and the Freedmen’s Aid Society, which assisted the formerly enslaved in Tennessee. 

Henrietta served her last client just two days before her own death at the age of 86. She is interred in Eden Cemetery, the oldest Black-owned cemetery in Pennsylvania.