Emarel Freshel
Freshelc. 1922
Born	Maud Russell Lorraine Carpenter 1867 (1867) West Virginia
Died	1949 (aged 81–82)
Alma mater	Organtz College
Occupation(s)	Designer, activist foranimal rights andvegetarianism
Spouses	Ernest R. Sharpe Curtis P. Freshel ​ (m. 1917)​

Maud Russell Lorraine Freshel (née Carpenter; other married nameSharpe; 1867–1949) was an American socialite, designer, andanimal rights andvegetarianism activist. She also went by her initials,M. R. L., which she later spelledEmarel.

Maud Russell Lorraine Carpenter was born in 1867 inWest Virginia the daughter of Mary Amaryllis "Emma" Bower and Russell Carpenter. She grew up in Chicago and graduated fromOrgantz College. She married Ernest R. Sharpe of Boston. In 1917, she married Curtis P. Freshel.

Freshel was ananti-vivisectionist,Christian Science practitioner, and vegetarian.^[1] She authored the vegetarian cookbookThe Golden Rule Cookbook.^[2] Her dog was also vegetarian.^[3] In 1917, she resigned from the Christian Science church because it supported the entry of the United States intoWorld War I.^[2]

Freshel and her husband were friends ofGeorge Bernard Shaw, during their travels to England they were occasional guests at his house.^[4]

Freshel founded the Millennium Guild in 1912, the first animal rights organization in the United States.^[5] The Guild promotedfaux fur as an alternative to fur fabrics and recommended a vegetarian diet for ethical reasons.^[6] It hostedThanksgiving dinners at theCopley Plaza hotel in Boston.^[7] The Guild's most notable supporter was stage actressMinnie Maddern Fiske.^[4]

Members of the Guild wore cotton clothes and avoided all animal-based clothing.^[8] By 1913, the Guild reported 200 members. The goal of the organization was to "teach the foremost among the unnecessary evils of the world, and one which underlies most of the other evils, is the mutilation and slaughter of our fellow creatures for food and other selfish ends."^[8]

Curtis founded the Millennium Food Company to producemeat substitutes and non-animal foods.^[4] Its most successful product was Bakon Yeast, made from hickory smoke.^[4] After Freshel died her husband Curtis controlled the Guild and after his death the organization was directed byPegeen Fitzgerald.^[5]

Mrs. Freshel is traditionally held to be responsible for the original designs of the Wisteria and Pond LilyTiffany lamps that won the grand prize at the 1902 Prima Exposizione d’Arte Decoration Moderna in Turin, Italy. In 1900, she commissionedLouis Comfort Tiffany to decorate her home inChestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Included in her sketches was a lampshade modeled after thewisteria that grew there. It is presumed that she exchanged the commercial rights to the design for a reduced fee on the work. However, the recent discovery ofClara Driscoll's letters suggests instead that Driscoll may have been responsible for the Wisteria design.

She designed a Swiss chalet style house for her neighbors Mr. and Mrs. John G. "Jack" Ramsbottom at 86 Commonwealth Avenue in Chestnut Hill. This and her own Tudor style house at 74 were acquired and gutted byBoston College and known as the Philomatheia Club and Alumni Hall, respectively. They were razed in 1988 to make way for dormitories.

• M. R. L. attended the 1893Parliament of the World's Religions as aChristian Scientist. There she metAnagarika Dharmapala. In 1917, she left the Christian Science Church when it endorsed entry into World War I.^[2]
• She visitedLeo Tolstoy in Russia andCosima Wagner in Germany. She metGeorge Bernard Shaw, who supposedly gave her the nickname "Emarel" from her initials.^{[citation needed]}
• Mrs. Sharpe was known for dressing in faux furs. In 1911, she co-founded the Millennium Guild, named after the prophecy of Isaiah 9:11 of a day when hurting and killing would cease.^{[citation needed]}
• She hosted vegetarian dinners and films of slaughterhouses at her home, which was known as Providence House.^{[citation needed]}
• She organized an annual vegetarian thanksgiving dinner atCopley Plaza Hotel.^{[citation needed][when?]}
• She served on the board of theNew England Anti-Vivisection Society and was active in the Animal Rescue League of Boston.^{[9][citation needed]}

• The Golden Rule Cook Book: Six Hundred Recipes for Meatless Dishes. Cambridge, Mass.: University Press. 1908. and subsequent editions through 1926.
• Some Reasons Against the Carnivorous Diet as Given in the Preface to the "Golden Rule Cook Book". Vegetarian Society of New York, 1926.
• Selections From Three Essays By Richard Wagner. Record Press, 1933.

• Iacobbo, Karen; Michael Iacobbo (2004).Vegetarian America: A History. Westport, Conn.:Praeger. pp. 147–149.ISBN 0-275-97519-3.
• Lancaster, Clay (1985).The American Bungalow, 1880-1930. New York:Abbeville Publishing Group (Abbeville Press, Inc.). pp. 164–165.ISBN 0-89659-340-1.
• Prather-Moses, Alice Irma (1981).The International Dictionary of Women Workers in the Decorative Arts : A Historical Survey from the Distant Past to the Early Decades of the Twentieth Century. Metuchen, N.J.:Scarecrow Press. pp. 59.ISBN 0-8108-1450-1.
• Adams, Carol J. (1989). "Feminism, the Great War, and Modern Vegetarianism". In Cooper, Helen Margaret; Munich, Adrienne; Squier, Susan Merrill (eds.).Arms and the Woman: War, Gender, and Literary Representation. Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Press. pp. 246.ISBN 0-8078-1860-7.

• Vegetarian Museum – Early 20th Century – M.R.L. Freshel and the Millennium Guild
• Morse Museum of American Art – The Illuminated Vision – Tiffany Lamps and Lighting – Object GuideArchived 2012-02-09 at theWayback Machine
• A New Light on Tiffany:Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls New-York Historical Society February 23, 2007 through Memorial Day.audioguide transcript
• Animal Rescue League of Boston
• Works by Emarel Freshel atLibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

• 1867 births
• 1949 deaths
• American animal rights activists
• American cookbook writers
• American Christian Scientists
• American stained glass artists and manufacturers
• American socialites
• American vegetarianism activists
• American women activists
• American anti-vivisectionists
• Vegetarian cookbook writers
• Writers from West Virginia
• Activists from West Virginia
• Artists from West Virginia

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