Mary Phelps Jacob, later known as Caresse Crosby, was born in New Rochelle, New York.
On April 20, 1891, Mary Phelps Jacob was born in New Rochelle, New York, into a socially prominent family with deep roots in American colonial history, including descent from Robert Fulton. She would later become known to the world as Caresse Crosby, a name she adopted in the 1920s.
Her early upbringing among New York's elite society shaped the debutante experience that would, decades later, prompt her most famous invention. Though many secondary sources list a slightly varying birth year, 1891 is the most widely supported date across biographical accounts.
Jacob's life would go on to intersect with numerous major cultural currents of the twentieth century — from the invention of an iconic undergarment to the patronage of modernist literature in Paris, placing her at the center of both innovation and artistic history.