Chapter 20, Spring 2023
Mabel MacLeay and Florence Molloy with their taxis, 1922. Photo by Ed Tangen. From the Museum of Boulder Collection at Carnegie Library (Call# 141-16-9).
CARNEGIE CACHE:
Florence Molloy and Mabel MacLeay: A piece of women’s history, a possible piece of LGBTQ history? By Nicole Docimo Since the first time I happened upon the photo above in the Carnegie Library archive, I have been intrigued by these two women. If you’re interested in Boulder history, you have likely heard of them; in addition to developing their own business in mountain tours and operating a taxi service around town (something that was virtually unheard of as a profession for women when they arrived in Boulder circa 1918), Florence Molloy and Mabel MacLeay also owned a dude ranch in Gold Hill called the Double M Ranch after their two last names. But this is just the first layer of their story.
Last summer I began learning about the process of uncovering LGBTQ stories from history. LGBTQ history is one of the most difficult histories to find as it is so often completely invisible. As I began dipping my toe in this work with the help of the Colorado LGBTQ history project, Florence Molloy and Mabel MacLeay popped back into my head. At that point I had never really dove into their story, but I found it interesting that their names were always spoken in the same sentence without any mention of men. As an archivist, the cardinal rule when conducting research is: assume nothing, so I looked more deeply at the facts of their lives. 27