Vetabelle Philips Carter became a member of the Alpha Xi Delta chapter at the University of Washington. The chapter was founded in 1907. In one of its first chapter reports includes this information:
two pledges have also been added to our number, Vetabel (sic) Phillips and Zelda Connor – two lovely girls, whom we will initiate before we part for the summer.
The next edition of The Quill reported”
On the morning of May 30th an initiation ceremony was held for our two new girls, Vetabel (sic) Phillips and Zelda Connor. Nu feels that she cannot be congratulated enough on her success in winning these two strong local member for dear old Alpha.
Although she had musical ability and wanted to be a dancer or musician, her family was against those careers. Instead, she became a teacher and taught at a Native American reservation in Washington for a few years.
On July 7, 1913, she married an engineer and graduate of Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School, Fred Mortimer Carter, Jr. Their first few years of marriage saw the couple moving and following his career. The Carters were in San Francisco in the early 1920s.
Automobiles were becoming part of American life, and she was becoming concerned about the number of traffic fatalities being reported in the newspaper. In 1927, there was one fatality per 1,000 cars on the road. And as more cars appeared on the road, more accidents and fatalities happened.
She thought of ways to help stop the number of traffic accidents. Using potatoes and a paring knife, she designed prototypes. Her more successful potato creations were redesigned using other mediums – clay, cardboard and finally metal. She created a working traffic signal. In a 1928 newspaper article, she described it:
My first achievement was an illuminated ‘through street sign, bearing on its face the words ‘Stop, through street,’ the lettering of opalescent glass, and lighted from behind by a flashing bulb, which enabled it to function equally well by day and night.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 26, 1928. Vetabelle Phillips Carter posed with her invention.
Five hundred of the signs were installed on San Francisco streets by the California State Automobile Association.
1927 patents
Daughter Paulena was born in 1930. Her mother doted on and nurtured her daughter’s musical ability and Paulena became a concert pianist. Fred Carter died on May 1 1954. Later that year, Vetabelle purchased a 1954 Lincoln Capri. Although Vetabelle died in 1978, the car still lives on.
