Meg Crane—A Woman Ahead of Her Time

Catherine Walker, a close friend of Meg Crane, wrote this story and reviewed it with her.

Have you ever wondered where the home pregnancy test came from? Who invented it? One of our Murray Hill neighbors did! Her name is Meg Crane, and she’s lived in Murray Hill for over 50 years.

Meg and her late partner Ira Sturtevant moved into our neighborhood in 1969, on 35th Street for 26 years, then 37th Street for 31 years and counting. Meg was born in New Jersey in the late 1930s and lived there with her parents, grandparents and four brothers until she took her future into her own hands and moved to Manhattan to follow her dream of attending art school and becoming an artist.

Meg attended Parsons School of Design and after a few part-time jobs (at the likes of Harper’s Bazaar), she landed a position at Organon Pharmaceuticals in New Jersey, commuting over an hour each way for a few years. Her job at Organon wasn’t exactly what she wanted to be doing. She found herself project managing supplies for Organon’s new line of women’s products. But she really wanted to be designing these products.

One day in the lab, she discovered pregnancy tests that Organon did for doctors who would send samples of women’s urine to them for diagnosis. After learning what was involved in conducting and reading the tests, and how long it took (up to four weeks!) for women to learn of the results, she questioned why a woman could not do this herself, and was convinced it was possible. Despite pushback from the company, she made it her mission to bring the test into the hands of women and on her own created a prototype. The test became a consumer product and was sold in Europe, Canada and elsewhere in 1971, but it was ten years before the test was approved by the FDA and available for sale to women in the U.S. The test of today looks nothing like the one Meg created in 1967! (If you’d like to see the original test, one of Meg’s prototypes is on display in an exhibition called ”Designing Motherhood” currently at the Museum of Arts and Design until March 2026.)

During her time at Organon, Meg met Ira, a very successful ad man from Madison Avenue, and it was love at first sight. They worked together marketing the at-home pregnancy test and went on to form their own marketing agency where they worked together for 41 years on a wide range and variety of projects. Their clients included Bristol Myers, AT&T, IBM, The Japan Society, various non-profits, and small hotels in the Caribbean Islands. Meg is the author of Insanity Claus and is still a freelance designer to this day.

Meg enjoys jazz, friends, art and is a huge supporter of local community activities, restaurants and businesses. And it’s through our local coffee shop Lucid, that I met Meg. I’ve been living in Murray Hill for 10 years and found myself along with other neighbors at a summer rooftop gathering about six years ago where I met her, and we’ve been close friends ever since. Recently we worked together with a team who brought Meg’s story to life on stage. Predictor, a play about her invention of the home pregnancy test, had an off-Broadway run, and we thank our many neighbors who came to see it!

CELEBRATING 65+ YEARS OF

The Murray Hill Neighborhood Association

Better Together

The Preservation & Design Committee’s Murray Hill Neighbors’ Stories is a place

to share your memories, anecdotes, surprising encounters, or human interest

stories that charm, surprise, and build our community.

We want to hear from you!

MURRAY HILL NEIGHBORS’ STORIES –

What drew you to our neighborhood?

How long have you lived here?

Why do you love living here?

We look forward to getting to know you better.

Send Your Stories to The Preservation and Design Murray Hill Neighbors’ Stories Committee.

Chair: Barbara Gieseler

Pauline Brooks, Susan Demmet, Deborah Landey, and Michaela Walsh

MurrayHillStories@murrayhillnyc.org  We will acknowledge your email and contact you if your

submission has been accepted.

Please Note – The Murray Hill Neighbors’ Stories Committee does not edit or comment on

stories submitted and accepted, except for spelling and punctuation which are then reviewed

with the story provider.