A USPS stamp depicting a Gibson girl.

The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal as portrayed in the satirical pen and ink illustrated stories created by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson during over 15 years spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Celebrate the Century stamp - Gibson Girl This image is a postage stamp produced by the United States Postal Service after 1978. ... Celebrate the Century stamp - Gibson Girl This image is a postage stamp produced by the United States Postal Service after 1978. ... The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent establishment of the executive branch of the United States Government (see 39 U.S.C. Â§ 201) responsible for providing postal service in the United States. ... An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing written text by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text. ... Charles Dana Gibson (September 14, 1867 _ December 23, 1944) was an American graphic artist, noted for his creation of one of the first pin-up girls, the Gibson Girl. Woman Jurors by Charles Dana Gibson, 1902 He was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. ...

A photograph of Camille Clifford, showing the S-curve silhouette of the fashionable Edwardian 'swan-bill corset'.

The Gibson Girl was tall, slender yet with ample bosom, hips and bottom in the S-curve torso shape achieved by wearing a swan-bill corset; she was fine-featured, and achingly beautiful. The images of her epitomized the late nineteenth and early 20th-century Western preoccupation with statuesque, youthful features, and ephemeral beauty. Her neck was thin and her hair piled high upon her head in the contemporary bouffant, pompadour, and chignon ("waterfall of curls") fashions. Download high resolution version (413x646, 29 KB)Camille Clifford was an actress. ... Download high resolution version (413x646, 29 KB)Camille Clifford was an actress. ... Camille Clifford, the quintessential Gibson Girl Camilla Antoinette Clifford (June 29, 1885- June 28, 1971), daughter of the late Reynold Clifford and Matilda Ottersen, was born in Antwerp, Belgium. ... An ordinary hourglass corset from around 1890. ... A bouffant (IPA pronunciation: [bu:fa:nt]) is a type of hairstyle characterized by hair piled high on the head and hanging down on the sides. ... Pompadour is a style of haircut which takes its name from Madame de Pompadour. ... A chignon is also a type of bun hairstyle, made popular and worn by many women. ...

Many models posed for Gibson Girl-style illustrations, including Gibson's wife, Irene Langhorne, (who may have been the original model) and Evelyn Nesbit. The most famous Gibson Girl was probably the Danish-American stage actress, Camille Clifford, whose towering coiffure and long, elegant gowns wrapped around her hourglass figure and tightly corseted wasp waist defined the style. Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 – January 17, 1967) was an artists model and chorus girl, noted for her entanglement in the murder of her ex-lover, architect Stanford White, by her first husband, Harry K. Thaw. ... Camille Clifford, the quintessential Gibson Girl Camilla Antoinette Clifford (June 29, 1885- June 28, 1971), daughter of the late Reynold Clifford and Matilda Ottersen, was born in Antwerp, Belgium. ... An ordinary hourglass corset from around 1890. ... Wasp waist (1885) Wasp waist by hip form girdle (1901) Wasp waist refers to a style of corset and girdle that has experienced various periods of popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries. ...

Among Gibson Girl illustrators were Howard Chandler Christy whose work celebrating American "beauties" was similar to Gibson's and Harry G. Peter, who was most famous for his art on Wonder Woman comics. Harry G. Peter (born March 8, 1880 in California) was a newspaper illustrator and cartoonist, long resident in San Francisco. ... Wonder Woman is a fictional DC Comics superheroine co-created by William Moulton Marston and wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston. ...

The Gibson Girl personified beauty, limited independence, personal fulfillment (she was pictured attending college and choosing the best mate, but she was never pictured as part of a suffrage march), and American national prestige. By the outbreak of World War I, changing fashions caused the Gibson Girl to fall from favor. Women of the World War I era favored a sober, masculine suit (first designed and popularized by Coco Chanel) over the elegant dresses, bustle gowns, shirtwaists, and terraced, shorter skirts favored by the Gibson Girl. Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nikolay II Aleksey Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert H. Asquith D. Lloyd George Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna... Gabrielle Bonheur Coco Chanel (August 19, 1883 – January 10, 1971)[1] was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her arguably the most important figure in the history of 20th-century fashion. ... Waist is a common term for the bodice of a dress or for a blouse or womans shirt from the early nineteenth century through the Edwardian period. ...

Survival radio

An RAAF survival radio transmitter carried by World War II aircraft on over-water operations was named the 'Gibson Girl' because of its 'hour-glass' shape. It included a fold-up/down metal frame box kite for which the flying line was an aerial wire. A hand-crank generator provided power for the distress radio signal. When the user was seated in an inflatable life boat, the 'Gibson Girl' shape of the radio allowed it to be held stationary, between the legs and above the knees, while the generator handle was turned. The distress signal, in Morse code, was produced automatically as the handle was turned. ^[1] The RAAF Roundel is based on that of the British Royal Air Force, with the central circle replaced by a Kangaroo, a symbol of Australia. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

See also

• Camille Clifford, the Gibson Girl.
• Evelyn Nesbit
• Flapper
• New Woman
• Valeska Surratt
• 1890s in fashion

Camille Clifford, the quintessential Gibson Girl Camilla Antoinette Clifford (June 29, 1885- June 28, 1971), daughter of the late Reynold Clifford and Matilda Ottersen, was born in Antwerp, Belgium. ... Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 – January 17, 1967) was an artists model and chorus girl, noted for her entanglement in the murder of her ex-lover, architect Stanford White, by her first husband, Harry K. Thaw. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The New Woman was a feminist ideal which emerged in the final decades of the 19th century in Europe and North America as a reaction to the role, as characterized by the so-called Cult of Domesticity, ascribed to women in the Victorian era. ... Valeska Surratt (1882 - 1962) was an actress on stage and in silent films, she was also a Baháí. Surratt was born on June 28, 1882 in Owensville, Indiana, the daughter of Ralph M Strickland and Anna Matthews. ... Fashion in the 1890s finally got rid of the bustle which had haunted womens fashion for 25 years. ...

References

1. ^ Wireless for the Warrior

Additional Reading

• Martha H. Patterson, Beyond the Gibson Girl: Reimagining the American New Woman, 1895-1915 (University of Illinois Press): 2005.