The Most Beautiful Women of the Early 1900s
The Edwardian era is the period between 1901 and 1910, named after King Edward VII of Great Britain, the most fashionable royal of the century who demanded extreme glamour.
Even though it was a period where societal norms for women were quite different than they are today, with women’s fight for political equality in its infancy, it was actually a time when many prominent female artists and writers left their mark. Here are some of those successful artistic women from the Edwardian era.
Florence Evelyn Nesbit
She was born in 1884 near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By her teenage, Evelyn Nesbit was already a charming and beautiful girl who quickly gained in popularity as a model, actress, and chorus girl, and socialized with people from the artistic and theatrical circles in New York City.
Evelyn Nesbit by Otto Sarony.
Evelyn Nesbit by Otto Sarony.
However, she became remembered for the so-called “Trial of the Century,” when her husband Harry Kendall Thaw killed the renowned architect Stanford White.
Miss N (Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit), 1903.
Miss N (Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit), 1903.
Thaw was an heir to a multi-million dollar mining and railroad fortune but had a history of mental instability. White was one of the first associates of Nesbit when she moved to New York, and became her benefactor.
Nesbit photographed by Otto Sarony, 1902.
Nesbit photographed by Otto Sarony, 1902.
Obsessively in love with Evelyn he drugged and raped her once when she was 14. It all came to light when Thaw killed White with the excuse “I did it because he ruined my wife.”
Evelyn Nesbit. Photograph by Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr., 1901.
Evelyn Nesbit. Photograph by Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr., 1901.
In a much later confession, Nesbit told the public that the night she was raped, “she entered the room as a virgin but didn’t come out as one.”
Aida Overton Walker
Called “The Queen of the Cakewalk,” Aida was an African-American vaudeville performer, choreographer, singer, and actress from Richmond, Virginia.
Ada (Aida) Overton Walker.
Ada (Aida) Overton Walker.
She grew up in New York City and started performing at her age of 15 as a chorus member in “Black Patti’s Troubadours.”
She married the American vaudevillian, George Walker, and together they had a brilliant career.
Aida Overton Walker.
Aida Overton Walker.
Aida was a very respected artist and quite well-paid. She was mostly remembered for her performance of the “Salome” at Hammerstein’s Victoria Theatre in 1912.
Ethel Clayton
Originally from Illinois, Ethel Clayton worked her way up as an actress from bit parts to star billing.
Ethel Clayton.
Ethel Clayton.
She started as a stage actress and became one of the most popular starts during the silent movie era. Between 1909 and 1947, Clayton appeared in 147 movies. In 1915 she married director Joseph Kaufman, who unfortunately died of pneumonia that same year.
Ad for Maybelline eyebrow and eyelash darkener with actress Ethel Clayton, on page 116 of the January 1922 ‘Photoplay.’
Ad for Maybelline eyebrow and eyelash darkener with actress Ethel Clayton, on page 116 of the January 1922 ‘Photoplay.’
She later had one more marriage, to Ian Keith, that ended in divorce after five years. Clayton played her last major role in 1933, and in 1947 she retired from the cinema business.
Ethel Warwick
Ethel Warwick was a stage and movie actress who appeared in Bachelor’s Baby, The Bigamist, Letting in the Sunshine, The Magistrate, and many other movies.
Signed photograph of Ethel Warwick.
Signed photograph of Ethel Warwick.
Ethel Warwick.
Ethel Warwick.
Prior to her acting career, Warwick gained her popularity posing as a nude model for the artist James McNeil. She died in 1951, aged 69.
Maude Fealy
In 1903, Maude Fealy showed up at the “Beauties of the World” pageant and made America fall in love with her.
Actress Maude Fealy, circa 1901.
Actress Maude Fealy, circa 1901.
Stage and silent movie actress Maude Fealy.
Stage and silent movie actress Maude Fealy.
Postcard of Maude Fealy as Juliet in ‘Romeo and Juliet.’
Postcard of Maude Fealy as Juliet in ‘Romeo and Juliet.’
She was the new sensation who toured the showbiz circuit in Britain before heading back to the U.S. where she started her career as an actress. She appeared in many silent movies and later survived the early “talkie” era.
Miss Maude Fealy in ‘Hamlet.’
Miss Maude Fealy in ‘Hamlet.’
Then she took some years off to fulfill her dream of organizing her own theater company in which she had the freedom to work as a playwright and also to cross-dress and take on the male roles.
Marie Doro
Marie Doro was born in 1882, in Pennsylvania, and started her stage career as chorus-girl on Broadway.
Marie Doro
Marie Doro
In her early age on stage, Doro was usually given lightweight feminine roles while privately, she was very intelligent, witty, and cultivated. However, she remains remembered mostly for her beauty. When she died in 1956, Doro bequeathed some $100,000 to the Actors’ Fund.
Lily Elsie
“Perhaps her face is nearer to that of Venus de Milo in profile than to any other famed beauty” – was a quote in a newspaper referring to the English actress and singer, Lily Elsie.
Lily Elsie – postcard, postmarked Birmingham, September 1909.
Lily Elsie – postcard, postmarked Birmingham, September 1909.
Lily Elsie, as Sonia in the 1907 production of ‘The Merry Widow’ – postcard, postmarked October 1907.
Lily Elsie, as Sonia in the 1907 production of ‘The Merry Widow’ – postcard, postmarked October 1907.
Lily Elsie, silent movie actress.
Lily Elsie, silent movie actress.
Lily Elsie in ‘The Merry Widow.’
Lily Elsie in ‘The Merry Widow.’
She started her career as a child actress and became one of the most photographed women of the Edwardian period. She is best known for her starring role in The Merry Widow in 1907.
Gladys Cooper
Gladys Cooper was very attractive from her childhood. At the age of six, her mother took her to be photographed in a studio in London.
Gladys Cooper in fancy-dress costume.
Gladys Cooper in fancy-dress costume.
She was soon regularly in demand as a child model for photographs. During her teenage years, Gladys performed in pantomime and musical comedy, slowly moving on to dramatic roles and movies as she grew up.
Read another story from us: Vintage Supermodels – “Glamorous” Dresses in the 1860s
Between 1917 and 1933, she was the manager of Playhouse Theatre in London, and later a favorite on the Broadway stage.
In the 1940s she moved to Hollywood and was three times nominated for Academy Awards.
Minnie Brown
Minnie Brown was an actress and performer who spent from 1902 to 1918 entertaining in Europe, Russia, and the Far East. She was part of the circle of very successful African-American women performers who were based in Russia during those years who included Ollie Burgoyne, Pearl Hobson, and Georgette Harvey. (source)
Julia James
Julia James was an actress who was born in London and began her career at the Aldwych Theatre under Seymour Hicks, playing there Supper Belle in "Blue Bell" (1905). She appeared at the Gaiety Theatre in "The Girls of Gottenburg", "Havana" and "Our Miss Gibbs. In 1913 she played Sombra in "The Arcadians of L'Olympia in Paris, France.
Geneviève "Ginette" Lantelme was a French stage actress, socialite, fashion icon, and courtesan. Considered by her contemporaries to be one of the most beautiful women of the Belle Epoque, she is remembered for the mysterious circumstances of her death: on the night of July 24/25, 1911, she fell from the yacht of her husband, Alfred Edwards.
Geneviève "Ginette" Lantelme
"Billie" Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress, famous on Broadway and in an early silent film, best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the movie musical The Wizard of Oz.
She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1938 and is also remembered for her appearances in the Topper series. Burke's voice was unique in intonation, which she accentuated in her later character roles as dim-witted, spoiled society types. (source)
"Billie" Burke
Camilla Antoinette Clifford,
Camilla Antoinette Clifford, aka "the quintessential Gibson Girl", was a Belgian-born stage actress and the most famous model for the "Gibson Girl" illustrations. Her towering coiffure and hourglass figure defined the Gibson Girl style.
Photographs of her taken by Lizzie Caswall Smith in 1905 often appear in historical fashion books and on websites to illustrate the Edwardian style. Her trademark style was a long, elegant gown wrapped around her tightly corseted, eighteen-inch wasp waist.
Camilla Antoinette Clifford,
Annette Marie Sarah Kellermann
Annette Marie Sarah Kellermann was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville star, film actress, writer, and business owner.
She was one of the first women to wear a one-piece bathing costume, instead of the then-accepted pantaloons. Kellerman's swimming costumes became so popular, that she started her own fashion line of one-piece bathing suits. Kellermann helped popularize the sport of synchronised swimming; and authored a swimming manual. She appeared in several movies and was the first major actress to appear nude in a Hollywood production. (source)
Annette Marie Sarah Kellermann
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American stage and film actress whose distinctive style, voice, and wit made her the "first lady" of the American theatre.
Ethel Barrymore starred for the first time on Broadway in 1901. In 1928 she opened the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York. She also appeared in vaudeville, on radio and television and in several films. During the 1920s and 1930s, she made only one film. In 1944, she played opposite Cary Grant in the film None but the Lonely Heart. (sourc
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