Gibson girl, The

Definition

The incarnate American female beauty in the 1890s as portrayed by (and in a large measure created by) illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) in his many drawings for Life, Century, Harper's, Scribners, and Colliers Weekly. The New American Woman was typified as a tall, willowy creature with an hourglass figure, a huge mass of upswept, bouncy hair, and a permanent air of aristocratic calm.