“A Good Deal of Free Advertising” despite her “Obscene Character”: Nuancing Media Portrayals of an Escaped Nun in the Gilded Age and Progressive Eras

This article examines the media coverage of the “escaped nun,” Edith O'Gorman, one of the few “escaped nuns” who had actually been a member of a religious community. She used her experiences in the convent to drive her career as a lecturer in the United States and abroad. Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative analysis, this article examines US newspaper coverage of O'Gorman from the year of her escape in 1868 to a year after her death in 1929. By analyzing articles, advertisements and reviews of the escaped nun, this study traces a shift in how the American newspapers portrayed the former nun, initially largely depicting her in sensationalist and entertainment terms in the 1860s through 1880s to later placing her as part of a determined anti‐Catholic movement in the 1890s through 1910s. Unlike previous histories on anti‐Catholicism in this era, this study traces media coverage of an anti‐Catholic reformer in the general press, rather than only in the nativist press. This study nuances the history of anti‐Catholicism in the years after the American Civil War, particularly how Americans may have viewed the convent and escaped nuns.