Illustrating Identity: Ethel Reed’s Art Posters and Women's Claims to Public Space in Fin-de-Siècle Boston

Much scholarship has uncovered the history of women illustrators during the late nineteenth century. The rebuilding of these lost histories calls for research which theorizes women’s contributions to the burgeoning arts scene of the fin-de-siècle. This thesis will examine the posters Ethel Reed created for different companies during the height of the 1890s poster craze and discuss how she articulated women in public space in them. Reed’s art offers an aestheticized yet feminist visualization of women engaging in leisure activities such as exploring the city, reading, or attending the theatre. Many have described the women in her posters as merely decorative. I argue that her decorative imagery of women depicts them not only as representative of high culture, as men often depicted women of the upper classes at the century’s end, but as its cultivators and connoisseurs. Reed crafted an image which would have spoken to white middle- and upper-class Progressive women, hearkening to their cultural refinement and their femininity. Drawing from feminist theories on women and space, this thesis takes into account Reed’s own experience of public space in Boston. I posit that the city’s feminist and bohemian subcurrents and their connection to the New Woman informed Reed’s posters of women. Additionally, I draw attention to French artistic influences, such as Art Nouveau and its prolific use of women as subject matter, and how she adopted these practices in her own work. By examining how women navigated Boston, Reed’s posters, and letters to those in her inner circles, such as the leader of Boston’s bohemia, the architect Ralph Adams Cram, this thesis will demonstrate how the artist wielded space in her work to reflect women’s growing prominence in the public realm. Advisor: Wendy J. Katz