<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>During the 1890s, just about any flat surface in the public eye might be covered with simple, bold, and colorful posters. They advertised everything from books to bicycles, as well as railroads, magazines, and newspapers. Engaging designs attracted attention to the goods on offer and to the poster itself, soon enthusiastically sought by collectors. Publishers and manufacturers held design competitions and posters became extraordinarily popular. Recognition of the poster as an art form developed in France in the 1880s and, while not a new format, the American art poster of the 1890s achieved a level of significance that influenced the growth of modern advertising in the 20th century. Ethel Reed's lively images contributed to this success. For Women's History Month, here's a brief look at Reed's life and work.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Woman with black hair surrounded by billows of red and blue" class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__13023 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/Watercolor.jpg?itok=5OeTuk5t" style="width: 550px; height: 484px;" title="Original design by Ethel Reed, unpublished"></p><p>Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1874, Reed briefly attended art school in Boston but was largely self-trained. Her circle included artists and writers in both Boston and London. She posed for photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston and F. Holland Day, and she provided illustrations for<em>The Yellow Book</em>, an avant-garde British periodical. One of the most talented and prolific artists of the 1890s, she made her name during the poster craze of the period. She produced book illustrations, cover designs, and more than 25 posters, mostly in just two years, 1895 and 1896. Her creative burst earned her international recognition and she traveled to Europe and completed a few commissions for British publications through about 1898. Then she disappeared from the historical record.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98503593/"><img alt="Woman in fur coat and plumed hat looks into the camera in a model pose" class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__13024 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/ReedLOC.jpg?itok=4rJc47ZZ" style="width: 364px; height: 550px;" title="Photograph of Reed by Frances Benjamin Johnston, ca. 1895. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division."></a></p><p>After such a meteoric rise and mysterious disappearance, she was lost and nearly forgotten. For decades, curators and collectors searched for clues about what happened to her. Now it seems that her problematic private life overwhelmed her artistic potential.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Blonde girl with black off the shoulder dress and black bow" class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__13025 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/Childhood.jpg?itok=b9niLOCv" style="width: 358px; height: 550px;" title="In Childhood's Country, book poster and illustrations. GA*22593."></p><p>A 2013 <a href="https://ethelreed.wordpress.com/">biography</a> by William Peterson finally explained the sad end for this creative spirit, a woman whose life was destroyed by troubled relationships, drugs, and alcohol. She died in London in 1912.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Two blonde girls dressed in black holding, and surrounded by red flowers" class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__13026 img__view_mode__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/Arabella_0.jpg?itok=jRqZsGjB" style="width: 346px; height: 550px;" title="Arabella & Araminta Stories, book poster, cover design & illustrations. GA*22693."></p><p>The museum is fortunate to have a significant collection of Reed's work, including some of her earliest posters and a few unpublished designs. They were donated by Commander Charlotte Hume, U.S. Navy. The collection descended through Hume's great-aunts, the Smith sisters of Newburyport, who knew Reed in the 1890s, but they lost touch when she moved to London. Reed presented the Smiths with her first posters soon after they were issued. Many are signed and dated in Reed's distinctive, bold hand, "Compliments of Ethel Reed."</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Woman in tight-fitting black cap reads a paper in front of a background of flowers" class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__13027 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/Herald.jpg?itok=FcQkjPA1" style="width: 392px; height: 550px;" title="Boston Sunday Herald, Feb. 24, 1895, newspaper poster. Ethel Reed’s first poster. GA*22687."></p><p><em>Helena E. Wright is the Curator of Graphic Arts in the Division of Culture and the Arts. She has also blogged about some <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/george-washington-carver">portrait images</a> of Dr. George Washington Carver.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-user field-type-user-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Staff Member: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/users/wrighth">wrighth</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Categories: </h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0"><a href="/blog-tags/womens-history">Women's History</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1"><a href="/blog-tags/collections">From the Collections</a></li></ul></div><div id="disqus_thread"><noscript><p><a href="http://amhistorymuseum.disqus.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fblog%2Fethel-reed">View the discussion thread.</a></p></noscript></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=uUhLoKC13_0:5Jiccj_oNNA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=uUhLoKC13_0:5Jiccj_oNNA:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=uUhLoKC13_0:5Jiccj_oNNA:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?i=uUhLoKC13_0:5Jiccj_oNNA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=uUhLoKC13_0:5Jiccj_oNNA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?i=uUhLoKC13_0:5Jiccj_oNNA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=uUhLoKC13_0:5Jiccj_oNNA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OSayCanYouSee/~4/uUhLoKC13_0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
