Florence Evelyn Nesbit Colorized 1902 photo

Evelyn Nesbit (1884 - 1967) was a popular Philadelphia-born chorus girl, artists' model, and actress of the early 20th century. She predated Cleo de Merode in Europe as the most photographed woman of her time, the earliest equivalent of a supermodel and pin-up girl appearing in virtually all circulation newspaper and magazine advertisements, souvenir items, and calendars, making her a cultural celebrity icon in her prime, Like Cleo, she posed for several respected artists, James Carroll Beckwith, Frederick S. Church, and notably Charles Dana Gibson, who idealized her as a "Gibson Girl", earning the distinction of being an early "live model" at a time when fashion photography was just starting as a medium for product endorsements.

But most of the older generation today probably remember her more as a major figure in what was considered the crime of the century, a crime of passion when her millionaire husband Harry Kendall Thaw shot and killed Nesbit's father-like lover and benefactor Stanford White in June 1906, with a highly publicized "trial of the century" that ended with Thaw serving life imprisonment.  The love story didn't end there.  Thaw was eventually paroled in 1915 and was reconciled with Evelyn in 1926.  Though never reunited, Thaw sustained her with allowance money until his death in 1947.