Page 67 - October1997

0ctober 1997 NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN 249

The Lady Is No Longer In Question
When we ran the article on The Lady in Question, we
received several explanations of who she was, but somehow we
had the feeling that there was much more than we knew at the
time. Thanks to Deanne Thomas of Indiana, we think we have
the real story. Her letter reads as follows:
"l was so pleased to see the girl with the question mark hair in
your National Bulletin. I have been fascinated with her for over 30
years. The button is white rnetal. lt was given to me by Maida Franke, an early Indiana
collector. She gave me the story and it was published in our Hoosier Button Box yezrs
ago. There were many jewelry iterns with her likeness. Lockets in a very large size, in
gold rvith rhinestones and red jewels were very popular and can still be found at flea
markets.
"Evelyn Nesbit Thaw was a teenage model. Chas. Dana Gibson was quoted as
saying "She is my ideal Gibson Girl." He drew her as The Etemal Question for the
cover of Collier's Magazine, making her recognizable nationally. This cover was
reproduced on American Heritage of June 1969. A video about her and the famous
crime has been shown on public television's "The American Experience." She was
played by Rita Hayworth in the movie "The Red Velvet Swing."
"Having further researched this subject and viewing the video, I have no doubt that
the button is intended to be Evelyn. The aftist was not able to capture her beauty in the
casting. but it is for sure the Gibson Girl of artist Gibson named "The Eternal Question."
"The arlicle by Maida, which I published when Editor of the Hoosier Button Box,
Issue #2, Spring 1970, follows. No one has ever responded to Maida's request for
another identity. I have only seen 3 or 4 ofthese buttons. There is no knowledge ofa
definite date for the button, but I would guess 1910, give or take a little, because ofthe
publicity of the trial."
The article follows:
Evelyn Nesbit Thaw 1885-1967
Around the turn of the century. Evelyn Nesbit, born in Tarentum, Pennsylvania,
arrived in New York, intent on a modeling career. She was fifteen years old, coming into the
full bloom of rvomanhood, beautiful and stage-struck. Within a year she was a featured
dancer in the hit musical Floradora, and a model lor Charles Dana Ciibson. who drew her as
the "Etemal Question" for the cover of Collier's Magazine and thus made her nationally
known. His drawing shows her in profile. hair in a high pompadour, and back-swept into a
long curl thrown over her left shoulder and fbrnring a question mark. It is reproduced on the
cover of the American Heritage, issue of June 1969.
Men pursued her. attracted as bees to honey. Handsome John Barrymore is quoted as
floating a rose petal in a glass of milk and whispering "That is your mouth-you are a
quivering pink poppy in a golden windswept space." lt was weak-minded, sadistic and
mother-possessed, Harry Kendall Thaw, with an allowance of $80,000.00 a vear and heir to
a Pittsburgh rail and coke fortune, whom she finally married.
Before her marriage to Harry. she had become the mistress of Mr. Stanford White,
America's most prominent architect, designer of Manhattan's Pennsylvania Station, the
Washington Arch and the famous Madison Square Garden. He was 49 when they met,
handsome, voluptuous and high-living. She was wined, dined and wooed at Delmonico's
and Sherry's. and possessed again and again in the omate apartment which "Stamy" kept
behind a little toy store on W. 24th Street. It was his pleasure to put her naked on a red
velvet swing in that apaftment and push her so high that her feet touched a Japanese parasol
on the ceiling. It was he who had her photographed lying on a polar bear rug as the iamous