Goddess of Liberty—CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

Joseph E. Howard, “Here’s to Your Last Girl,” 1909, SMC_0001_0055, from Sheet Music Collection (University of Illinois at Chicago) in CARLI Digital Collections

With the lure of the exotic extolled in songs with titles like “Alleesamee” and lyrics such as (my personal favorite, from "Down in Jungle Town”) “Monkey Doodle wagged his noodle,” this collection of sheet music is a treasure trove for the scholar of racial, ethnic, and gender bias in early 20th-century American culture.

Since I can introduce you to only one image, however… meet the Goddess of Liberty, as illustrated by one of the Starmer brothers in 1909. She’s not your old-fashioned personification of Libertas. Sure, she’s clad all in green, evoking the verdigris patina of Bartholdi’s statue. But no voluminous toga for this modern gal—La Liberté has gone Gibson Girl, trading in her crown for a stylish Edwardian hat and donning a fashionable gown that emphasizes her ideal, narrow-waisted figure. Moreover, she’s jettisoned her tabula ansata, laid down her torch, and copped a squat on a bench atop her pedestal. Little Miss Liberty here, she’s nonchalant, insouciant—why, she’s positively liberated! And she’s perfectly capable of lighting her own cigarette, thank you very much.

Written by Ellen K. Corrigan, Assistant Professor, Cataloging Services, Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University

For more information about this and other CARLI Digital Collections, visit http://collections.carli.illinois.edu

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