Charlotte Harding's "Our Foolish Virgins," 1901

Charlotte Harding was a very talented Philadelphia young woman who lived from 1873 to 1951.

This is what Henry C. Pitz had to say about her in his excellent book, The Brandywine Tradition, published by Houghton Mifflin of Boston in 1969:

Charlotte Harding was the fourth of the young Philadelphia women to come from the early [Howard Pyle] Drexel classes. She, too, had the decorative bent and indulged it with more freedom and daring than most. She searched out many an unhackneyed rythym in her pictures -- strange shapes and patterns delighted her and she worked out new ways of seeing the humdrum world. Unforttunately, her strong sense of originality was handicapped by poor health.

The following illustrations are scanned from The Century Magazine of November 1901's lead article entitled Our Foolish Virgins, by Eliot Gregory.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

Title page of the piece.

Caption: "A woman must have some serious object in life."

Caption: "The Matinée Girl," was full page.

"Had no intention of wasting her life in the country."

 

" 'It's a perfect shame.' "

 

"The price of those theater tickets."

Full page layout "While Mama Cooks the Dinner." The hand-lettering seems out of character here and I suppose it has to do with daughter practicing her piano lessons while Mom gets dinner ready.

 

 

The cat obviously knows when good things are happening in the kitchen. 

 

"A 'quick change' . . . for the rest of the afternoon."

"The hard-working bridgeites."

"Sporty gents in loud clothes followed the morning play."