Gibson Girl
Preserved but no longer current.
A type of feminine beauty characteristic of its period depicted by Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) in several popular series of black-and-white drawings, dating from 1896. His delineations of the American girl enjoyed an enormous vogue, culminating in the series entitled The Education of Mr. Pipp which appeared in Colliers Weekly (1899) and formed the basis of a play of that name.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Gibson Girl” mean?
A type of feminine beauty characteristic of its period depicted by Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) in several popular series of black-and-white drawings, dating from 1896. His delineations of the American girl enjoyed an enormous vogue, culminating in the series entitled The Education of Mr. Pipp which appeared in Colliers Weekly (1899) and formed the basis of a play of that name.
Is “Gibson Girl” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.