The girl of the hour
Subject(s): Clothing and dress, Skating, Sports for women, Winter, Women
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A fashionably-dressed young woman ice skates on a pond in a park. She is being admired by several men and boys standing on the left, while on the right four women, a golfer, an automobile driver, a party-goer, and a hunter, trudge through the snow to await the arrival of summer. Old Man Winter blows a frigid blast over the scene from the top.
Comments and Context
The girl of the hour in Ehrhart’s cover cartoon would seem to have the emphasis on the word “hour” — that winter sports, and ice skating assisted by Old Man Winter, is enjoying its portion of the social and sporting calendar.
From the perspective of more than a subsequent century, however, the value of this cartoon lies in the emphasized word “girl.”
The “Emancipated Woman” was one of the social phenomena of the turn of the century. The advent of jobs for women in the workplace, as telephone operators and secretaries; the loosening shackles of Victorian conventions; and sports that were accessible to women, accelerated women’s gradual emancipation as it was called.
Popular arts fed this healthy trend. Cartoonists like Charles Dana Gibson (and his famous “Gibson Girls” in Life Magazine), Judge Magazine’s Penrhyn Stanlaws, and Puck‘s Charles Jay Taylor and Samuel Ehrhart, all depicted the New Woman in her independence. Therefore the “girl” in “Girl of the Hour” attracts the attention of men of different professions on one side of the pond; and is mirrored by her counterparts — “girls” of other athletic pursuits — on the other side.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1904-12-14
Creator(s)
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937
Period
U.S. President – 1st Term (September 1901-February 1905)
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Page Count
1
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
The girl of the hour. [December 14, 1904]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278057. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937. The girl of the hour. [14 Dec. 1904]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. April 2, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278057.
APA:
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937., [1904, December 14]. The girl of the hour.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278057.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. April 2, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
APA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
