Mediating Upper Class and High Society Around 1900: The Example of Evelyn Nesbit and Harry Thaw

Abstract

High society emerged as a new social phenomenon in America at the turn of the last century. It established itself alongside the upper class, with which it had a reciprocal relationship. One of its pioneers was the model, actress, and famous scandal girl Evelyn Nesbit. Catapulted from the working class into the social news and reaching the status of a member of American high society paved the way for a media career that spanned nearly two decades. Her life can thus be seen as the epitome of what it meant to be part of high society in its early stages, as she helped define the media logic that shaped its formation and set the course for its development. Nesbit strategically orchestrated her life in the media, turning her marriage to millionaire Harry Thaw into a compelling Cinderella story. Her involvement in the "crime of the century" - the murder of star architect Stanford White in 1906 - made her both a symbol of how scandals affected perceptions of high society and of the impact of mass media on family and privacy. It shows how high society and the family were initially closer connected, as the boundaries of their private space had yet to be determined in the media. Nesbit’s status and image were subsequently not only exploited by herself and by companies, but also shaped, interpreted, and perpetuated by different publics. As a result, high society became a product of the global consumer culture from the very beginning.