Nell Brinkley

Nell Brinkley. . , Nell Brinkley was the most popular illustrator and writer of romantic fantasy cartoons in the 1920s and 1930s. She was the creator of the "Brinkley Girl," characterized by lacy dresses and curly hair. The "Brinkley Girl" was a young liberated working woman who lived a secret romantic fantasy life. In one series of cartoons titled Betty and Billy and their love through the ages, the lovers see all of their past incarnations together in a crystal ball from ancient Egypt to Renaissance Scotland. The Brinkley Girl quickly became more popular than the stuffy "Gibson Girl." She appeared on magazine covers, in advertisements and pop songs and was the theme of the 1908 Ziegfeld Follies., Promoting women's rights and the war effort, Nell Brinkely adapted her "Brinkley Girl" to a widely circulated drawing: "The Three Graces." It carried the caption, "Any man who loves and reveres his mother and his country should idolize, if he worships at all, the three graces , Suffrage, Preparedness and Americanism.", Nell Brinkley was born in Denver Colorado in 1886. She was not formally trained in the arts, and dropped out of high school to follow her natural drawing talent. She was hired by and later the Rocky Mountain News. In 1907, William Randolph Hearst hired her to work for the New York Evening Journal as an illustrator, columnist and commentator. Her fame was clinched when she was assigned to be the courtroom-illustrator of Evelyn Nesbit-Thaw during the sensational murder trial of Harry Thaw of architect Stanford White in 1906., Nell Brinkley was along-time resident of New Rochelle and bought her first house here in 1911. She joined the ranks of a growing artists' colony and became a life-long member of the prestigious New Rochelle Art Association., She married New Rochelle native Bruce McRae in 1920 and they settled in Beechmont at 56 Pryor Terrace. She died in October, 1944 at the age of 56 and is buried in Beechwood Cemetery.