Archives Exhibits

Fidler Drawings

In the early twentieth century, Pearle Eugenia Fidler LeMunyan, Alice Luella Fidler Person and Elsie Catherine Fidler created many drawings of beautiful girls and women. Glamour Girl, American Girl, and College Lad and Lassie were three series from these prolific illustrators. Most drawings were published as postcards, including the four smaller examples

Larger Fidler works apparently were mass produced as color prints and then customized by painting in details. The two larger examples above ( 10 x 24 inches) by Alice are identical prints that had school colors painted in on the belt, scarf and pennant. The pennant on the left reads "MC" for Meredith College. The pennant on the right, "BUW," stands for Baptist University for Women, an earlier name of Meredith.

Edward Gross of New York, Ullman Manufacturing Company of New York, and Decorative Poster Company of Cincinnati are known publishers of the Fidlers' work.

Although most (if not all) instances of the Fidlers' work are actually painted-in prints, and not individually signed by the artists, they are still interesting and charming artifacts that beautifully evoke the spirit of their time.

Thanks to recent research submitted by Richard P. Johnston, we know the following about the Fidler family:

The Fidler family moved to Romulus, New York, about 1877 and then to Geneva, New York, in 1891. They resided at 214 Lewis Street in 1905 when their father, Charles E. Fidler, (born ca. 1853) died and was buried in Glenwood cemetery. Their mother, Lillie A. Fidler, nee Bardell (born ca. 1859), died in 1913 and was buried in the same graveyard.

There were four daughters in the family, with the oldest named Jessie M. Fidler, and one son named Charles F. Fidler. Three of the daughters married at least once with Jessie's married name being Jessie M. Gaylord. In 1905 all still resided in Geneva, New York. Apparently Elsie stayed in Geneva until around 1920.

Birthdates are: Jessie M., 1877; Pearl Eugenia, 1880; Alice Luella, 1883; Charles F., 1885; and Elsie Catherine, 1892.

During her career Pearle spelled her name with an "e" on the end, although Mr. Johnston's research shows the spelling was originally "Pearl."

The photo below shows Meredith College students in their room with the four Fidler prints on the wall behind them.

All material on Archives pages copyright Meredith College unless otherwise indicated.