TL;DR — Ethel Reed’s 1895 poster Folly or Saintliness is the work of the first American woman to win real fame as a poster artist — and one of the era’s most intriguing lost figures. A Boston prodigy celebrated in her early twenties, Reed designed striking book and theatre posters, then vanished from the record after moving to Europe. This is the story of a brief, brilliant career at the centre of the American poster craze.
By Found Poster · Published August 2026
A prodigy of the poster craze
Ethel Reed (born 1874) rose to prominence in Boston in the mid-1890s, at the height of the American poster craze, designing posters for publishers and theatres while still in her early twenties. Folly or Saintliness, advertising a play, shows her gift: a bold decorative figure, confident flat colour, and elegant integrated lettering.
She was among the very few women to achieve front-rank status in the movement, and contemporaries treated her as a genuine star — her own striking looks made her a favourite subject for photographers and fellow artists, and her posters were collected as eagerly as those of the men around her.
Boston, books and the decorative style
Reed worked for Boston publishers such as Lamson, Wolffe & Co., designing posters and covers for books — a natural home for the decorative Art Nouveau manner then sweeping American publishing. Her style shares the flat colour and ornamental line of the wider movement, but with a distinctive delicacy and a strong sense of pattern.
She belongs to the same American generation as Edward Penfield and Will Bradley, and her work sits comfortably beside theirs, holding its own in any survey of 1890s American posters.
The vanishing
Reed’s fame was intense and brief. In the later 1890s she travelled to Europe — Ireland and England — and after the turn of the century she effectively disappeared from the record; the circumstances and date of her death remained uncertain for a century, only recently pieced together by researchers. That mystery has given her an outsized hold on the imagination, but the posters need no legend: they are simply very good.
Where her work belongs
Reed’s decorative, literary posters suit a bookshop café, a boutique hotel, or any room with a bookish, design-aware character. Hung beside Penfield and Bradley, she completes the American story of the 1890s poster — and quietly corrects the impression that it was an all-male one.
Ethel Reed’s book and theatre posters are catalogued individually in our archive, restored for printing. Browse American Art Nouveau →
Frequently asked questions
Who was Ethel Reed?
Ethel Reed (born 1874), a Boston poster and book-cover designer who became the first American woman to win major fame as a poster artist during the 1890s craze, before disappearing from the record after moving to Europe.
Why is she a mysterious figure?
After intense early fame she travelled to Europe and vanished from the historical record around the turn of the century; the details of her later life and death were uncertain for a hundred years.
Where does she fit among American poster artists?
Alongside Edward Penfield and Will Bradley in the 1890s American movement — her work holds its own in any survey and represents its most prominent woman.
Further reading
- Edward Penfield — the American movement
- Will Bradley — the American Beardsley
- Who was Ethel Reed? / Women poster artists of the 1890s (scheduled in this series)
- William S. Peterson, The Beautiful Poster Lady: A Life of Ethel Reed (Oak Knoll Press, 2013)
- David W. Kiehl, American Art Posters of the 1890s in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1987)
Found Poster restores Belle Époque and Art Nouveau posters from museum archives into archival-quality files you print yourself. Browse the archive · How to print & frame.
