ABSTRACT
At the turn of the century not only did society women gain greater access to public space, they also became public figures, celebrities whose appearance and activities were often described in minute detail by society journalists. The society page, however, was just as much a contested space as the street or the opera. Society women with high public profiles could control only to a limited extent how their activities and appearance would be interpreted and presented to a reading public. Publicity entailed risks, and yet newspaper publicity became an integral part of life for those active in high society.
