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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
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Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
The daughter of the Earl of Cromartie, Lady Constance was a vivacious woman of many talents— including champion swimmer and big game hunter—but the role that defined her career was that of a barefoot dancer. Never one to follow norms, Lady Constance caused widespread uproar for her extravagantly revealing dance outfits, to the extent that the King of England struck her name from the royal records. And all because Lady Constance “committed the unpardonable sin of proving that the legs of an aristocrat are strikingly similar to those of a plebian." Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| July 26, 1901 | 16-year-old Constance wins her third gold medal in swimming and is considered the best female swimmer in England. |
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| 1902 | Constance finds a love in riding horses, farming, fencing, and caring for pet boa constrictors. |
| March 21, 1903 | Constance debuts as a barefoot dancer at a masked ball in Gezirah Palace. |
| April 19, 1904 | Lady Constance weds Sir Edward Austin Richardson. |
| December, 1908 | By now Constance has become an accomplished hunter with over one-hundred animal heads to show. |
| February 9, 1909 | Constance decides to employ her dancing to raise funds toward founding a school. |
| January 17, 1910 | Lady Constance’s professional debut in London has theatre-goers aghast at her “transparent” draperies. |
| January 28, 1910 | Shortly after her infamous performance, Lady Constance is stricken of social rank by King Edward himself. |
| May 5, 1913 | Constance sets her sights on Vaudeville. |
| January, 1915 | A bronze statue of Constance is sculpted by Prince Troubetskoy and sold to aid starving Belgians. |
| August 30, 1921 | Constance marries her second husband, Sir Denis Leckie Matthew. She leaves the words: “Every woman should learn dance, and certainly dance with as few clothes on as the law [will] allow.” |
