/>Biography
Early life and career
The daughter of John A. and Pauline Boesen Brown, Gibson was born Dorothy Winifred Brown in Hoboken, New Jersey. Her father died when she was three years old and her mother remarried John Leonard Gibson. Between 1906 and 1911, she appeared on stage as a singer and dancer in a number of theatre and vaudeville productions, the most important being on Broadway in Charles Frohman’s musical The Dairymaids (1907). She was also a regular chorus member in shows produced by the Shubert Brothers at the Hippodrome Theatre.
Dorothy Gibson as illustrated by Harrison Fisher, 1911
In 1909, the year before she married George Battier, Jr., Gibson began posing for famous commercial artist Harrison Fisher, becoming one of his favorite models. Her image appeared regularly on posters, postcards, various merchandising products and in book