Adah Menken as Mazeppa

Adah Isaacs Menkin was a celebrated songstress, dancer, actress, author, poet, and international sex symbol. This costume she is wearing for the stage play Mazeppa titallated audiences, while a review by Mark Twain applauded her shapley form but note she looked like she was wearing a diaper. Well educated, creative, and mercurical, her friends included Walt Whitman, artist Rossetti, Bret harte, and Alexandre Dumas.