moviestars

Looks to me like a posed piece, in which she is "dressed as a fancy maid". Cooking on a fairly new (?) gas stove, I think. Her careful cosmetics are inconsistent with a true maid's role. Go to Wikipedia first! She was an actress. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Thomas Her career was a short one, apparently, until she died of poisoning, a supposed accident and major scandal.

Isn't she stunning !!!

excellent

There was a Helen Freeman (1886-1960) who was an American actress; this could be her, but the actress is described as having "radiant blonde hair" in Beatrice Wood's autobiography I Shock Myself, and the photo of that Freeman included in that book (p. 16) isn't necessarily a match to this one. So I'd hesitate to make the connection for certain--though the age is about right, and this certainly looks like an actress's portrait.

Very beautiful...

digital, eat your heart out. glass neg's are where it's at.

She looks ethnic with the big brown eyes. She could be Jewish.

This is likely the stage, and sometime screen actress, Helen Freeman, daughter of Benjamin N. Freeman. [1] I'm locked-out from viewing page16 of Shock Myself, as referenced above by pennylrichardsca, so I can't read the reference of her "radiant blonde hair" or see the photo. That said, photos that I have seen of Ms. Freeman appear to match this LOC photograph, including this photograph in The New York Times on December 14, 1913. And this, from American Pictorial magazine, 1924. I didn't locate any authoritative, proper biographies of Helen Freeman, but there is a significant body of letters, theatrical performances, stories and books that bring-to-life her love of art, and literature, with extensive references to the frequent trips she took abroad with her lifelong friends. Collections of letters illuminating Helen Freeman are in proper collections around the world, including the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. The New York Times published an interesting theatrical biographical review of her on July 20, 1919. Helen Freeman secretly married the American writer, Edwin Corle (1906-1956), in Ensenada, Mexico in 1932. She didn't reveal her marriage until more than a year later, in December, 1933. References to her marriage are scant. Her lifetime friend, Helen Keller, closed a 3-page letter dated November 16, 1933, with: "With every good wish to the husband whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting, but whose name smiles out of your letter." — Helen Keller Her long-time friend Beatrice Wood recalled, "Helen married the (younger) writer Edwin Corle and became his "muse" for many years until he left her for a younger woman." ["Beatrice Wood: ...", Dissertation of Helen Dixon Hennessey, pp 91]   Exactly when Edwin Corle left Helen is not clear, however Aldous Huxley wrote a letter of introduction for them to T.S. Eliot in 1938:

To T. S. Eliot July 12, 1938 My dear Tom: I have given two friends of ours a letter of introduction to you. They are Edwin Corle, who is a promising young novelist, and his wife, Helen Freeman, the actress. I think you will find them a very pleasant and intelligent couple ... Ever yours affectionately, Aldous H.

I've not found any biographies of Edwin Corle that mention his marriage to Helen Freeman. The biographies do mention, however, Corle's marriage to Jean Armstrong in 1944 – so perhaps their marriage lasted close to ten years.