Miss America Crowned: Margaret Gorman Wins in 1921
Sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., won the first "Inter-City Beauty" contest in Atlantic City on September 8, 1921, a competition organized by local businessmen to extend the summer tourist season. She stood 5 feet 1 inch and weighed 108 pounds. The following year, she was retroactively crowned the first Miss America. The pageant evolved from a swimsuit competition into a scholarship program, eventually becoming the largest provider of scholarships exclusively for women in the United States. The competition's relationship with American feminism has always been complicated: it offered women visibility and scholarship money while simultaneously defining their worth through physical appearance. The swimsuit competition was eliminated in 2018.
September 8, 1921
105 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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