Life of a Showgirl

 

Agnes performing in 1890. Made in Ideogram.

In honor of the new Taylor Swift album Life of a Showgirl releasing today, I have another post on a performer in our family and regular recurring topic on the blog. Agnes Atherton O'Brien was a sister of my 2nd-great-grandfather John J. O'Brien. Agnes was featured in my proposed RootsTech 2026 talk. While I'm still rethinking how to use the bones of that talk for something else, I'm sharing some of the likenesses generated in Ideogram depicting Agnes during a snapshot of her career on the stage and life on the road.

In November 1890, Agnes performed at Huber and Gebhardt's Casino in Brooklyn, New York. Her appearance was part of her fall tour from Philadelphia to Brooklyn to Toronto, Montreal, Buffalo and Brooklyn again between September and November 1890. The article below from the Brooklyn Citizen describes Agnes as dancing "with and without skirts."

Brooklyn Citizen. 11 Nov 1890.

Agnes' performances over the years in Brooklyn and New York City reinforce a family link to the area. We have deep family connections and recurring visits to the Big Apple throughout hundreds of years going back to the founding of New Amsterdam in 1624 (although on the maternal-maternal-paternal-maternal line, so not direct) As with my diverse family connections to Los Angeles, New York is a place that appears regularly in the travels for members of the family tree.

Agnes enjoyed a 30+ year career, singing, dancing, producing, and more. She was well known as a "queen of burlesque". Swift's album release for Life of a Showgirl was written for a different time, but I think there may be parallels to Agnes' life on the stage.

I've posted a number of times that I'm using Ideogram to generate imagined scenes involving different ancestors, extended family, or just to add color and creativity to the blog. There's a lot of controversy this week around Tilly Norwood, an AI generated character and potential Hollywood threat, not too different from the Spanish AI-generated influencer Aitana Lopez who debuted in 2023. I try to be clear when I'm using images made with AI tools. I think these tools are going to get better, and be more prominent for a number of uses, including family history. MyHeritage introduced AI-generated videos in its Ancient Origins tools earlier in the year, and there were many talks on AI & genealogy at RootsTech 2025. This isn't going away.

Agnes in New York, 1890. Made in Ideogram.

After the show. Made in Ideogram.