Maud Coleman Woods

She was selected by readers of the New York World newspaper as "most representatively beautiful woman in America" and, as a result, was also selected by the Pan-American Company to represent North America on the 1901 Exposition logo. Lockport, NY artist Raphael Beck's design was employed on official publications and countless souvenirs.

Twenty-three years old in 1901, Maud Coleman Woods was a Charlottesville, Virginia native, daughter of Capt. Micah Woods. She had attended the Virigina Female Institution with interests in music and culture. She may have come to national attention as a result of honors given her for her beauty by the Daughters of the Confederacy.

Her personality was described as "retiring." The publicity resulting from her selection for immortality as the "typical North American beauty" of the Pan-American logo caused her "to shrink" from it.

Sadly, in late August, while at the Woods family summer home in Hanover, Virginia, she contracted typhoid fever. Adequate treatment for this disease would not be available for another 47 years. Maud Coleman Woods died on August 25, less than a week after becoming sick.

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