Olive Byrne

Olive "Dotsie" Byrne was a partner of William Moulton Marston. The two met in 1925 while she was attending Tufts University. She was a senior at Tufts and he was her psychology professor when the two met, and she soon became his research assistant, even taking him to her sorority to do some of his research. She was instrumental in introducing him to the world of sorority baby parties, where he performed some of his experiments on human reactions to power.^[1]

Olive Byrne was also the daughter of Ethel Byrne, who famously opened the first birth-control clinic in the United States with her sister Margaret Sanger.^[2]

Relationships

Olive was involved with Marston, a married man. His wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, knew of their relationship and the three lived together for a number of years. Both women had Marston's children while the three were together, and Elizabeth named her daughter Olive after Byrne. Many assume that the women got along rather well. Because of the unusual relationship situation and living arrangements, anyone who asked was told that Olive was Elizabeth's widowed sister.^[3]

Olive had two sons with Marston; Byrne and Donn.

Wonder Woman

As reported by Jill Lepore in The Secret History of Wonder Woman., Olive has been credited by some as being Marston's inspiration ^[4] for the physical appearance of his iconic character, Wonder Woman,^[5] but Marston himself only remarked that a pair of bracelets that Byrne frequently wore inspired the ones that would become an important feature of the comic book heroine.

References