How Emy Lyon became Emma Hamilton (1765–1815) through the creation, display, and circulation of painted portraits, portrait prints, letters, and architectural imagery is the focus of this dissertation. In it, I make four main claims. First, Emma's introduction to the rituals and rewards of genteel female behavior began in George Romney's studio, and sitting for portraits was an educational process that continued throughout her life. Second, Emma's education continued during her residency in Naples under the care and direction of Sir William Hamilton, and the imagery from this period participates in Emma's transformation from Sir William's mistress to his wife. Portraits and letters after the 1791 marriage advertised traits that Sir William's social circle would find desirable and helped to justify her elevated position. Third, Emma's relationships with powerful women were as essential to her self-fashioning as her relationships with men. Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Angelica Kauffman, and Queen Maria Carolina of Naples served as important role models for Emma, and opportunities for fame and power resulted from her association with them. Finally, upon her return to England in 1800, Emma sought to manipulate the architecture, decoration, and visual representations of Nelson's country home to showcase her virtuous conduct.

Throughout the dissertation, I aim to suggest that Emma contributed to the fashioning of her identity and show the ways in which her involvement increased during her lifetime. The other people who contributed to such fashioning of her identity—from artists to lovers to royalty—necessarily play a part in this study. How Emma adapted and responded to the situations that others created is central to my analysis and understanding of self-fashioning. The dissertation ultimately proposes that becoming Emma Hamilton was a complex, life-long process with both constructive and destructive consequences.