Clara Harris's Bloody Dress

[L Verge]

I had posted earlier about the color of Clara Harris's dress, thinking that I had read that it was blue. However, in the blurbs I have read tonight on various sites, it appears that the dress was white? I didn't realize that there was actually a small book written about 1930 entitled The White Satin Dress. The author was the same lady who wrote The Perfect Tribute about Lincoln. One of the websites says this:

"There is no reliable description of the dress Clara Harris wore to Ford's Theatre on the night of the assassination.

"Author Mary Shipman Andrews described it as a 'white satin ball-dress, with a wreath of artificial roses and lilacs across the front' in her 1929 ghost story. (ANDREWS) Women's 1865 evening attire could have been either short- or long-sleeved. The lightweight white silk fragment is similar to inexpensive silks frequently used as sleeve linings."

When I saw that description, it reminded me of the three-quarter photo of the seated Clara Harris. In that photo, she is wearing a gown that would certainly fit that description. I don't know when the photo was taken, but it would have to have been before the assassination if that is the same dress. There is certainly no sign of blood on it. Clara may have kept that dress, but I cannot imagine that she would ever have worn it again - blood stains or no blood stains.