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Lincoln Wonk · 02-25-2019, 01:37 PM

Hi everyone,
I think I remember a post about Clara Harris' photo at Ford's being incorrect.
I couldn't find it in a search though. Does anyone know which Clara photo is correct?

RJNorton · 02-25-2019, 02:37 PM

(02-25-2019 01:37 PM)Lincoln Wonk Wrote: Hi everyone,
I think I remember a post about Clara Harris' photo at Ford's being incorrect.
I couldn't find it in a search though. Does anyone know which Clara photo is correct?

Kathy, please see this web page for help on this:

https://www.fords.org/blog/post/photos-f...-identity/

Ed Steers' Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia has the correct photo. Also, Mike Kauffman's American Brutus has a photo of her that I do not believe I've seen in any other source.

L Verge · 02-25-2019, 04:59 PM

If you compare the "new" photo of Clara with the one in American Brutus and also take into consideration the changes in features that likely occurred over passing years and the stress that living with Henry caused, you will see definite resemblances. Personally, I think that Clara would have preferred for the "old" photo to continue to be labeled as her -- much more attractive to this catty lady.

ReignetteC · 02-25-2019, 07:06 PM

The Chicago History Museum has image(s) of Clara Harris in its archives. One is a Brady photograph. Another image that depicts a "Mrs. Clara Harris and her two children" looks a lot like her but the date attributed to it (1911) is incorrect as she was deceased by then. I'd be interested to hear what you think ...
https://images.chicagohistory.org/en/sea...ARA+HARRIS

L Verge · 02-25-2019, 08:11 PM

The clothing dates it to the early-1900s, imo. Wonder how many Mrs. Clara Harrises (not Mrs. Rathbones) posed with their two children over the years? The standing CDV by Brady is the one that Mr. Hall's friend, Hallam Webber, found and followed up on, I believe.

Susan Higginbotham · 02-26-2019, 02:09 PM

I would guess it is a photograph of another Clara Harris that happens to belong to the museum. The museum doesn't identify it as being the Clara Harris who was married to Henry Rathbone. (It also notes that the photograph was taken in a Chicago room, and unless I'm wrong Clara had no association with Chicago.)

ReignetteC · 02-26-2019, 09:04 PM

(02-25-2019 08:11 PM)L Verge Wrote: The clothing dates it to the early-1900s, imo. Wonder how many Mrs. Clara Harrises (not Mrs. Rathbones) posed with their two children over the years? The standing CDV by Brady is the one that Mr. Hall's friend, Hallam Webber, found and followed up on, I believe.

I got permission from the Chicago History Museum to use Brady's CDV in my book.

Lincoln Wonk · (This post was last modified: 03-04-2019 03:34 PM by Lincoln Wonk.)

(02-25-2019 04:59 PM)L Verge Wrote: If you compare the "new" photo of Clara with the one in American Brutus and also take into consideration the changes in features that likely occurred over passing years and the stress that living with Henry caused, you will see definite resemblances. Personally, I think that Clara would have preferred for the "old" photo to continue to be labeled as her -- much more attractive to this catty lady.

You thought she came across as catty too? (Her crows remark)

(02-25-2019 07:06 PM)ReignetteC Wrote: The Chicago History Museum has image(s) of Clara Harris in its archives. One is a Brady photograph. Another image that depicts a "Mrs. Clara Harris and her two children" looks a lot like her but the date attributed to it (1911) is incorrect as she was deceased by then. I'd be interested to hear what you think ...
https://images.chicagohistory.org/en/sea...ARA+HARRIS

Amazing photos.

(02-26-2019 02:09 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote: I would guess it is a photograph of another Clara Harris that happens to belong to the museum. The museum doesn't identify it as being the Clara Harris who was married to Henry Rathbone. (It also notes that the photograph was taken in a Chicago room, and unless I'm wrong Clara had no association with Chicago.)

Good point. Their son Henry Riggs Rathbone did wind up as a rep from Illinois, but I don't recall any Chicago association for them.

(02-25-2019 02:37 PM)RJNorton Wrote:
(02-25-2019 01:37 PM)Lincoln Wonk Wrote: Hi everyone,
I think I remember a post about Clara Harris' photo at Ford's being incorrect.
I couldn't find it in a search though. Does anyone know which Clara photo is correct?

Kathy, please see this web page for help on this:

https://www.fords.org/blog/post/photos-f...-identity/

Ed Steers' Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia has the correct photo. Also, Mike Kauffman's American Brutus has a photo of her that I do not believe I've seen in any other source.

Roger, Thanks so much. The Ford's blog is what got me wondering in the first place, but I should have looked in Ed's encyclopedia straight off. Great photo. Thanks for the idea. I just looked at American Brutus. That is a different shot of Clara Harris -- and a really different shot of Henry Rathbone.

Susan Higginbotham · 03-04-2019, 05:15 PM

In April 1911, some Illinois papers ran a story about a Mrs. Clara Harris of Chicago who along with her seven-year-old son and five-year-old daughter tried to resist a break-in of their home but ended up being bound and gagged by the robbers (fortunately, they survived the incident). That could easily be the woman and children depicted in the Chicago History Museum photo, which gives a 1911 date.

RJNorton · 03-05-2019, 05:18 AM

Many thanks to Steve for sending this article. Steve writes, "I have a newspaper article of the Mrs. Clara Harris who was robbed in 1911 in Chicago which has an image/sketch of the woman. It is from page one of the 19 April 1911 Chicago Examiner. Interested people can compare the newspaper image to the Clara Harris in the 1911 photograph with two children.

I checked and this Clara had two (or three) children at the time:

Orin born Dec. 1905
Charles born June 1908

A baby Agnes who was born a few months prior according to newspapers but is missing from the 1920 census, presumably deceased by then.

Newspapers incorrectly name Clara's husband as John instead of Virgil.

Here is a link to Clara's findagrave page:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59053967