The Lamson Sisters

Primary Link
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/malvina-helen-cornell.html
http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu148/dlamson_album/lamsongirls.jpg

Hello,

Here is a photo of the Lamson sisters that I recently found in my grandfathers chest that was past down to me. This photo had not seen the light of day since at least 1961...

Unfortunately there is no identification of any of the sisters in the photograph and which of these lovely ladies were on the titanic is a mystery.

With Martin Williams’s link to the photo on emuseum.nyhistory.org one of the sisters can be ruled out. The woman sitting at the 7:00 position is Elizabeth (Lady Drummond). As for which ones were the Lamson sisters that were on the Titanic is anyone's guess.
 
Thanks so much for that, Daniel. It is fascinating to see this photograph of all the Lamson sisters together, looking for all the world like they've just wandered out of the pages of The Age of Innocence. As you've spotted yourself, the miniature of Elizabeth Drummond held by the New York Historical Society is clearly based on her appearance in your picture. Date-wise, I'd place it around 1885 - possibly a little earlier, not much later. Funnily enough, the fact that the girls are seated makes it difficult to be any more precise than that. The fashions of the late 1870s and early 1880s were very distinctive, with numerous variants on the bustle skirt, but these are not really discernable here.

Myself, I think it likely that the photograph was taken to mark Elizabeth's marriage to the English diplomat Victor Drummond in 1882. This was an important Society event of that year (see one of my posts above) and her younger sister Charlotte, who would become Mrs Edward D. Appleton of Titanic fame, was one of her bridesmaids. With Elizabeth shortly to depart for Europe with her groom, it seems probable that the family wished to have an image of all the siblings together - it being by no means certain that they would ever meet again.
 
No, I've never seen a photograph of Mrs Cornell either - well, not until Daniel kindly provided the one above, that is. It is a pity we can't be more certain which sister is which. Given that all the girls are wearing their hair up, it seems likely that even the youngest has passed the age of seventeen or eighteen and is now officially 'out'. I know how you detest her, Brian, but this picture irresistibly reminds me of Edith Wharton and her tales of Old New York. I wonder if she was known personally to the Lamson family?

One way or another, I like these sisters very much. One has the impression that, in spite of the distances separating them, and the demands made by their husbands and children, they retained close and affectionate ties throughout their lives. It would be fascinating to know what was going on 'behind the scenes' in the wake of the Titanic disaster. Presumably, a flurry of frantic letter-writing and telegram-sending took place between their numerous relatives and offspring scattered across Europe and America.
 
Scroll down a little on this link and you'll find a recent photograph of Charlotte Appleton's home in Bayside, New York. I gather that her husband, publisher Edward Dale Appleton, purchased it in 1905.


I'd be quite tempted to chop down those ugly trees flanking the front door!
 
Though I'm not a fan of Wharton, I too am captivated by the Old New York chronicled in The Age of Innocence. And I agree that the Lamsons seem to represent it beautifully; as, in my opinion, do Edith Evans, the Speddens, and Clinch Smith.

One thing that makes the Lamson sisters so interesting is the varied nature of their marriages - a pianist, a judge, a third-generation New York publisher, a Boston publisher (and schoolmistress's son), an aristocratic English statesman, and a Pittsburgh steel magnate. Speaking of the last-mentioned, the roots of Charles Strong Guthrie seem to run deep in New England, but I have been less successful in tracing Fanny's first husband, Frederick Lehmann. I have been even less successful in finding out anything on Pedro de Florez, the husband of Katharine Lamson. This is especially odd because the de Florezes seem to have made the society pages at least as often as any of the Lamsons. A 1920 passenger manifest from one of the family's many New York arrivals describes Pedro as having become a naturalized US citizen in 1879. I assume he was not a peasant by birth.
 
I absolutely agree with you, Brian, about the Lamson sisters and Edith Evans seeming to represent Wharton's 'Old New York'. I said as much in my last contribution to the 'Rich People in Society' thread. And your observation about the varied nature of the Lamson marriages is spot-on, too. An eclectic family, to be sure. I've just found an obituary for Robert Clifford Cornell, Malvina's husband, who died in November, 1918 (during the same week in which the war in Europe ground to a halt). One wonders if he was a victim of the Spanish flu pandemic of that year? A graduate of Columbia University, Cornell was a city magistrate and he presided at the Court of Domestic Relations, which was established in 1910. This was, the press noted, the first court of its kind anywhere in the world and his own analysis of the primary causes of marital breakdown is worth recording; 'first, drunkenness and shirking of responsibility on the part of the husband; second, extravagance and unreasonableness of the part of the wife'. One hopes that his own relationship with Malvina incorporated neither drunkenness nor extravagance! He was certainly present at the White Star Line offices in New York the day after the sinking, trying to ascertain whether or not she had been rescued. Her name was not included on the initial list of survivors with her sisters and he had a terrible morning until he knew that she was safe. By the time the glad tidings were delivered, he was seemingly in a state of near-collapse.

Beyond what I've gleaned from the enchanting Polar: The Titanic Bear, I haven't looked into the Spedden family background too closely. But I know that they were socially very active during the first decade or so of the century and were on familiar terms with the likes of Colonel Gracie and Clinch Smith. Smith himself is an interesting case of an Old New Yorker of distinguished Colonial pedigree who made the leap into the racier milieu of Mamie Fish and Mrs Ogden Mills. Doubtless, the transition was greatly assisted by the sizeable legacy he was left by his aunt, the widow of A.T. Stewart. Besides Colonel Astor himself, Smith was the only other member of Caroline Astor's fabled Four Hundred on the Titanic. I've been writing up his biography over the past few months and hope to get it on-line at some point in the not-too-distant future. Maybe we can do a trade-off, Brian? I'd still love to know what you've discovered about the tantalising and enigmatic Virginia Clark!

Best wishes as ever

Martin
 
Of, course! We should set a mutual deadline to get these bios up on ET. I'm pretty busy at the moment, but I am hereby resolving to share what I've uncovered about Virginia up by, say, this year's anniversary of the sinking.

Regards,
Brian
 
One person that must have been quite interesting was Charles Marshall Lamson. He was the eldest brother of the sisters. He left New York and headed west to South Dakota where he owned a ranch in the town of Fall River, South Dakota.
He was later joined by a couple of his nephews, one of them being Robert Brown, who was the son of Mrs. Brown.

Here is a photo of Robert on his mount taken around 1900.
http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu148/dlamson_album/bob_brown_horse.jpg
 
Thanks for that photograph of Mrs Brown's son, Daniel. The rugged terrain of South Dakota must have seemed a long way away from genteel Old New York! The close bonds existing between the Lamson siblings persisted into the next generation. I've come across two reports, at least, which have one or other of the sisters throwing parties for their nephews and nieces.

Thinking back to their experiences that night, one can't help but reflect on how frightening it must have been when the Lamson sisters became separated from one another. It seems to be generally agreed that Mrs Appleton and Mrs Cornell embarked on Emergency Boat No. 2 whilst, famously, Mrs Brown was in Collapsible D - so becoming, quite conceivably, the very last passenger to board the very last boat to leave the sinking Titanic. What they had been doing in the intervening period is open to question. Research suggests that many other first-class ladies, who had had every opportunity to escape at an early stage, prevaricated until very late on in the proceedings. Thankfully, Malvina and Charlotte did not waste precious moments seeking their sister but, instead, entered a boat. Poor Bess Allison, looking for both her husband and her baby, was not so fortunate. Nor was Caroline Brown the only one who got separated from her relatives. I recently re-read Jack Thayer's account and he also describes loosing his parents in the throng. It is easy to forget how dark and crowded the decks must have been that night; the general air of confusion not eased at all by the lack of co-ordinated instruction from above. This is a very illuminating thread from a couple of years back which touches on some of the issues I've been mulling over:

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/5665/99672.html?1181278404

I particularly like Steve Shortman's contribution to the debate. Various sources suggest that, initially, quite a substantial first-class contingent waited to board Lifeboat No. 4 - only for many to become disgruntled with the various delays and, ultimately, drift off to depart the ship by other means.

Lastly, I only realised a month or so ago that, by his own account, Colonel Gracie - a truly indefatigable networker - did not actually know Edith Evans personally and, indeed, was only introduced to her for the first time as the ship was sinking. Even then, he didn't catch her name and had to ask her to repeat it to him when he re-encountered her with Mrs Brown at a truly critical stage.
 
The obituary about Caroline Lamson Brown was published in Concord Journal June 28 1928. She was survived by two daughters, Mrs. George S. Keyes of Concord and Miss Margery Brown of Acton and three sons Murray Brown of Acton, Robert C. Brown of Richmond, Viginia and Arthur P. Brown, Luneburg, also three sisters, Mrs Robert C. Cornell and Mrs Charles Guthrie of New York, and Mrs Pedro de Florez of Paris.
 

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