On this day 135 years ago, D.C. #GildedAge socialite photographer Marian Hooper "Clover" Adams ended her life. For years, friends would bring bouquets of her favorite white violets to her #RockCreekCemetery memorial on the anniversary. We've taken to keeping up the tradition 
A far better memorial to #CloverAdams herself is the writing of her beloved friend, #HenryJames. His Pandora Day, Daisy Miller and Isabel Archer were all sketches of Clover. Augustus Saint-Gaudens' 1891 signature masterpiece here is a monument only to husband Henry Adams' grief
Peek around the back of architect #StanfordWhite's pedestal setting of the sculpture and you'll find Adams' sole concession to conventional sentiment. No opaque transcendentalism here - a straight Victorian expression of love, grief for his wife. You just have to look for it
Want to know more, or just looking for a page-turner nonfiction read? There are others, but @natalieanneDY Dykstra's accessible, perceptive bio of Clover translated a life lived in an impossibly different place and time into joys and pain I could understand
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