The melancholic Mrs Borah

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We’ve seen happier looking ladies here, but didn’t want to withhold this photograph from you. All the information that came with it was 'Ford, circa 1910', but we weren’t even too sure about that.

Armed with a connection to the world wide web, answers were easy to find. The picture dates back to 1912, the car is supposedly a Baker Electric. Note the snow chains. Electric power or not — that must have made some noise over those cobbled streets. Oh, and the lady? That’s Mary McConnell Borah, spouse of Idaho senator William Borah, 42 years old at the time.

We can only guess about the reasons for her melancholic look, but there is plenty more to be found on Mrs Borah. She was described as a "vivacious, blue-eyed blonde" at around the time of her wedding in 1895. "Politics was my life", she was quoted as saying in an interview many years later. However, her real passion must have been Washington’s social life, about which she wrote for magazines and newspapers. Ironically, her husband had an affair with Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of the late President Theodore Roosevelt, and they had an illegitimate daughter. He died in 1940 after a fall in the shower; she carried on until 1976, when she’d reached the age of 105!

Maybe it’s us, but don’t her looks seem to tell us that she’s just found out about her William’s affair or his unlawful baby?

Words Jeroen Booij. Picture Shorpy.

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