Harriet Travers Wadsworth Harper

Harriet Travers Wadsworth Harper ( – ) was an American equestrian and foxhunter. Harriet Travers Wadsworth was born on in Newport, Rhode Island. She was the daughter of US Representative James Wolcott Wadsworth and Maria Louisa Travers, daughter of businessman William R. Travers. She came from a family with a strong background in horse riding and fox hunting; her uncle W. Austin Wadsworth was Master of the Genesee Valley Hunt. She began riding sidesaddle at age five. She was later diagnosed with scoliosis and the doctor suggested ridding sidesaddle facing the offside (right) of the horse, opposite of the customary position. She rode in this fashion the rest of her life. Growing up, she made frequent visits to her aunt Elizabeth Wadsworth Post in the United Kingdom. On one of those visits, she met a young Eleanor Roosevelt, a friend and classmate of her cousin Nelly Post, and recalled her as “the little American girl who was so homesick."