The Lathrop sisters

The sisters Clara Welles Lathrop (1853–1907), Bessie Stebbins Lathrop (1854–1930) and Susanne (Susie) Lathrop (1860–1938) were artists and teachers in Northampton, Massachusetts, who exhibited and traveled widely. Clara was a painter, Bessie was a leather worker and woodcarver, and Susie illustrated publications. In addition to exhibiting in the U.S. and Europe, they organized intellectual salons at their Northampton studio and taught art at schools including Smith College. Biographies The sisters were daughters of Henry Lathrop (1811–1888), a dry-goods merchant, and Clara Stebbins Lathrop (1823–1908), a philanthropist who founded a home for aged and invalid women in Northampton. The girls’ grandfather Daniel Stebbins was a physician and entrepreneur who raised silkworms in Northampton mulberry groves (family homes were at 57 and 81 Bridge Street and 78 Pomeroy Terrace). The sisters spent early years in Savannah, where Henry ran a store and briefly manufactured Confederate uniforms. During the Civil War, the family fled to Montreal but remained financially comfortable; they studied at Bute House, and portraits of them by the society photographer William Notman survive at the McCord Museum in Montreal. The girls’ brother Dwight (1851–1887), who became a railroad cashier in New York, stole from the company and ended up in Sing Sing prison. The sisters all studied at Smith College. Clara and Susie also trained at the Académie Julian in Paris, Susie studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (her mentors over the years included Alice Barber Stephens, Rhoda Holmes Nicholls, Edward Percy Moran and Julius Rolshoven), and Bessie attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art and Karl von Rydingsvard's woodcarving classes. The sisters traveled and painted along Cape Cod and eastern Canada and, in Europe, from Norway to Venice. They gave private art lessons and taught at Smith (their students included Blanche Ames), the Clarke School for the Deaf and nearby girls’ schools including Mary A. Burnham School, Miss Howard's and the MacDuffie School. Achievements