divorce

Robert Marsden Shaw was a New York banker whose wife, Katherine Lyall Shaw, left him for another man, Richard S. Darling. In 1915 Shaw sued Darling for alienation of affection and had him prosecuted under the Mann Act for transporting Mrs. Shaw across state lines for immoral purposes. Darling was aquitted in the Mann Act prosecution and Shaw dropped the alienation of affection suit. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C15F9395C13738... Shaw and his wife must have divorced, because in June 1916 he married another woman, Lillian Mahoney. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0E12F93A5B17738... There's a close up of Shaw on the LOC Photo division site www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2005018715/ that hasn't been loaded on Flickr yet.

There are a number of these floor-level shots of trial proceedings. I wonder if the photographer shot this surreptitiously or if the judge permitted pictures if the camera wasn't raised?

I was wondering the same thing. This one in particular really looks like the photographer was trying to hide the camera.

Thanks for connecting up the two photographs and the information about Shaw and the trial. We can add some information when we next update the description. Good question about photography during trial proceedings. I don't know the precise answer, although Emma Little, who published an article about Bain many years ago had a colorful account of how one of the office boys Bain trained to take pictures got the first photos of a trial in a New York federal court, where photographers were banned on pain of contempt of court. The boy "got a step-ladder and placed it in front of the court-room door, put his camera through the high transom and let the flash light, leaped down and dashed off with his camera, leaving the step-ladder to block the door." (Emma Little, "The Father of News Photography: George Grantham Bain," Picturescope 20 (1972): 203.) A talent for being surreptitious from any angle may have been the order of the day!

Edith Ostend Jacobson Goldman was a chorus girl who married Robert J. Goldman, the college aged son of Henry Goldman (of Goldman Sachs). Henry disapproved and sent his son out west to work on a ranch, then hired detectives who caught Edith with other men. Divorce soon followed. select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60D16FA395C1373...

Good catch! Colorful story too, involving detectives coming thru the fire escape, scantily clad actresses, etc, etc. The divorce trial began March 1, 1915 in Manhattan.

Thanks, j3net. We'll add her full name to the our record.

Most likely Muriel G. Sanders Draper, wife of the American tenor Paul Draper. She brought suit for divorce in March 1916, see article in The evening world., March 24, 1916, Final Edition-Extra, Page 10, Col. 5, "C. A. DANA'S GRANDSON IS SUED FOR DIVORCE".

I agree. Here is her wikipedia entry, which is regrettably brief:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Draper
There is more information in The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance:
books.google.com/books?id=0L0ULjto_OEC&pg=PT756&d...

Probably taken in connection with the suffrage opera "Melinda and her Sisters", in which she appeared. This appears to be taken in the same spot as this photo:

See also notes under this photo of the cast:

Same setting and chair as

Thanks to all of you for your great research and pulling the pieces together of the production. I wonder what it was like and how it was received. We'll add some of the information to the records still missing the details.