evelynthaw

I want these hats back!

Great photo!

Madman cometh!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kendall_Thaw

In July, 1915, Thaw had a jury trial solely on the issue of his present sanity, bearing on whether he would be returned to the Matteawan State Hospital from which he had escaped 2 years earlier.
The trial was in the Tweed Courthouse, still standing on Chambers Street. This picture is more likely to be Thaw heading to court, rather than leaving, as it looks like he is on Centre and Chambers, walking toward the courthouse.
That would put it in front of the Manhattan Municipal Building, which has an arched pathway through its center.
www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/resources/man_munibldg.shtml

The spot in July, 2011 via Google Street View:
maps.google.com/maps?q=51+chambers+street,+nyc&ll=40....


See notes under:


Reflecting further, I suppose he could be on the presumably identical inside of the passageway, therefore heading away from court.

Repeat appearance: Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 – January 17, 1967) was an American artists' model and chorus girl, noted for her entanglement in the murder of her ex-lover, architect Stanford White, by her first husband, Harry Kendall Thaw. This was likely taken at her husband's trial. Evelyn & son:

I think that the photo was taken aboard a ship, probably (since it is a Bain Agency photo) a ship in New York harbor. In 1914, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw announced her conversion to the Catholic faith, appeared as the star in a silent film, "Threads of Destiny," and published the first version of her autobiography, under the title, "Story of My Life." Any one of those events was sufficient to keep her name in the news.

Holman A. Drew, Sheriff of Coos County, New Hampshire. Source: openjurist.org/235/us/432/holman-drew-v-harry-kendall-thaw

LOC --- the title is defective: The abbreviation for "Deputy" needs a "y" added; otherwise the reader mistakes the word as "Department." Three "r's" belonged in the old one room schools -- not in the word "Sheriff."

In 1906, Harry K. Thaw pulled a gun, fired three shots, and murdered the noted architect Stanford White, in the roof garden atop New York City's old Madison Square Garden [which White had designed], in full public view of a partygoing crowd. He was found insane, and committed to the Mattewan State Hospital for the Insane, in Fishkill, New York. In 1913, Thaw escaped from Mattewan, and met a confederate who drove him north across the New Hampshire border into Coaticook, Quebec, where he spent several weeks. After extradition from Canada, he was held briefly in New Hampshire, pending his return to the custody of the State of New York. After another trial, in 1915 he was adjudged to have been restored to sanity, and set free. Thaw in New Hampshire -- a solo portrait:

Richard Arthur Norton and Wystan: Thanks for your comments. We'll correct the title next time we update the description.

See www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/stanfordwhite.html for more information on the early part of the story, including a timeline and links to newspaper stories.