Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland May Bookclub Online

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CLARA and MR. TIFFANY

by Susan Vreeland

"For a century, everyone assumed that the iconic Tiffany lamps were conceived and designed by that American master of stained glass, Louis Comfort Tiffany. Not so! It was a woman!" (Susan Vreeland)

Vreeland captures Gilded Age New York and its atmosphere--robber barons, sweatshops, colorful characters, ateliers from the  voluminous letters belonging to the Tiffany glass studio manager, Clara Driscoll, discovered by the author (Amazon review ).

"My last lampshade was accepted and I am having it made now. It will be quite expensive, but I think it will be attractive and that the general public will admire it. The one before this was a purple and red scheme with opal to lighten and soften it. Mr. Tiffany thought it was very fine and Mr. Mitchell thought it was the ugliest thing he ever saw."                                                       (Letter from Clara Driscoll)

Discussion Schedule:

May 1-8 ~ Chapters 1-12
May 9-15 ~ Chapters 13-24
May 16-22 ~ Chapters 25-37
May 23-31 ~ Chapters 38-47
and the Afterward 

Some Topics for Consideration
May 1-8 ~ Chapters 1-12

1.  Have you had any experience with stained glass?  Do you think the technical aspects of making stained glass add or distract from the story?   

2.What about the terminology here, like "cartoon."  Was that a surprise?  Are you becoming familiar with the different duties or jobs associated with the entire process?

3. What do you know about boarding houses and/or people who lived in them?  Which of the residents from Clara’s house have made the most impression on you?

4. How would you describe Louis Comfort Tiffany?  Do you like him, does he make any particular impression on you?
 

Related Links:
  NPR Interview with Susan Vreeland;
  Morse Museum, Winter Park, FL - World's largest collection of Tiffany glass;
 Tiffany Girls on Exhibition Video;
 Susan Vreeland Website for Clara

Discussion Leaders:  Pedln  & Annie

[ANNIE]

Well, I checked to make sure we had swept and dusted before you all joined us in what we hope will be an interesting and fun discussion about the era covered in the book plus the people who lived in those changing times. I keep hearing that old song "The Side Walks of New York" while reading.
 
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/sidewalk.htm

Do join us as we talk about Clara Driscoll, the Driscoll/Tiffany Girls and Louis Comfort Tiffany and a whole boarding house full of interesting folks who have quite a nice life there. I hope you enjoy the time you spend
here!

[pedln]

East Side, West Side .   .   .   .  (Just like the Angie's List commercial and the cleaner who sings -- that tune is running through my head)

Welcome everyone, and happy May Day, a very fitting day to open the discussion.  That famous Columbian Exposition in Chicago opened on May 1, 1893.  And as our story opens, fifteen months earlier, Louis Tiffany is up to his ears in preparations for the chapel that is going to be his contribution to the  Exposition.

Enter Clara Driscoll, a new young widow, 31 years old, hoping her old boss still has need of her talents.  Indeed he does.

We’re so glad you can be with us as we gather here to talk about Clara and all the folks at  the Tiffany Glass and  Decorating Company, New York City in the Gilded Age, and all those new friends at 44 Irving Place.

First impressions, anyone?  Please go ahead.

[CallieOK]

I'm pedaling in on my "wheels" - taking a turn around the park and stopping for tea.

[BarbStAubrey]

Marking a place

[Steph]

I have this on the IPAD , so that  I can keep up.. You ask about Stained Glass.  My husband took a class and fell in love. My house has all sorts of types of stained glass. He made some beautiful pieces.. We had to revamp a room in the house with hard tile, etc, since the shards of glass can fly anywhere. It is very painstaking and very precise. The selection of color took him hours..

[JoanP]

Steph, what beautiful reminders you have in your home to surround you with memories  of Tim.  Such a rewarding pasttime.  Can you describe some of the pieces?
Several years ago we took a trip to Venice - and while there a boat ride (everything in Venice requires a boat ride) to the little island of Murano to the glass factories for which the island is known.  The colors, the blues, the greens, the amethysts...were breath-taking and memorable.  What I remember were the vases, the jewelry, the chandeliers.  This was blown glasss.
Never did I see the large thin panes of colored glass used for making stained glass windows though.  This will be a learning experience.  My knowledge of Tiffany glass - lampshades.  Reading about the stained glass windows Clara is working on - a real eyeopener.  I love the fact that that Susan Vreeland is naming these pieces.  Makes it possible to "see"  what she is writing about   -
 

Steph, if I'm reading this right, the actual Peacock is in the Morse Museum in Winter Park!  YOU saw it!  Maybe we can all come down to Florida for a field trip when the discussion is over!  

My only bit of information to contribute to this discussion at this point is that Tom Hoving - (of the Metropolitan Museum of NY) was the son of Walter Hoving, a Swedish immigrant who rose to become the president of Bonwit Teller and CEO of Tiffany's - Jewelers -  Another fascinating insight into the conditions of the immigrants at the turn of the century.

In 1955 he bought control of Tiffany's, which at the time seemed to many to be on the brink of going out of business. He started his regime by getting rid of everything in the store that did not meet his standards, holding a giant sale - the first in the store's history -of everything from silver matchbook covers at $6.75 to a diamond and emerald brooch marked down to $29,700.

Under his guidance, the faltering store reacquired its cachet and a new popularity - Tiffany's salesclerks were under orders to treat everyone, even the most obvious browser, as a potential customer - until by Christmas 1980, its aisles were jammed with shoppers.

I find the rivalry and the support between Louis Comfort Tiffany and his father  Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany's  fascinating.  I'm glad that Susan Vreeland brings this into the story.

This is historical fiction, I understand.  Is Mrs. Clara Driscoll part of the history - or part of Vreeland's fiction? I hope she was real.

[Ella Gibbons]

Is Clara real?  That's interesting JOANP.

She's determined, self-relliant, very competent and she likes men, do you agree?

From the first page - "I gave him a look that implied, I was here before you were born and pushed his arm away" I thought the lady was going places.

I love stained glass windows, the work that goes into it all is fantastic.  But I don't like the lampshades; I wouldn't want one in my home.

When Clara went to the boarding house and a Mr. Booth came in my first thought was OH, NO, all we need is for a Mr. Luce to appear on the scene!    And then I thought, NO, too early in history for her.

[pedln]

Enjoy your tea, Callie, and Barb, we’ll save your place.  Glad to see you here this morning.

Steph, your husband and Joan Roberts’ husband also, both have worked with stained glass. That’s wonderful.  JoanR, did you see JoanP’s post about sending her the picture of the window, and she’ll post it here.  We’d love to see it.   And Steph, if you have a picture of husband’s stained glass, would you also send it.

Are you overwhelmed?  I am.  And not just by the number of characters in the book, but by their capabilities and talents as well.  Clara, to begin with – she taught school back in Ohio, and I think , also studied art at the Metropolitan.  I wonder how long she had been absent from Tiffany’s.  Mr. Tiffany certainly didn’t waste any time  putting her back in her former position, giving her a lot of leeway in the hiring process.  And the young women she hired – did not come empty-handed.  They have had some training in the arts, whether it be at the Metropolitan or the YWCA.

What are your thoughts about Clara and  the Tiffany girls, and Mr. Tiffany and his ambitions?

[pedln]

JoanP and Ella, we were posting at the same time.   Back later.  Off to Concierge at the library.

[ANNIE]

Honest truth!  I took lessons for making stained glass pictures and loved doing it until I realized I was working in the kitchen sometimes and that tiny shards of glass could become part of our food.  So, I took everything to the basement work shop where it remained for years.  Instead of cutting up glass into tiny pieces and putting them back together with lead,  I took a class in quilting and preceded to cut fabric into tiny pieces and sew them back together for many quilts.  I think the quilting was safer!   

[pedln]

JoanP and Ella, she is definitely real.  Susan Vreeland, on her website for this book (in the heading) goes into great detail about the real Clara.  (See her “Discovering Clara.”)

If it weren't for the zest of the Victorians to write frequent, voluminous letters, this book would never have come to be..   .   .   .   By a remarkable coincidence, three individuals unknown to each other, a distant relative of Clara Driscoll, a Tiffany scholar, and an archivist at the Queens Historical Society, each aware of only one collection of Clara's letters, brought the correspondence to the attention of two art historians steeped in the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The art historians learned of each other, came together in a scholarly partnership, and were shortly joined by Margaret K. Hofer, Curator of Decorative Arts at the New York Historical Society which owns a substantial collection of Tiffany lamps, including 132 from one donor, Dr. Egon Neustadt. It was immediately clear to the team of three that NYHS was the perfect venue to mount an exhibition and share what was contained in the letters with the public. A revelatory and fascinating 200-page catalog of the exhibition, A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls, was written by the three curators for the opening of the exhibition in 2007.

The video listed in the heading, from an exhibit at a Netherlands museum, displays many of  the Neustadt Tiffany lamps.  Vreeland’s website itself is a treasure trove of information.    What  amazes me is that nobody today was really aware of Clara Driscoll until just a few years ago.

[CallieOK]

I've just browsed through the various links on the "Susan Vreeland Website for Clara."  How marvelous!   Actual photos of most of the Tiffany girls featured in the book - the work room - drawing a cartoon - and the wonderful section on the lamps mentioned in the book with quotes from the Chapters in which they're described.

Wonderful!   Many thanks to whoever provided that link.
It makes the book so much more relevant.

[ANNIE]

Take a long look at this exhibit!  Its a meditation of beauty and sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1wSmcde07o&feature=related

[Steph]

Pictures of the glass. They are quite difficult. I have tried many times to take pictures of a swan drawing that my husband executed, but the pictures never do it justice..
I see someone beat me to it. Clara is quite real. I wish I had known last year that they were doing an exhibition of her and her girls..I would have loved to have seen it.
I am up to Chapter 8 and loving it. I will read more of Susan Vreeland after this. She makes NYC so alive..and Clara so real.

[ANNIE]

Did you know that a lady named Candace Wheeler started an interior decorating company with Tiffany,  known as Wheeler Tiffany?   http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/wheeler.html When she decided to open her own textile company, Tiffany renamed the company, Louis C Tiffany and Associates.
I am wondering if her leaving left Tiffany thinking that married women weren't to be relied on?? And if that's  when he stopped hiring them?

[pedln]

You should not have put up that last link, Annie, the one from Harvard -- you've lost me for the rest of the day, as I browse and get deeper and deeper into the site.  What an amazing amount of information is available on the Internet.  In this case an article written by Candace Wheeler in 1893 and preserved for those of us interested in Women's Arts.

Interesting, isn't it that there was a separate building at the Columbian Exposition (White City, 1893) just for Women's Arts.

I've been wondering about Tiffany's policy of  no married women, too, but as I get deeper into the book, I wonder if he was primarily concerned about childbirth.  The work of the Tiffany Girls was not something that could easily be picked up in a day or a month.  And training them took time away from the more experienced who were involved in projects.  That came up when Tiffany told Clara to hire more girls in order to prepare for the Exposition.

"Doubling the department all at once would mean some of the experts and I would be drawn off our projects to train so many new girls."

[JoanP]

One of the reasons Mr. T liked to hire women was that they weren't allowed to join the labor unions...as we see here.  If he had hired married women whose husbands were members of the union, there may have been a conflict within a household.  Perhaps the husband would lose benefits if his union struck while his wife kept working.

He seems to want his girls on call for overtime when there are deadlines to be met.  Difficult to do if there are children to consider.  So there really was a Clara Driscoll.  As I began reading the early chapters, I thought there was going to be a romance - with Mr. T...but now I see the man is married and   it's becoming clearer that Clara loves her job, her position - her rank...as she strives for admiration from Mr. T.

Isn't he an odd duck? A real artistic temperament. Volatile, perhaps?   I was interested in the fact that he didn't go right into his father's jewelry business, but started out as an artist.  Happily S. Vreeland included the names of some of his  paintings in these early chapters.

Citadel Mosque of Old Cairo  1872  Brooklyn Museum


Market Day outside the Walls of Tangier  1873   Smithsonian, DC
 

The luminous qualities , the colors...give an idea of what is to come...

[Gumtree]

I've not got the book yet ... who knows when.

JoanP  Thanks for posting those paintings above  - 'luminosity' was the word that immediately leapt to my mind. The focal points and the depth he achieves are brilliant. Thanks for sharing.

[JoanR]

JoanP - Thanks for offering to post my photo for me, however my e-mail to you was returned as undeliverable.  I must have the wrong address for you!!  Therefore I sent it to Pedln and asked her to forward it hoping that that would solve the problem and hoping also that she wouldn't mind!!

I am a little way into the book and am enjoying it already.  Ordered my copy from Amazon figuring that this would certainly be a keeper.  Such great links you all are putting up here!  I've transfered some to my favorites list so they wouldn't disappear.

Pedln - Thanks for helping with the photo!

[ANNIE]

Pedl'n,
I was enticed almost immediately by that link to the Women Working and spent a fair amount of time there.  Did you read any of the diaries??

Ella,
I left a link in Post 14 so that you might change your mind concerning the lamps of Tiffany and Clara.  Its a U-Tube link to a fantastic showing with wonderful sort of Asian music.  Very relaxing!!  Very good!

As we get further into the book, we come to Clara's description of a particular window or mosaic.  I am wondering if that is what is pictured in the previous link of two women. Here's the link again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1wSmcde07o&feature=related

As we read about Clara's ideas and her learning about how leading is done, we see a fantastic amount of not only the lead around the object but also used like tiny veins of what would be tree limbs, dead vines. Very hard to do!

Steph,
We have discussed two of Susan Vreeland's books.  I'm glad to say she has a wonderful ability to place a reader in the exact place that she is writing about.


JoanP,
Love those paintings.  What you have to say about working women and possible pregnancies was still true in the 50's and 60's.

Speaking of the unions, I looked up when they started here in the states. 
"History of the Labor Unions of the United States
Unions began forming in the mid-19th century. The 1870s and 1880s saw large-scale consolidation, with the Knights of Labor mushrooming overnight into a major force in the late 1880s; it then collapsed because of poor organization. The American Federation of Labor, led until his death in 1924 by Samuel Gompers, proved much more durable.  Wikipedia

[CallieOK]

What you have to say about working women and possible pregnancies was still true in the 50's and 60's.

In the spring of 1962, I had to resign my teaching job because I had to go into maternity clothes four weeks before school was out - even though the mothers of my 2nd grade students went to the principal and asked that I be allowed to finish the school year.

[ANNIE]

The times they are a'changin', Callie
Now the pregnant women are photographed with their extended stomachs prominent in the picture, covered and uncovered.  I saw one that had a drawing on it of the baby's position in the womb. 

[CallieOK]

So true, Annie.  And teachers continue to teach until the due date - although I don't understand why they would want to.

[salan]

I've read thru chap. 8 and am finding the book most interesting and easy to read.
Sally

[JoanP]

Keep reading, Sally - it gets even better...though more confusing!  I think we need to keep a chart - two charts, actually.  One with the names of the guys and gals in the Tiffany workrooms - and the other for the boarding house gang.  I love that house!  Wasn't Clara lucky that she didn't settle for the first place?

Let's see how this works, JoanR - it is breathtaking - you'll have to tell us about it:

[Steph]

 Oh Joan, the window is breathtaking. My husband did no windows. We move around quite a lot and wanted everything moveable. But yours is just wonderful.
I am up to Chapter 10.. The book is really interesting.

[pedln]

Indeed it is breathtaking, JoanR, and I look forward to you telling us more about it.  What size is it?  Can you tell us about any the steps he took in the process of making this window?

Hi Sally, I’m glad you got your book and are enjoying it.

JoanP, thanks for posting those pictures by Tiffany.  Now you’ve sent off on a search for more.  We associate Louis Tiffany with stained glass, but forget or are unaware that he was talented in many phases of art.  An odd duck, you say?  Perhaps.  He was certainly very conscious of his being short.  And he comes across sometimes as being insensitive or at least unperceptive regarding others.  Most people seem to readily defer to him, except for Wilhelmina.

JoanP, you said something about a chart.  There is a lot to keep track of here.  I had started out with a list of Tiffany characters, have not yet made one for the boarding house group.  But this is available for cut and paste if anyone would like – it’s in very rough form.  See next post.

[pedln]

Clara’s Characters

Clara – head of the women’s dept.
Wilhelmina -- Swedish
Cornelia – Prussian
Mary – Irish
Minnie Henderson -- English

Agnes Northrup – glass selector, watercolorist
Edith Mitchill – painter?

Mr. Tiffany
Mr. Belknap – artistic director
Mr. Mitchell – business manager

Alice Gouvy – best friend, from Ohio

Have you noticed that there seems to be a bit of conflict between Clara and Agnes Northrup.  Apparently Agnes stepped into Clara’s place when Clara left to get married, has even usurped some of her tools.

[Ella Gibbons]

YES, JOANR, DO TELL US ABOUT THAT WINDOW.  It's lovely - windows I love.  We took a tour not long ago with a local organization (LANDMARKS) of churches and their stained glass windows.  Actually, they can be very different according to the artist and the time it was done. 

I haven't quite got it all together as to how the windows are made.  I understand the carbon paper pattern and the cutting (what skill there must be in it all that, think of the practicing!) but how to put it all together is still a mystery.  Of course, I could study the book more carefully.

"Take it as a fantasy of a happy land where things that please the eye do not have to make sense.  Just being beautiful is enough." - pg.31

[ANNIE]

Oh, JoanR, the window is wonderful!  Made my heart sing!  What size is it and what room did you say it was in?  What I love about it is the airiness!
My husband's aunt and uncle had stained glass windows in their dining room plus in a transom leading to the dining room.  I think they either installed them or the windows were in the house before they bought it. But I have never seen one like your husband's which are so light and airy and don't block the outside light.

I did find a picture of "Young Woman at a Fountain" which is in the Walt Disney Suite in one of the on site hotels at Disney World or Disneyland.  Picture wasn't that great so didn't pursue it.

As with the chapel which they sent to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.  It had be repaired and is now in the Morse Museum in Florida.  I did not find any words to the effect that museum goers can walk around in it as was done during the exposition.

I know that the Columbian Exposition in Chicago was supposed to be held 1892 and from reading "The Devil in the White City", I seem to remember there was a reason for them holding it in 1893.  If you all remember, it was held in the US because it was the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America in 1492.

[pedln]

Annie, what I remember from Devil in White City (a fabulous book, BTW) is the tremendous pressure everyone was under.  Apparently there was a delay from the powers that be (US govt?) in giving the coordinators the go-ahead on this huge undertaking.

I can understand why Tiffany was so stressed about it.  Here is this big opportunity for him to "advertise his wares," so to speak, and the time span is really shorter than he needs.  No wonder he welcomed Clara back so readily.

Ella, I'm with you.  I don't understand the steps in this glass-making process either.  But there sure are a lot of them.

I just found this -- Making Windows

Perhaps it will help us better understand the process.

And this one -- pages 11-13

Making Windows Today

[Laura]

Prior to reading this book, I knew nothing about stained glass and the complex processes to create artistic work out of it.  I loved reading in the book about the process of making the stained glass objects, even if it was not always exactly clear in my mind.  I figure that any part of the process that I absorb is more than I knew before reading the book!

As you all have touched on, the book does talk about labor unions and the fact that the women who worked for Tiffany could not join them.  I was not expecting there to be as much historical content in the book as there is, and I am delighted that there is even more for me to learn!

[Laura]

One thing I noticed right away was the titles of the chapters.  They are all beautiful, natural, and even symbolic things.  I made it a point as I was reading to find specifically where in the chapter the title of the chapter was referenced and I made special mental note of what the chapter title was referring to.

I also like the image of the kaleidoscope and how the author used it at significant points in the book, like on page 76.  The colored glass of the kaleidoscope reminds us of the colored glass of the stained glass art pieces.  The pieces can be put together so many different ways to create beautiful designs.  As Clara reaches pivotal points in her life, she sees the pieces of her life tumbling to form a new picture, like in the kaleidoscope.

Here’s a link to the painting of Feeding the Flamingoes referenced on page 9:
http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artwork.php?artworkid=14100&size=large

Here’s a link to a picture of the Angel of the Resurrection window mentioned on page 49:
http://www.imamuseum.org/art/collections/artwork/angel-resurrection-louis-comfort-tiffany-tiffany-studios

[Ella Gibbons]

Thanks, LAURA, for the links and the reference to the titles of the chapters.  Fascinating isn't it?

Beautiful stained glass windows:  Our very own Washington Cathedral:

''http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/209230/

[JoanR]

I love it that there is so much more in this book than I expected - the descriptions of the tenements remind me that I hope the next time we do a "Soiree in NYC", we will take in the "Tenement Museum".
 I'm enjoying  the boarding-house living and, of course, the glass studio.
Such a host of great characters to keep track of.  I was a bit surprised at the acceptance of openly gay folks - of course, as they said, this was on the edge of "bohemia" - but this wasn't long after Oscar Wilde was imprisoned and died.
There's a lot of nostalgia for me in this book - one of my great aunts studied at the Art Student's League at about the time in which this book is set.  I have some of her paintings.

About my husband's windows.  He made 3 for our dining room about 35 years ago, identical except for the colors of the flowers which were different in each. He purposely designed them to let in some light. They are 5 feet tall and 30 inches wide.  The window at the front of the house suffered some storm damage in an upper corner from a flying branch and has been lying on the work table in Dave's studio room on the 3rd floor.  He really can't do that kind of work anymore.  I hope that our Meg, when she stops being the busiest librarian in the county, will take a shot at it.  She did a bit of glass work years ago and probably still remembers the techniques.  It's not a big repair.

He is not computer-oriented at all so was flabbergasted when I showed him the picture of his window on the screen.  (Thanks, Pedln and JoanP) .  He is pleased and a bit embarassed by all the compliments.

[Steph]

I loved the explanation of the doubling of the glass that Clara did. This seems to be an old technique.. I know Tim tried it, but did not figure out how to successfully make it work. T he making of the glass interests me. We traveled all over to see Chihuly's work and t heir version of color is good..Besides Clara is fun.

[pedln]

He is pleased and a bit embarassed by all the compliments

He deserves every one, JoanR.

Steph, another Chihuly fan here, in spite of some of the marketing things I've read.  I was really blown away the first time I saw his work in Seattle.  Up until then, my knowledge of blown glass was "small and dainty."  Annie, don't you have a permanent exhibit of his work somewhere in Columbus -- your Botanical gardens?

Must be in and out with Meals on Wheels and a few other things.  Back later.

[JoanP]

Oh JoanR - those windows are just fantastic!  Your home must be beautiful with those windows!  Whatever creative ability I have - yearns to create something like those windows...but like you, Annie, I'd make a mess working with glass, I know it.  Can't imagine snipping into glass, no matter how thin the sheets.  I'll join you in the quilting corner...
But I do admire the finished work, and the precision that goes into it.  I'm loving the posted links too.

 
I felt so badly for Clara - feeling she had to move out of Brooklyn at her husband's death -

"When her husband died, a black circle around her name - Her friends had the notion that a widow must creep through life as though she no longer belonged, taking one tedious, lonely breath after another during the long wait to be reunited with her other half in the hereafter."

I take it this is Susan Vreeland's fiction?  That Clara Driscoll didn't write this in her letters... It is difficult to know where the history leaves off and the fiction begins.  Clara is  an interesting character - I love that Susan Vreeland is telling the story through her eyes, a mix of fact and fiction.

So she moved to Manhattan for a fresh start -
44 Irving Place between Union Square and Grammercy Park, Manhattan"Sourpusses and cigar smokers need not apply."  Can see why Clara Driscoll was ready to move into the place immediately, can't you?

Do you think this building is still there - is it still  a rooming house?  Wouldn't it be fun to look for it?  I remember looking for the Helene Hanff's book store on 84 Charring Cross Rd. in London and feeling disappointed to find it was no longer there.

I've been keeping a list of the boarders, there are quite a few - it's hard to keep them straight-

[JoanP]

Boarding House Roomers

Miss Merry Owens - Landlady - teaching Irish tatting to Mrs. Hackley

Mrs. Hackley - teaching zither to Dudley Carpenter

Dudley Carpenter - teaching drawing to Miss Hettie  (sad face - Southern twang)

Miss Hettie - teaching piano to Mr. Hackley

Mr. Hank Hackley  - teaching singing to Miss Lefevre

Miss Lefevre - teaching French to Mr. McBride

Mr. Hank McBride - teaching Art History to Mr. Booth  (Scholarly Whitman quoter)

Mr. Bernard Booth - teaching accounting to Merry Owens

Dr. Griggs - bona fide doctor

Mr. Bainbridge - actor

George Waldo - a former boarder
Edwin Waldo - George's brother

A question in the heading asks - which of the boarders made the biggest impression so far - I'd have to say it's George - but he isn't a boarder, is he?  A former boarder, he  seems to be in and out of the  house - for meals, even.  Not sure why.

Isn't this fun?  Do you think all of these characters in the house are Susan Vreeland's fiction?