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On October 3, 1917, a brief article appeared in The Boston Transcript. The headline read CAMOUFLAGE BY WOMEN: Here Is a Chance for Wily Females to Show the Boches Some New Art Tricks. The full text read as follows—
A project has been launched to organize women artists who may desire instruction in the work ot camouflage, Land has been offered for a camp, and the scheme has the unofficial approval ot the War Department, which is, however, at the present time, unable to spare any men from the first camouflage unlt as instructors. If and when they become avallable, further detalls as to time and place and equipment, etc., will be given out. It is believed that many women artists will embrace the opportunity to use thelr special training in patriotic service of this sort. It is probable that the women would be used only in this country, nevertheless the exigencies of war cannot be foreseen, and preparation along this line is thought to be desirable. We are informed that “there is no age limit,” but applicants should be strong and active, and should have had training in landscape, mural or scenic palnting, or in sculpture. All those interested are requested to send thelr names and addresees to Mrs. Clara Strong, Marshfield Hllls, Mass.
Mrs. Clara [née Lathrop] Strong (1883-1955) was a painter, muralist, illustrator, sculptor, and writer. Born in Cambridge MA, she studied in California at Stanford University, and subsequently at Oberlin College in Ohio. After returning to Massachusetts, she studied art in Boston at the Eric Pape School of Art, and in New York with muralist Edwin Blashfield*. She opened her own studio in 1908. A year later, she married a Boston Back Bay surgeon named Seth L. Strong, who had also attended Oberlin, and earned his medical degree at Harvard University in 1913. During the first twelve years of their marriage, they became parents of four children.
In late 1917, a lengthy article appeared in the Chicago Examiner (December 2, p. 29), titled Camouflage the Art of Faking, Throwing Fritz Off the Trail. One of the illustrations was a photograph of Clara Strong, working in her studio. The caption reads: Mrs. C.L. Strong, Who Heads a School for Camouflage. In the closing paragraph, the article states:
Mrs. Clara Lothrop [sic] Strong, of Marshfield Hills, Mass., a well-known New England artist, has formed a school for painting camouflage.
Two other articles claim that Mrs. Strong “was the honorary head of the women’s camouflage war workers during the war” (Boston Traveler, July 13, 1921), and that “She became nationally famous as the originator of the camouflage camp, and in the World War was an instructor in the art of wartime camouflage” (Boston Herald, February 16, 1923).
Her participation in the Women’s Reserve Camouflage Corps during WWI is confirmed by an article in the New York Times (July 12, 1918), titled CAMOUFLAGE THE RECRUIT: Women’s Service Corps Redecorate the Landship in Union Square. She was one of twenty-four women who participated in that project.
The time frame is confusing, but the same 1921 article in the Boston Traveler states that Clara Lathrop Strong, her husband and their children lived in Bangkok, Thailand, during 1918. During that assignment, her husband was in charge of the Royal Medical College there. It provided Clara Strong with the opportunity to become acquainted with the traditional art of that country. In an issue of the Boston Advertiser (February 19, 1922), she is said to have made sculptures that were derivative of certain ceremonial dances, and to have been allowed to paint inside the Royal Palace, “where no foreigner and especially no woman, had previously been permitted.”
However, during this same time period, there are other news articles that indicate that the marriage of Seth and Clara Strong was disentegrating. On the front page of a 1922 issue of the Boston American (November 15), there was a portrait photograph of Clara Lathrop Strong for an article with the headline: SCULPTRESS ACCUSED BY HER HUSBAND: WIFE TRIED TO KILL HIM SAYS DOCTOR. The husband claimed that, as early as 1919, when he refused his wife’s request that the family move to New York, she assaulted him, and threatened to harm their youngest child. He also claimed that she had attempted to kill him by turning on the gas jets in his Boston office. All of which Clara Lathrop Strong denied.
The husband filed for divorce and petitioned for custody of their children. “I loved my husband dearly,” she said, “until he brought this suit against me.” She countersued for custody, and when the marriage was terminated, she was granted “separate support and custody of her four children.” All this was headlined in the press, which must have been unbearable for everyone involved.
As if that were not tragic enough, another incident took place in 1934, coincident with the Great Depression. This apparently had to do with the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA), a government assistance agency that provided assistance to artists. In an article in The Boston Herald (November 21), Clara Strong is quoted as describing herself as “nearly destitute.”
She had applied for a painting commission but was rejected on the grounds that “relief officials told her that she seemed to have sufficient means to live on.” In anonymous protest, she entered a mural in an annual exhibition—using a pseudonym—in which she satirized “the ERA and ‘sacred cows’ who have been given ERA commissions.” When the artwork was rejected, she protested. Living “modestly” in a temporary residence, she said that “she has had to take her son out of college and has sold her antique furniture as proof of her qualifications for help from the state and government.”
That’s the extent of our findings so far. A distressingly complex story, and no doubt unexplained in many regards.
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*It’s interesting that in 1917, when the US entered WWI, a group of East Coast artists, headed by Barry Faulkner and Sherry E. Fry, formed a civilian organization called the American Camouflage Corps. It anticipated the wartime need for skilled artists to serve as army camoufleurs. The chairman of the group was Clara Strong’s teacher, muralist Edwin Blashfield.
RELATED LINKS
Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? / Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage / Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage / Optical science meets visual art / Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness / Under the big top at Sims' circus
