Over a century of Independence

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The lady in the picture has a severe expression but she celebrated Independence Day more than most – living to the ripe old age of 105. Her name is Mary McConnell Borah, daughter of Governor William J. McConnell and wife of Idaho Senator William Borah, and she was given the car through her husband’s connections, as a gift from someone seeking political influence, this being at a time when such things were very common and not prohibited. Mrs. Wilson, the President’s wife, had been given an identical car, for the same reason. The car is a Baker Electric Phaeton photographed in Washington DC in the winter of 1912 clearly showing snow chains fitted to the driven wheels. We begin to understand the lady’s expression as  she waits for the photographer in the freezing cold. The success of the electric cars was strong but also short lived. When petrol driven cars came with decent starters the electric cars died off.

“Politics was my life”, Mrs. Borah once said in an interview in later years. While her husband was still alive, they seldom took part in Washington’s social life. She had contributed articles, however, to magazines and newspapers on social life in Washington and at one time was working on a book that was to include her favourite anecdotes on the foibles of Washington society. Her memoirs ‘Elephants and Donkeys’ were published in 1976. Possibly this was also an inspiration to the scriptwriter of the tv-series "House of Cards"? Mary Borah’s husband William had an affair with President Roosevelt’s daughter Alice who produced a daughter. As the wife and then widow of a famous senator, Mrs. Borah had been a guest in the White House of every President from Theodore Roosevelt to Lyndon B. Johnson. What she remembers most about... ‘the most important official function given at the White House during my 22 years in the capital’ was ‘Alice boldly offering a cigarette to the young Princess Ileana’ - the daughter of Queen Marie of Romania.

(Text Robin Batchelor, pictures courtesy SHORPY)

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