Clara Jessup Moore
{{short description|American poet}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Clara Jessup Moore
| image = Clarajesseupmoore.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Clara Sophia Jessup
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1824|2|16}}
| birth_place = Westfield, Massachusetts
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1899|1|5|1824|2|16}}
| death_place =London
| nationality = American
| spouse = Bloomfield Haines Moore
| other_names =
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| signature = Signature of Clara Jessup Moore.png
}}
Clara Sophia Jessup Bloomfield-Moore (February 16, 1824 – January 5, 1899){{cite encyclopedia | title=Clara Sophia Jessup Bloomfield-Moore | encyclopedia=American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present | publisher=Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. | author=King, Margaret J. | editor=Mainiero, Lina | year=1979 | volume=1 | location=New York | pages=181–83}} was an American philanthropist and philosopher.
Biography
She was born in Westfield, Massachusetts to Augustus Edward Jessop (a chemist) and Lydia Eager Mosley Jessup, and attended Westfield Academy and at Mrs. Merrick's School in New Haven, Connecticut.[https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/bloomfield-moore-clara-sophia-jessup Encyclopedia website, Bloomfield-Moore, Clara]
She married businessman Bloomfield Haines Moore (1819-1878) and resided in Philadelphia during her marriage.Clara Moore Following the death of her husband she moved to London, where she died in 1899.{{cite web |title=Mrs. Bloomfield Moore Dead.; Philadelphia Woman, Interested in the Keely Motor, Dies in London - An Eventful Life. (Published 1899) |website=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729051912/https://www.nytimes.com/1899/01/06/archives/mrs-bloomfield-moore-dead-philadelphia-woman-interested-in-the.html |archive-date=2018-07-29 |url-status=live |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1899/01/06/archives/mrs-bloomfield-moore-dead-philadelphia-woman-interested-in-the.html}} She organized in Philadelphia a hospital relief committee during the American Civil War[https://ahgp.org/women/clara_jessup_moore_1824_1899.html American History & Genealogy Project website, Clara Jessup Moore 1824 ~ 1899] and assisted in the foundation of the Temperance Home for Children.
She and her husband had three children: Ella Carlton Moore (1843–1892), Clarence Bloomfield Moore (1852–1936), Lilian Stuart Moore (1853–1911).[https://www.holtermann.se/jessup_moore/jesmore/ Holtermann website, Jessup & Moore: Poetry and paper making] They were the grandparents of Swedish explorer and ethnographer Eric von Rosen.
Philanthropy
Among her philanthropic efforts Moore made additional provision to the Jessup Fund established in 1860 by the bequest of her father Augustus E. Jessup. This fund was originally for the purpose of compensating young men to work directly with curatorial staff at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Moore added to the fund to ensure women were offered the same opportunity.{{Cite web |last=Belardo |first=Carolyn |title=Mystery in the Library for Women’s History Month |url=https://www.anspblog.org/mystery-in-the-library-for-womens-history-month/ |access-date=2023-01-14 |website=The Academy of Natural Sciences |language=en-US}}
Moore was also a collector of art objects, including oil paintings, jewelry, porcelains, textiles, pottery, glass, and carved ivories; she bequeathed her collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[https://research.frick.org/directory/detail/4628 The Frick Collection website, Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America section, Moore, Bloomfield H., Mrs., 1824-1899]
Philosophy
{{unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}
Her books on etiquette connected the perennial philosophy to social behavior. She described harmony as the basis of good manners: "the secret or essence of good manners, as of goodness in all other things, consists in suitableness, or in other words of harmony." She promoted a "science of social intercourse" consisting of "the means through which people meet each other, maintaining harmony and peace in their relations, and securing the greatest possible amount of pleasure and comfort to all."
This philosophy was subsequently applied to physics. Her book on ether was written because she believed that ether could account for the operation of the motor invented by John Ernst Worrell Keely, to whose Keely Motor Company she gave liberally in order that he might develop his idea.
Selected works
Moore's published works included;[https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/14692477.Clara_Jessup_Moore GoodReads website, Clara Jessup Moore]
- The Young Jewess and Her Christian Schoolfellows (1847)[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Young_Jewess_and_Her_Christian_Schoo/9V5oAAAAcAAJ?hl=en Google Books website, The Young Jewess and Her Christian Schoolfellows]
- Miscellaneous Poems (1875)
- On Dangerous Ground (1876), a romance
- Sensible Etiquette (1878)
- Gondaline's lesson: The warden's tale: Stories for children and other poems (1881) [https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9783337137687/Gondalines-lesson-wardens-tale-Stories-3337137687/plp ABE Books website, Gondaline's lesson: The warden's tale: Stories for children and other poems]
- Ether the True Protoplasm (1885)
- Social Ethics and Social Duties (1892)
- Keely and His Discoveries (1893)
She also wrote under the pen-names of Clara Moreton and Harriet Oxnard Ward.[https://www.onekbase.com/kb-sci-book/1837keely/1837%E4%BB%8E%E6%9C%AA%E6%8F%AD%E7%A4%BA%E7%9A%84%E5%AE%87%E5%AE%99%E6%B3%95%E5%88%99%EF%BC%9A%E5%9F%BA%E5%88%A9%E7%9A%84%E7%A7%98%E5%AF%86-%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87.pdf One K Base website, Universal Laws Never Revealed, page 229]
References
{{Reflist}}
=Attribution=
- {{NIE|wstitle=Moore, Clara Jessup}}
External links
{{wikisource|Woman of the Century/Clara Jessup Moore}}
- {{Gutenberg author | id=6406| name=Clara Jessup Bloomfield H. Moore}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Clara Jessup Moore}}
- [http://pondscienceinstitute.on-rev.com/svpwiki/tiki-index.php?page=CJBM More of her publications]
{{wikisource|works=or|wislink=Clara Jessup Moore|title=Clara Jessup Moore}}
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Category:American romantic fiction writers
Category:19th-century American poets
Category:Poets from Philadelphia
Category:American women romantic fiction writers
Category:19th-century American women writers
Category:People associated with the Philadelphia Museum of Art