The Lathrop sisters

The girls’ grandfather Daniel Stebbins was a physician and entrepreneur who raised silkworms in Northampton mulberry groves (family homes were at 57 and 81 Bridge Street and 78 Pomeroy Terrace).

Clara and Susie also trained at the Académie Julian in Paris, Susie studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (her mentors over the years included Alice Barber Stephens, Rhoda Holmes Nicholls, Edward Percy Moran and Julius Rolshoven), and Bessie attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art and Karl von Rydingsvard's woodcarving classes.

Clara, a member of the Woman's Art Club of New York, worked in oil, watercolor and pastel and was known for portraits, studies of flowers and views of Cape Cod, Holland, Cornwall, Brittany and Venice.

She illustrated M. Helen Beckwith's children's book, In Mythland,[7] and published sketches of local scenery in Picturesque Hampshire[8] and The History of Florence, Massachusetts.

"[10] The sisters held group shows and intellectual salons at their studio in downtown Northampton (Bernard Berenson lectured there in 1894), which was draped with fishnets and packed with paintings, prints, embroideries, woodcarvings and ceramics.

During the Hestia Mural 35th Anniversary Lecture on November 7, 2015, The New York Times contributor Eve M. Kahn spoke about the sisters' artistic salon, travels, exhibitions, and teaching posts, among other topics.