Mrs. H. B. Harriman at a Women's Fusion League Rally, New York

This press photograph, captioned Mrs. H. B. Harriman in the negative, records a street rally for the fusion mayoral campaign of John Purroy Mitchel in New York, October 1913. A woman in an elaborately trimmed hat grips what appears to be a campaign standard while addressing a crowd; behind her a man in a suit holds a banner reading WOMENS FUSION LEAGUE FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT. The double-exposure accident layering the image was a common artifact of glass-plate field photography. The Women's Fusion League mobilized socially prominent women—outside the franchise they would not hold until 1917 in New York State—to canvass and speak publicly for reform candidates against Tammany Hall machine politics, making their visible street presence itself the political argument.