Bessie Clarke Drouét

Bessie Clarke Drouét
Portrait of Drouét by Frank O. Salisbury (1928)
Born	Bessie J. Clark 18 January 1879(1879-01-18) Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire
Died	27 August 1940 (61)  Manhattan, New York City, New York
Alma mater	Boston School of Fine Arts
Affiliations	American Students' Foundation, Inc.
Spouse(s)	Henry Drouét (m. 1904)

Bessie Clarke Drouét (January 18, 1879 - August 27, 1940) was an American sculptor, painter, and author associated with the Spiritualist movement, including personal acquaintanceships with Arthur Ford (of whom she made a sculpted portrait bust, first exhibited in 1932) and other famed mediums of the day, who participated in seances at her home in New York City's Central Park West.

Selected Bibliography

• Drouét, Bessie Clarke (1932), Station Astral, New York, London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000476775 

Press Coverage

• "No 'Listening In' on This", Nashville Banner (Nashville, TN): 22, 17 July 1932, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/605217906, "For three years or so Bessie Clarke Drouet, prominent New Yorker painter, and sculptress, has been holding spiritualistic seances at her home in East Eighty-sixth Street, with Maina Tafe, direct voice medium, in attendance. 'Station Astral,' to be published by G. P. Putnam's Sons next month, records details of the very remarkable conversations which Mrs. Drouet's seances have had with prominent shades (among them — Bourdelle, Daniel Chester French, Quentin Roosevelt, Heudon, Col. Theodore Roosevelt, General Grant). Perhaps the most unique feature of Mrs. Drouet's work in spiritualism is the recording which she made of the spirit voice of the late Thomas A. Edison. The recording was made on the Edison ediphone machine, lent to Mrs. Drouet by the Edison Company for this specific purpose. In Mrs. Drouet's meetings, the spirits speak in their own voice — the medium playing no active part." 
• "Station Astral Tells Of Messages Coming From Spirit World", Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, CA): 6, 20 Aug. 1932, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/616895131/, "Mrs. Bessie Clarke Drouet is one of the prominent figures in spiritualist circles in New York. Station Astral is the story of what she is convinced are her own communications with loved ones and friends in the other world. The purpose of her book is to prove to the skeptical that there is no death. The story begins when she discovers her ability to write automatically and then proceeds to show how she herself was changed from an unbeliever to a believer and made her home the meeting place of others who wishes to get in touch with 'station Astral.' Many well-known mediums have taken part in the seances to which have come, Mrs. Drouet is sure, not only the spirit relatives and friends of those joining in the sittings but also the ghostly voices of many famous people. Among these she records conversations with Michelangelo, General U. S. Grant, Houdon, Adelina Patti, who sang for them; Daniel Chester French, Theodore Roosevelt and his son, Quentin; Edison, John Purrey Mitchel and many others." 
• "'Heard' Edison from Beyond", Republican and Herald (Pottsville, PA): 8, 28 Jan. 1933, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/448208768, "Mrs. Bessie Clarke Drouet, pictured in her New York penthouse, where, she avers, she and her assembled guests recently heard the voice of the late Thomas A. Edison, famous inventor, during a seance. Mrs. Drouet replied to skeptics by asserting that the voice of Mr. Edison was recorded on one of his own inventions, the Ediphone."