Full-length portrait of Mrs. Gaines wearing a lace shawl over a floor-length dress. Mrs. Gaines, holding a handkerchief in her left hand and wearing her hair in an up do with ringlets, stands on an outdoor balcony in front of a natural setting., In The Columbian lady’s and gentleman’s magazine, vol. 9, no. 10 (October, 1848), plate preceding p. 433., Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines, the celebrated litigant, was the daughter of Zulime Carriere and the wealthy Daniel Clark, who may or may not have ever legally married. Clark, who died in 1813 never having acknowledged Myra as his child, acquired his fortune in New Orleans as a real estate speculator. Mrs. Gaines was raised by Samuel Boyer Davis, a friend of Clark’s, and only discovered her true parentage in 1830. Four years later she began what was to become a 57-year lawsuit to recover four-fifths of her father’s estate, an inheritance to which she was entitled based solely on a missing will., Other portraits appear in: The Columbian lady’s and gentleman’s magazine, vol. 9, no. 5 (May, 1848), plate preceding p. 193; The Ladies wreath (1851), p. [310].
