Writing from a small home in the hills above Berkeley, California, in February 1923, Ruth Harwood described to her father how she had commemorated her mother's birthday. James Taylor Harwood—Utah's most prominent artist—had lost his wife, Harriet Richards Harwood, the previous April. Bereft by the death of his wife, James had returned to Salt Lake City with his two younger children after having relocated the Harwood household to California three years earlier.1 Despite the loss, Ruth's letters contain a celebratory tone, one that reflects her belief that the presence of their mother remained in the family. “You will want to know all the celebration we did for the little mother's birthday,” Ruth wrote. “Mostly I felt in a mood of rejoicing that she had had a birthday and such a beautiful life and that she had given the gift to me. . . . Somehow I felt the benediction...

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