Husband Carl Van Vechten, Partner Paula O. Jakobi

While in England, Carl Van Vechten married Anna Elizabeth Snyder (1880 - May 9, 1933), his long-time friend from Cedar Rapids. Van Vechten moved to New York City in 1906 with Anna, who was a teacher. The marriage to Anna Snyder ended in divorce in 1912, and he wed actress Fania Marinoff in 1914.

In the late 1910s, Snyder became the lover of Paula O. Jakobi, a prison guard at Framingham Women's Prison in Massachusetts, who was herself imprisoned during a suffrage picket at the White House in 1917. Jakobi was one of Marie Jenney Howe's closest friends. Snyder and Jakobi were lovers for 14 years.

Anna Snyder demanded back payment for alimony. When Van Vechten was unable to pay, Snyder had an order of commitment placed against him. As a result Van Vechten went to Ludlow Street Jail in Manhattan. He remained in prison for about a month. Van Vechten was finally able to come to an arrangement with his first wife but the story did not end happily for Snyder. In 1933, afflicted with cancer she committed suicide by leaping from a third-story window of a Frankfort sanitorium.

Her father, James A. Snyder, received her residuary estate. She bequeathed $14.000 and personal effects to her friend, Paula Jacobi, the only specific bequest.

References:


Passion And Power: Sexuality in History (Critical Perspectives on the Past) Paperback – March 30, 1989
by Kathy Peiss and Christina Simmons

Other references:

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