Will the real Miss Langdon please stand up?

On the journey across the Atlantic Ocean, at the end of the Quaker City’s five month journey with Mark Twain, the ship stopped in Bermuda for a few days. While there, the excursionists published a list of passengers, including those who had already left the trip earlier.

At the bottom of the list, the total number of passengers is listed, 74, and then the following was added:

or, with the addition of Miss Langdon who joins them here, a total of 75.

Those familiar with Mark Twain probably know that his wife, who he had not yet met while on the Quaker City, would be Olivia Langdon. Olivia, or Livy as she is frequently referred to, had a brother on the trip, Charles Langdon, who is believed to have shown a photograph of his sister to Twain while on the ship.

Over the years, there have been different theories who Miss Langdon really was—was she Olivia, was she another relative of Charles, or was she completely unconnected?

The Mark Twain Papers holds the answer to who she was, with a letter written to Mark Twain on January 18, 1907. The letter is from Julia Louise Langdon Barber, asking if Twain can sign a set of Twain’s books she was ordering from Harper Bros., adding that:

I particularly desire for the Innocents Abroad, emphasizing the fact of my having been one of your favored listeners to the reading of the manuscript, upon the return voyage of the Quaker City via. Bermuda.

Julia L. Langdon Barber to SLC, 18 January 1907 · Washington, D.C., (UCLC 35850).

In case you’re interested, Twain signed the first volume of the set she ordered, but did not sign The Innocents Abroad, or comment about her being on it. She later wrote back to thank him, but noted her disappointment that he did not mention her being on the ship.

So we know who the Miss Langdon who traveled from Bermuda to New York with the Quaker City was, but not how, or even if, she was related to Charles Langdon.

So was Julia Langdon Barber related to Charles Langdon? Without going into a long analysis, she was his first cousin. Julia’s father John LeDroict Langdon was the brother of Charles and Olivia’s father Jervis Langdon. So yes, Miss Langdon mentioned on the Bermuda passenger list was a cousin of Charles Langdon. She traveled on the Quaker City back from Bermuda to New York, apparently listening to Mark Twain read from his letters about the journey that would become the basis of The Innocents Abroad.