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Major Mite Visits the White House in 1922

Published May 24, 2012

In December 1922, 9-year-old Clarence Chesterfield Howerton, known as "Major Mite," visited the White House. Read about the visit and see a photo from the Washington Post on Ghosts of DC.

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You find one, you find them all. Ok, admittedly the last few posts have been focused on little people, so this will be the last one for a while.

December 7th, 1922. Washington, D.C. "Two in one. The smallest midget and smallest 'camel' shriner in existence. Maj. Mite had to skirt the camera left carelessly by a photographer when leaving the White House." Clarence Chesterfield Howerton (1913-1975), a.k.a. "Major Mite," was 9 years old when this photo was taken. According to his obituary he was in the "Our Gang" movies and played a Munchkin in "The Wizard of Oz." National Photo Co. — December 7th, 1922. Washington, D.C. “Two in one. The smallest midget and smallest ‘camel’ shriner in existence. Maj. Mite had to skirt the camera left carelessly by a photographer when leaving the White House.” Clarence Chesterfield Howerton (1913-1975), a.k.a. “Major Mite,” was 9 years old when this photo was taken. According to his obituary he was in the “Our Gang” movies and played a Munchkin in “The Wizard of Oz.” National Photo Co.

Clarence Chesterfield Howerton, popularly known as “Major Mite,” visited the White House in December 1922 at the age of nine. Sadly, there was not detailed or even brief report of the visit in the papers. All I could find was a grainy scanned photo of the same scene.

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Check out a different angle of the shot below, from the Washington Post.

Maj. Mite photo in the Washington Post - December 8th, 1922 — Maj. Mite photo in the Washington Post – December 8th, 1922

Who do I have to thank for this? Shorpy of course. Ok, let me get back to posts of substance.

Posted in From the Crazy Vault
and tagged 1920s, midgets, The White House

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