Keene-Rasin photograph collection

(Isaac) Freeman Rasin (1833-1907) was a democratic boss of Baltimore for many years, and was considered a powerful political boss in the United States during his life, counting among his friends President Grover Cleveland. Born in Kent County and educated at private schools and at Washington College, he came to Baltimore in 1847, working first as a dry goods clerk, then as a dry goods merchant with his own business. In 1867, he was elected to Clerk of Court of Common Pleas in Baltimore, for which post he was re-elected in 1873 and 1885, serving altogether 18 years. In 1886, he was appointed Naval Officer for Baltimore by President Cleveland, and served until 1890. He was a Baltimore Insurance Commissioner from 1892-1895, and at one point President Cleveland offered Rasin the position of U.S. Consul to Berlin, which he declined. Married to Julia Ann Claypoole Rasin (died 1899), their home was at 1039 North Calvert Street in Baltimore.

John Henry Keene (died 1914) was an attorney and denizen of downtown Baltimore, making his home at 100 East Preston Street before moving to Glencoe in Baltimore County. He was a lawyer, whose fondness for distinctive clothing - especially broad plaids and elaborate walking sticks made him a familiar sight, and whose habit of writing vividly worded letters of opinion to local newspapers on matters such as the noise disturbance caused by streetcars in his neighborhood made him a well known personage. One such letter read: "I give you further notice that the nuisance of which I complain exceeds the extravaganzas of fiction. It equals the barbarous cruelties of the Middle Ages. The nuisance is no mere visionary picture; it is a stern reality, a flesh and blood fact with color in its cheeks".

In the legal community, Keene was known for his brief, written for Henry Janes of West Mount Vernon Place, against the building of a bay window onto the home of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad President Robert Garrett which would block Mr. Janes' view of the Washington Monument. He was the son of John Henry Keene of Lauraville, and studied in private schools and at Harvard University. He practiced law with his brother Robert Goldsborough Keene. In around 1884, he married Miss Fannie Cooke of New York, but she died only four months later, a shock from which Mr. Keene is said to have never recovered.