The Fields and Cushman

This exhibit sheds light on the friendship and business relationship between Annie and James Field and Charlotte Cushman.

On this page, you can find

1) a timeline including all of the related Cushmania items

2) a geolocation map including all of the relevant Cushmania items for which geographical data (location of sender) are available

3) a gallery including all of the related Cushmania items

4) four galleries that group the above-mentioned items according to the following topics: same-sex intimacy, social life, Cushman's financial concerns and business matters, Cushman's letters in which she asks for help on behalf of Ned/Stebbins/Mr Carr

This exhibit consists largely of letters from the "James Thomas Fields Papers" at Huntington. I am grateful to German-American Fulbright Commission whose generous funding allowed us to obtain digitized copies of these letters. Additional material comes from the Library of Congress, HathiTrust and other sources.
The exhibit sheds light on Cushman's transatlantic correspondence over the span of two decades, beginning in 1860, as she writes from Italy, England, and various places the US to publisher power-couple James Thomas and Annie Fields. The letters collected her contain some of the most overt interweaving of business concerns and interference with public perception on the one hand, and exchange of quotidian and intimate information on the other. They highlight how Cushman tried to influence events (and the perception of events) in the US from abroad by proxy. Yet they also give us an idea, of how Cushman and Stebbins interacted with the Fields as a couple that is at least tacitly treated as such. For more on how business and intimacy intersect in these letters, see my #BAAS2021-paper.

Same-Sex Intimacy

The gallery below shows all items in which same-sex intimacy is touched upon in the correspondence with the Fields.

Social Issues

The following items address social life issues.

Financial Concerns/Press/Business

The following group of items comprises information about Cushman's financial concerns and business matters.

The following timeline includes items that address both Cushmans own business matters and those related to family members.

Social Capital

The items listed below showcase in how far Cushman tried to win the Fields' support for business matters related to members of her family: Ned Cushman, Mr Carr, and Emma Stebbins.