Browse Items (166 total)

  • Tags: gender norms/bending

Wemyss's Twenty-Six Years of the Life of an Actor and Manager (1847)

Wemyss (1847)_Twenty-six years of the life of an actor and manager - Omeka excerpt.pdf
Francis Courtney Wemyss is an actor and theater manager. The entry for Cushman envisions her as a business woman that cleverly paved her way to success by acquiring knowledge about the profession of an actress and the respective people involved in…

Vandenhoff's Leaves from an Actor's Note-Book; With Reminiscences and Chit-Chat of the Green-Room and the Stage, in England and America (1860)

Vandenhoff's Leaves from an Actor's Note-Book; With Reminiscences and Chit-Chat of the Green-Room and the Stage, in England and America (1860).pdf
Same text but different page no. published as Dramatic Reminiscences; or, Actors and Actresses in England and America (1860, London, T. W. Cooper).The autobiographical text was translated by A. v. Winterfeld and published in German as Blätter aus dem…

Transcript of Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Rosalie, Dec 22, 1874

JLP 1, CC to Rosalie, Dec 22, 1874.pdf
Lately, Cushman has been very ill again. She made Stebbins write to Rosalie. Rosalie's sister Mabel is supposed to marry: "make her sensible of the obligation she has taken upon herself - & and its serious importance upon her whole life. A…

Transcript of Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Rosalie, April 18 + 25, 1875

JLP 1, CC to Rosalie, April 18, 1875 - OV Omeka.pdf
Charlotte Cushman wants Rosalie to get a baby girl, discusses her health, Ned's business. Cushman informs Rosalie that she is in Newport at the moment and will go to Baltimore in April for an engagement. Charlotte would like to be with Rosalie or…

Strang's Players and Plays of the Last Quarter Century (1902)

Strang's Players and Plays of the Last Quarter Century (1902) p. 226f..JPG
Strang deems Stebbins's biography of Charlotte Cushman to be untrue in parts. Strang gives a detailed account of Cushman's performances and describes Macready as a decisive factor in Cushman's career, the major career boost. Credit Hathi Trust

Stillman's The Autobiography of a Journalist (1901), Vol. 1

Stillman_The Autobiography of a Journalist v.1.pdf
Charlotte Cushman is mentioned on pages 359-365.Cushman and her "clique" (365) included Miss Stebbins, Harriet Hosmer, "and one or two others of lesser fame" (359).He states that she used her fame or even Stillman (critic) to denounce other sculptors…

Rosalie Sully

Portrait of Rosalie Sully ("The Student")
Rosalie and Charlotte are in a relationship from 1843 until 1845. Rosalie is the daughter of Thomas Sully who once painted the actress. She dies on July 8, 1847, in Philadelphia.

Petition "To the Laws of Property as They Affect Women," Feb 16, 1856

Carlyle, Cushman, Hays, Browning, and Jewsbury signed the petition Credit The Carlyle Letters Online/CLO

Mrs. Walker's Reminiscences of the Life of the World-Renowned Charlotte Cushman (1876)

Walker_Reminiscences of Renowned Cushman (1876).pdf
The biography traces Cushman's successful career and mentions many business partners and friends. However, it excludes every references to Cushman's same-sex relationships. It is published after Charlotte Cushman's death.The Cushman-Macready-…

Mary Howitt's An Autobiography (1889)

Howitt, Mary_Autobiography. Selected pages mention CC. Masculine Appearance (1889)-pages 3-4.pdf
The autobiography was edited by Howitt's daughter. It briefly mentions Cushman, "her intimate friend, Eliza Cook," and their style of dressing in "a very masculine style"

Macready's Diary – Cushman mentions (edited by Toynbee, 1912)

Macready's Diary Screenshot.JPG
The diary entries depict an interesting dynamic between Macready's and Cushman's relationship. There is no diary entry from the beginning of January, 1844, when Cushman published her poem about Macready in the Anglo American Journal. Usually,…

Letter from William Henry Seward to Frederick William Seward, September 16, 1868

Cushman writes a "manly" letter expressing "feminine" appreciation. Credit Seward Family Digital Archive

Letter from Robert Browning to Isa Blagden, March 18, 1865

In a patronizing manner, Robert Browning speaks of the letter from March 3, 1865, which he received from Matilda Hays: "Miss Hays wrote to me for my signature to her petition for a literary pension: I thought it about the coolest proposal I remember,…

Letter from Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Jan 31, 1846

Robert Browning tells Elizabeth Barrett about seeing Cushman and her sister on stage, performing Romeo & Juliet: "I went last night, out of pure shame at a broken promise,-to hear Miss Cushman & her sister in "Romeo and Juliet"-the whole play…

Letter from Matilda Hays to Robert Browning, March 3, 1865

Matilda Hays writes to Robert Browning to convince him of her writing skills and career by including her "memorial." She mentions Charlotte Cushman in the context of her short stage career after which she traveled as a "companion" with Charlotte.Hays…

Letter from Mary Devlin Booth to Emma Crow Cushman, Nov 10[?], 1862

Mary Devlin Booth writes an affectionate letter to her friend Emma Cushman. She mentions a yearning for Emma which she has "never experienced before" (page 2): "I know if your husband saw this he would call this silly & me along with it: for he…

Letter from Kate Field to Emma Crow, July 10, 1860

CCP 11, 3300-3301, Field, Kate to CC and ES, July 10, 1860.pdf
Field admits her disappointment in not being able to see Romeo (referring to Charlotte Cushman) and her Juliet, Emma Stebbins. She addresses Cushman with the pronoun 'he.' In a witty account, Field teases Crow about her age, heritage, and appearance.…

Letter from Kate Field to Charlotte Cushman, Mar 15, 1860

CCP 11, 3295-3296, Field, Kate to CC and ES, March 15, 1860.pdf
Kate Field talks about her thoughts on Italian and American patriotism and how there is nothing quite like American boys and girls. Furthermore, she seems very content with the circle of people she has herself surrounded by, and mentions Casa Cushman…

Letter from Julia Howe to Anne Brewster, Jan 29, 1871

ABP 1 31 Howe.pdf
Julia Ward Howe asks Anne Brewster for help regarding her planned "general congress of women [...] to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace".

Letter from Jane Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle, [April 7, 1848]

Jane Carlyle mentions that Geraldine Jewsbury is having a good time with Charlotte Cushman, Matilda Hays, and W.E. Forster. Credit The Carlyle Letters Online/CLO