Browse Items (166 total)
- Tags: gender norms/bending
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Byrne's Gossip of the Century: Personal and Traditional Memories (1892)
A retrospective account of Cushman as actress and of her private life: The Memories serve as a good example for how the public image changes after Cushman's death and her success as an actress is being forgotten step by step.Gossip of the Century…
Wemyss's Twenty-Six Years of the Life of an Actor and Manager (1847)
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…
Leman's Memories of an Old Actor (1886)
Leman's account offers gossip from 'behind the scenes' about William Rufus Blake, Macready, and Cushman. It also speaks to Cushman's ambitions.Among other, Leman also mentions Melinda Jones and Anna Cora Mowatt.
Credit
Hathi Trust
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to James Fields, Nov 21, 1862
Tilton has not been handling the sending of Cushman's belongings very well. Cushman is grateful for the books James Fields has sent her way, but comments on him forgetting to do so as of lately. These two issues cause her describe men (="sex") as…
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to the Fields Family, [before 1876]
Cushman invites the Fields family to come over for a visit. She describes Mr Tilton as short-tempered.
Credit
Huntington Library, James Thomas Fields Papers and Addenda
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to the Fields Family, [c. Sep 1860]
Cushman asks James Fields to make Ned "a bookseller of '[his] school'" so that he will be better educated and make Emma Crow "a more satisfying companion." Credit
Huntington Library, James Thomas Fields Papers and Addenda
Excerpt from Louisa Drew's Autobiographical Sketch of Mrs. John Drew (1899)
The autobiography describes Cushman as Maeder's pupil and displays two photographs of Cushman performing as Romeo and as Mrs. Haller. The autobiography compares Madame Celeste's farewell performances to those of Cushman.The autobiography was…
Duyckinck's Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and Women of Europe and America (1872-1874)
Mary Marble mentions the collection of short biographies to Lyman Beecher Stowe when he is working on a biography of Cushman.Duyckinck's work comments on the lives of various artists and authors. The biographies include drawings/paintings of the…
Henry Cushman's A Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the Cushmans (1855)
The entry about Charlotte Cushman spreads across 15 pages. It quotes several accounts of the press, without, however, giving any sources. It is overwhelmingly positive and portrays Charlotte as a noble, ambitious, hard-working, and gifted actress.The…
Mrs. Walker's Reminiscences of the Life of the World-Renowned Charlotte Cushman (1876)
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-…
Letter from Julia Howe to Anne Brewster, Jan 29, 1871
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 Helen Hunt to Charlotte Cushman, Sept 4, 1870
Helen Hunt writes that she misses Charlotte Cushman, referring to her as her "Regina Cara" and "my Queen Carlotta," and Hunt wants Cushman to visit Newport. Furthermore, she talks about Wentworth Higginson who Cushman should take a liking to for…
Tags: gender norms/bending, love, social capital
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Emma Crow, Sept 12, 1860
Cushman is anxious that Emma Crow may lose letters that Charlotte sent: "I don't like such dear letters addressed to me to be lost. or be sent to the Dead letter office. If any 'unscrupulous person or persons' should find it. my reputation might be…
The Graphic, Review of Stebbins's Cushman Biography, Sept. 28, 1878
The Graphic contributes a positive review of Stebbins's biography of Charlotte Cushman and values its insights into Cushman's domestic life.
Credit
19th Century U.S. Newspapers
Letter from Jane Carlyle to Charlotte Cushman, [Sept. 1861]
This letter is one of the first ones that Jane Carlyle seends to Charlotte Cushman.
Craik's A Woman's Thoughts on Women (1858)
Craik comments on the relationship between truth and gossip, men and women, and gives contemporary examples of gossip and how to refrain from participating in gossipping activities.Leach indicates that Craik and Charlotte Cushman knew eacht other and…
James Parton's Eminent Women of the Age (1869)
Eminent Women was written by James Parton, Horace Greeley, T.W. Higginson, J. C. Abbott, William Winter, Theodore Tilton, Prof. James M. Hoppin, Fanny Fern, Grace Greenwood, Mrs. E. C. Stanton, and others that are not listed.Greeley founded the New…
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt, [1871-1875]
Charlotte Cushman addresses Helen Hunt in her quarrel with James Fields. Cushman advises Hunt to transact her own business and confront Fields about some gossip and to "beat him to death with compliments."Transcripts courtesy of Nancy Knipe, Colorado…
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt, Aug 18, 1871
Cushman encourages Helen Hunt's work as a poet and critic and talks about "American men" who do not "understand or appreciate beauty".She has decided to take on the role of Queen Katherine in New York in September, adding that it is an "easy part to…
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt, Aug 25, 1871
Charlotte Cushman is about to start a new engagement in NY, she will perform Queen Katherine in Henry VIII. She shows some resentment against "society" and admits that the audience will pay to see her much more than the play itself, which makes her…
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Charlotte Cushman
Charlotte Cushman becomes widely known on both sides of the Atlantic as the first successful US-American actress. Earlier, she was a singer under the tutelage of James G. Maeder, married to actress Clara Fisher, in Boston. Charlotte has been the sole financial support of her mother since her father…