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Diary Entry by Anne H. Brewster about the Breakup of Charlotte Cushman and Matilda Hays
The complete diary entry for June 5, 1876 is 24 pages long and details the time Harriet Hosmer and Anne H. Brewster spent together. The last eight pages (transcribed here) recount, how Hosmer witnessed the passionate breakup of Charlotte Cushman and…
"The Cabinet", Farmer's Cabinet, Feb 2, 1859
In one of the entries in this column, Hosmer and Cushman are reported to be living together in Rome.
Credit
Readex: America's Historical Newspapers
"Strong Friendship between Hosmer and Cushman", Albany Evening Journal, Jan 21, 1859
On page 2, the newpaper uses the term "strong friendship." It is publicly known that both women live together.
Credit
Readex: America's Historical Newspapers
[no title], Weekly Council Bluffs Bugle, Oct 26, 1859
A very short entry reports that Charlotte Cushman and Emma Stebbins are travelling together to Rome.
Credit
Readex: America's Historical Newspapers
Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Mrs Stowe and Her Neighbors in Rome," Lowell Daily Citizen and News, July 23, 1860
Originally, the article was published in the New York Independent on July 12, 1860. Stowe describes social gatherings in Via Gregoriana in Rome. She explicitly mentions Cushman's household, Stebbins, and Hosmer, who are living together. The short…
Letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her sister Arabel, Oct 22, 1852
Browning describes Cushman and Hays's relationship as a "female marriage."
Credit
New York Public Librarysee also: The Brownings Correspondence by Wedgestone Press
Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Emma Crow Cushman, May 11, 1865
Charlotte writes about Lincoln's assassination and its impact on her and people she knows. Additionally, she tells Emma Crow Cushman about guests who stayed in her house that were not particularly welcome. Most of all, this letter is about…
Stebbins's Charlotte Cushman: Her Letters and Memories of Her Life (1878)
Biography of Charlotte Cushman, written after her death by her spouse Emma Stebbins. The transcribed correspondence between Stebbins and Sidney Lanier (who had originally been chosen as the author of the biography) details the painstaking process of…
Mary Howitt's An Autobiography (1889)
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"
Waters' Charlotte Cushman (1882)
The biography is part of an American Actor Series. It focuses on Cushman's stage career and includes letters, lists of performances and casts, advertisements of Cushman's performances, as well as articles. The Fields are, for instance, not mentioned.…
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…
Letter from Emma Stebbins to Anne Whitney, June 19, 1878
Emma Stebbins responds to Anne Whitney's reaction to reading Charlotte Cushman: Letters and Memories of Her Life.
Credit
Wellesley College Archives, Papers of Anne Whitney (MSS.4): Correspondence. 2010.
Matilda Hays
Matilda Hays and Cushman meet "[s]ometime, probably after 1846" (Merrill 156). Hays plays the Juliet to Cushman’s Romeo in 1848, when Cushman's sister Susan plans to marry James Sheridan Muspratt. Hays is in a relationship with Charlotte Cushman in…
Letter from Rosalie Sully to Charlotte Cushman, May 11, 1845
Rosalie Sully writes to Charlotte Cushman. Rosalie is heart-broken since the two had to go separate ways. To show her love, she is still wearing a ring and bracelet that Cushman gave her last summer. Rosalie is referring to a pledge on July 6, 1844,…
Anne Brewster's "Miss Cushman," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Aug 1878
Anne Brewster describes the relationship between herself and Charlotte Cushman starting at the beginning of the 1840s as an "intimacy" and "intimate friendship". Together they were reading plays and preparing for Charlotte's performances on stage.…
Jennie Lorenz about Stebbins's Biography
Credit
Library of Congress, Charlotte Cushman Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Partial Transcript of Letter from Emma Stebbins to Sidney Lanier, July 6, 1876
Emma Stebbins tells Lanier about several letters from Charlotte Cushman to her mother. She does not want to include letters of an early lover of Cushman, a person Cushman seemingly was engaged to. She does not include a name here. The documents have…
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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…