Browse Items (35 total)

  • Tags: same-sex attraction

Matilda Hays

Cabinet Photo of Cushman and 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…

Waters's Charlotte Cushman (1882)

Cushman Actor Series.png
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.…

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Emma Crow, February 22, 1858

CCP Box 1 CC to ECC 1858, Feb 22 - Omeka file.pdf
This letter is the first one available from the time after Charlotte Cushman's breakup with Matilda Hays. It is a prime example of Charlotte's longing for Emma Crow whom she met shortly before this correspondence at the beginning of…

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Emma Crow, Feb 25, [1858]

CCP 1.55 CC to ECC 1858, Feb 25 - Omeka.pdf
Charlotte writes to Emma Crow about her feelings for her. Apparently, Emma is very fond of Charlotte and Charlotte fears that she cannot meet Emma's expectations. Charlotte also hints at her troubled relationship with Mrs Kemble and mentions 'little…

Letter from Jane Carlyle to Charlotte Cushman, Jan 31, 1862

CCP Box 16, Jane Carlyle Jan 1862.pdf
Jane Carlyle, who had earlier expressed jealousy over Geraldine Jewsbury's attachment to Charlotte Cushman (see, e.g. a 1846-letter to her aunt Jeannie Welsh), here details her deep and sudden affection for Cushman upon finally meeting…

New York Times, Stebbins and Cushman, Aug 31, 1860

The author of this article mentions a "peculiar intimacy" between Stebbins and Cushman.

Letter from Helen Hunt to Charlotte Cushman, Oct 7, 1872

CCP Box 11 Hunt, Helen to CC, Oct 7, 1872.pdf
A love letter of Helen Hunt about how much she misses and wants to see her Queen, Charlotte Cushman, again. Helen Hunt also talks about a man who heard Cushman talk and is fascinated by her genius. Credit Library of Congress, Charlotte Cushman…

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Emma Crow, Sept 12, 1860

CCP Box 1 CC to ECC 1860, Sep 12.pdf
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…