Browse Items (74 total)

  • Tags: same-sex attraction

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Jane Welsh Carlyle, July 15, 1862

NLS, ms1774, 235-236 recto, Cushman to Jane Carlyle in Ms. 1771 dated 15 July 1862.pdf
Cushman plans to meet Carlyle and writes about her "loving admiration" for Jane. Credit National Library of Scotland

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 Charlotte Cushman to James Fields, Nov 21, 1862

Letter from CC to JT, November 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 Emma Crow Cushman, Dec 18, 1862

CCP 2, 504-506, CC to ECC Dec 18 1862.pdf
Charlotte Cushman laments that she is living to far away from her "darling" Emma Crow Cushman. She mentions stock speculation business, financial concerns, social gatherings, memories of Emma Crow and her, and an accident of "woolly headed" Emma…

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to [Emma Crow], Jan 15, 1863

CCP 2, 614-617, CC to ECC, Jan 15, 1863.pdf
Charlotte Cushman stresses that she reads only "portions" of Emma's letters to Emma's sister Mary who is a very "unamiable" character. Cushman is "fully aware of all her propensities," she say speaking of Mary who gets an "occasional rebuke" from…

Letter from Anne Brewster to Mary Howell, July 8, 1864

ABP 27 10 Letter to Howell, July 8, 1864.pdf
Anne Brewster describes the fiancé of her cousin Frank as a "well-posé person" whose manners she feels drawn to. She adds: "Had I been alone with her I should have kissed her [inserted] but I would not take a liberty with her before any one for fear…

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt Jackson, Nov 23, 1869

Charlotte Cushman is grateful for a gift from Helen Hunt and tells her that she loves her.Transcripts courtesy of Nancy Knipe, Colorado College.

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt Jackson, Dec 6, 1869

At this state, Charlotte Cushman is "a poor shaky old 'queen'" who contemplates going back to the US.She comments on her relationship with Emma Stebbins and reveals a breach of trust with, presumably, Emma Crow Cushman:"You are wrong dear in you…

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt Jackson, Dec 6, [1870?]

Charlotte Cushman writes about her health and housing situation.Transcripts courtesy of Nancy Knipe, Colorado College.

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt, March 29, 1871

Dr. Wright could not help Charlotte Cushman to get better. Cushman is anxious and convinced that she will die in a couple of month, she "will seek every palliative" available. She desperately tries to consult medical advice in different cities.As…

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 Helen Hunt, Aug 16, 1874

Charlotte Cushman discusses further engagements and tells Hunt about her "friend Miss Stebbins" who accompanies her. Emma Stebbins's mother died.Transcripts courtesy of Nancy Knipe, Colorado College.

Letter from Emma Stebbins to Sidney Lanier, March 1, 1876

JLP 2 Stebbins to Lanier, March 1, 1876 - OV Omeka.pdf
Stebbins writes to Lanier upon Charlotte Cushman's death to discuss the matter of Cushman's memoirs. Transcripts by Jennie LorenzCredit Library of Congress, Charlotte Cushman Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Diary Entry by Anne H. Brewster about the Breakup of Charlotte Cushman and Matilda Hays

ABP Box 4 5, diary 1876. On CC and Hays_excerpt.pdf
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…

Stebbins's Charlotte Cushman: Her Letters and Memories of Her Life (1878)

Stebbins Bio.JPG
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…

Anne Brewster's "Miss Cushman," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Aug 1878

1878. August. Blackwoods Magazine. Brewster about CC Omeka.pdf
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.…

Waters' 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.…

Cobbe's Autobiography Life of Frances Power Cobbe (1894)

1894. Cobbe Power, Frances_Life of. Cushman Hosmer chapter. Omeka.pdf
The excerpt gives insights into Charlotte Cushman's household in Rome and the introduction of Cobbe to Mary Lloyd in 1861-62. Credit Hathi Trust

"The New England Girl," The Woman's Voice, Jan 17, 1895

1895. Womans Voice. New England Girl.pdf
Harriet Prescott Spofford celebrates various examples of "The New England Girl" among whom she identifies Charlotte Cushman as a great actress that fascinated both men and women. The latter especially in her later life. The article also mentions Anne…

Letter from Geraldine Jewsbury to Charlotte Cushman, n.d.

CCP 11, 3451-3453, GJ to CC- OV.pdf
There are no news from Cushman, which makes Jewsbury anxious for an answer, while she also apologises for her past temper. She is in the process of writing a book, and will no longer stay away from Liverpool. Otherwise, Dilberoglue and Frank are…