Browse Items (74 total)

  • Tags: same-sex attraction

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Emma Crow, Feb 3, 1858

CCP 1.49-50 CC to ECC Feb 3, 1858.pdf
This letter is most likely the first one that Charlotte sends to Emma after they met in St Louis, MO, and fell in love. The preceding week, Charlotte had to leave for Cairo and Emma had prepared basket full of food. Cushman mentions the age gap and…

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Emma Crow, Mar 31, 1858

CCP 1.60-61 CC to ECC, March 31, 1858.pdf
In this letter, Charlotte reassures Emma of her love. She promises to visit Emma soon. Charlotte mentions Harriet Hosmer who is trying to find a winter residence in Rome for Cushman. At the end of the year, Charlotte would eventually move to Via…

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 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…

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.…

Frances "Fanny" Anne Kemble Butler

Portrait of Frances Anne Kemble
She is married to Mr. Butler but gets divorced. Charlotte Cushman supports her in her fight for custody. Kemble is an old friend and theatrical colleague of Charlotte Cushman. Eventually, they part on bad terms, as Fanny is disturbed by Charlotte's…

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…

Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury

Geraldine Jewsbury (left) and Jane Welsh Carlyle (right), April 1855
She writes several novels, among which Half Sisters (1848) is her most famous one. It comments on Victorian society and gender norms. The character Bianca, an actress who is half Italian, is said to be loosely based on Charlotte Cushman with whom…

Anne Hampton Brewster

Photograph of Anne Hampton Brewster
Anne Hampton Brewster is an American novelist, journalist and foreign correspondent. She is born to Maria Hampton and Francis Enoch Brewster. In the 1840s, Brewster and Charlotte Cushman meet in Philadelphia, where Cushman is manager of the Walnut…

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Harriet Hosmer is one of the most well-known sculptors of the nineteenth century, esp. for The Sleeping Faun and Zenobia in Chains. Besides her art, she is most well known for masculine attire and activities. Both her father, "Dr." Hiram Hosmer, and…

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.

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…

Eliza Cook

Portrait of Eliza Cook with Autograph
Charlotte Cushman fosters the business relationship between Sarah Hale and Eliza Cook. Cushman and Cook meet for the first time in May 1845 (London) when Charlotte appears as Bianca in Fazio (Merrill 141).She writes for the New Monthly Magazine, the…

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…