Browse Items (74 total)

  • Tags: same-sex attraction

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

CCP 11, 3454-57, GJ to CC - OV.pdf
Jewsbury informs Cushman that she is still not feeling well and that her eyes have been very bad as of late. She really wants to hear back from Cushman and is eagerly waiting for a reply. Credit Library of Congress, Charlotte Cushman Papers,…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

Frances Power Cobbe

Portrait of Frances Power Cobbe
Cobbe stayed with Hosmer and Cushman in Rome, 38 Via Gregoriana, during her Italian travels in 1861/62.Commenting on the role of Rome for independent women, Cobbe publishes Italics: Brief Notes on Politics, People and Places in 1864.In vol. 2 of her…

Poem by Eliza Cook to Charlotte Cushman

CCP Box 10, 2976-2977, Cook to CC.pdf
A love letter written in the form of a poem by Eliza Cook and addressed to Charlotte Cushman. Credit Library of Congress, Charlotte Cushman Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

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

CCP 11, 3441, GJ to CC- OV.pdf
Jewsbury writes to Cushman to seemingly follow up on a visit and some unfinished orders Cushman had asked her to take care of. Jewsbury then confesses her love for Cushman and begs to not be forgotten. Eliza Cook and Cushman's sister Susan Muspratt…

Letter from Charles Cushman [?] to Emma Stebbins

LoC, CCP 8, 2499-2508, Letter from Charles Cushman to Emma Stebbins.pdf
First mentioned in the letter are Charlotte's first successes in Great Britain, of which Sally should be able to tell Stebbins more about. The sender, who could be Charles Cushman because he was in England with Charlotte in the 1840s and talks about…

Charlotte Cushman's Diary, 1844/1845 (reused)

DMR CC diary 1844 45 Jan - Mar.pdf
Charlotte Cushman writes a diary in 1844 and 1845. In October 1844, she gets on a steamer to go to Liverpool. In England, she hopes to be successful enough to enable her love, Rosalie Sully, to always be with her. The journey is rough and Charlotte…

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Emma Crow Cushman, n.d.

CCP 3, 846-847, CC to ECC, nd. Omeka.pdf
Charlotte Cushman discusses accommodation arrangements and laments the physical distance between her and Emma, she "cannot bear to have you down there & I up here." Credit Library of Congress, Charlotte Cushman Papers, Manuscript Division,…