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Robert Browning
Robert Browning is married to Elizabeth Browning. Both live for some time in Italy, in Florence and Rome. They are friends with Charlotte Cushman, Harriet Hosmer, Isa Blagden, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Emma Stebbins is hardly ever mentioned at…
Mary Elizabeth "Eliza" Babbitt Cushman
Mary Elizabeth Babbitt Cushman is the second wife of Elkanah Cushman.
Mary Howitt
Charlotte Cushman and Mary Howitt become friends at an early stage of Cushman's career in England. Mary writes an autobiography and a journal. In 1846, she publishes her article on the Cushman sisters, which is titled "The Miss…
Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury
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…
Sarah Josepha Hale
Hale is an important business partner and friend of Cushman, as Hale becomes the editor of Godey's in 1837. She is Godey's editor for fourty years, from 1837-1877.
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…
Sallie Mercer [dates unknown]
Sallie Mercer starts working as a maid for Charlotte Cushman at around age 14 in 1844. She is the only one to accompany Cushman on her first trip to England and will stay with her until her death. Over these three decades, Mercer takes on several…
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
In a letter from Elizabeth to her sister Arabel Malton Barrett from October 22, 1852, Browning describes the relationship between Charlotte Cushman and Matilda Hays a "female marriage."The Brownings lived in Italy for some time, in Florence (Casa…
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
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.
Susan Cushman Muspratt
Charlotte's sister performs as Juliet in Romeo & Juliet.She is forced into marriage with Nelson Merriman when she is 14 and he is in his 60s. He leaves her and the child in debt. With the help of her family, Susan files for divorce. Charlotte…
Eliza Cook
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…
Edwin "Ned" Charles Cushman
He spends some time in India before 1858. He is Charlotte Cushman's nephew and is adopted by her after his mother, Susan Cushman Muspratt, marries Sheridan Muspratt. At this point in time, Ned is 14 years old (Merrill 170). Once he develops into a…
Wayman Crow
Wayman Crow was a St. Louis businessman, who also served as the financial advisor for Harriet Hosmer and Charlotte Cushman. Crow is the father of Emma Crow Cushman (who falls in love with Cushman, after seeing her perform as Romeo in St. Louis, and…
Emma Crow Cushman
Emma Crow meets Charlotte Cushman at the beginning of 1858 and shares a long-term, intimate relationship with her. Meanwhile, she marries Ned Cushman on April 3, 1861. In May 1862, her first pregnancy ("little Charlotte") ends in miscarriage.
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…
Emma Stebbins
Starting in 1857, Charlotte Cushman and Emma Stebbins enter a romantic relationship that lasts until Cushman's death. After her death, Stebbins writes an often cited biography about Cushman in which she collects "letters and memories."Cushman…
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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…