#Charlotte Cushman

[oh-sewing-circle]

"Charlotte Cushman was an icon of 19th century theatre, competing on equal footing with the greatest male actors of the age and winning a loyal following across the United States and Europe. While Cushman played both male and female roles, she was best known for her male roles including Romeo, Hamlet, and Cardinal Wolsey in Shakespeare's Henry VIII. On stage and off, Cushman challenged conventions of gender and sexuality. In her adult life, she lived in a community of what she called 'jolly female bachelors' or 'emancipated women,' known for producing art, wearing men's clothing, and lobbying for working women."

#Charlotte Cushman #19th century #queer history #gender history #19th century theatre #actress #lgbtq #lgbt #lgbt+ #lgbtq+ #theatre #Shakespeare

[daguerreotype-era]

Mrs. Young. Charlotte Cushman’s Eye. Miniature on ivory, 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library.

#charlotte cushman #theatre

[clove-pinks]

Miss Charlotte and Miss Susan Cushman in the characters of Romeo and Juliet, print by Thomas Fairland after Margaret Gillies, c. 1840-1852 (British Museum).

There is arguably no other epoch in American history so tenaciously haunted, vexed, and titillated by the practice of cross-dressing than the 1840s and 1850s. Bloomers, named after Amelia Bloomer, then promenaded the streets in trousers (pantaloons) and actresses like Charlotte Cushman were seen to play "breeches" (male) parts on stage to mixed responses. Cushman in the role of Romeo, for instance, "had an extensive female following", and a lady in the audience was reportedly heard to whisper, "Miss Cushman is a very dangerous young man."

— Etsuko Taketani, “Spectacular Child Bodies: The Sexual Politics of Cross-Dressing and Calisthenics in the Writings of Eliza Leslie and Catharine Beecher,” The Lion and the Unicorn, September 1, 1999, doi.org/ 10.1353/uni.1999.0037. (Google Drive link)

#1840s #1850s #victorian #gender #queer history #lgbtq history #charlotte cushman #crossdressing #early victorian era #breeches roles #en travesti #this paper isn't on sci hub so i provided a download link you're welcome #thanks to my academic library access

[meret118]

The world-famous actor Charlotte Cushman returns to the limelight, with her costumes going on view in a new Smithsonian exhibition.

“She was one of the most, if not the most, famous women in the English-speaking world during her lifetime,” says Lisa Merrill, author of the 1999 When Romeo Was a Woman: Charlotte Cushman and Her Circle of Female Spectators.

Hers was a fame so candescent that Cushman’s social circles included world leaders from President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward to Queen Victoria, and American literary lights from Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman to Louisa May Alcott. When she returned to the United States after years regaling European audiences, American newspapers hailed her, says Merrill, as the cultural icon of the era, “Our Charlotte,”—a name so well-known that like today’s Madonna, for decades she needed no last name.

Yet today, her story goes largely forgotten. Stage performances are naturally ephemeral, but Merrill believes that following her death in 1876 after a long battle with breast cancer, the onetime star’s fame declined, primarily because of her sex life. “The attempts to erase her or render her merely unusual, ‘odd,’ or inconsequential have not been accidental; each largely reflects the attitudes toward gender and sexuality at the time the accounts were written, rather than attempts to locate the significance of such attitudes in her time,” Merrill wrote.

Those attitudes form a lens on the life of a woman who loved other women. Throughout her career in the late 19th century, she was cast as an admirable virgin who remained chaste by avoiding men.In the decades following her death at 59, she was stigmatized for her long-term relationships and shorter dalliances with other women. Early 20th-century writers, who failed to identify her as a lesbian, sometimes described her as strangely mannish, asexual—and odd.

However, in recent decades Cushman’s life story is re-emerging from the shadows. Biographer Tana Wojczuk’s 2020 book Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America’s First Celebrity has met with critical praise for reviving the actor’s “force and vitality.”

More at the link.

#Charlotte Cushman #Queer #History

[ladygayspanker]

... our sofa occupies the same place opposite the back-room door as it did last summer but now instead of passing there hours of sweet companionships with you I often throw myself upon it alone and heart broken – praying fervently for death to end my misery and yet there is not a being in the world that has the least idea of what I feel, for outwardly I am the same as ever ... Heaven truly knows it will not be through any fault of mine if you do not hear from me for I am as fondly yours as I was the 6th of July last – That pledge I still wear – were my feelings towards you the least changed I should remove it from off my finger for I never deceive either in word or in action – since your absence the bracelet has never been unclasped – If I am not permitted to write my own Charlotte you will be able to discover what my feelings towards you are by ascertaining if I still wear that ring –

"Death shuns the wretch who fain the blow would meet And I must even survive this last adieu And bear with life, to love and pray for you”

Dear Dear Charlotte my grief is too deep for expression – no matter what people may say to you of me never never question my love for you I am unalienably yours for ever Rosalie

_____________________

Rosalie Sully to Charlotte Cushman in 1845, after Cushman had left the US to become a star on the UK stage

#vintage lesbian #queer history #love letter #Charlotte Cushman #Rosalie Sully #poetry #oh look another lesbian obsessed with Byron's poetry #not so unique after all dear Anne Lister #right in the feels

[shakespearenews]

#shakespeare #william shakespeare #booth #edwin booth #charlotte cushman #novel #novels #karen joy fowler

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Elite women continued to use the privilege of class and the assumption of frigidity to live together, and then describe themselves as married, without suspicion. Elizabeth Barrett Browning recorded this exchange with Mrs Cochrane, about Matilda Hays (my great-great-great-great aunt!) and Charlotte Cushman, an actress who had, according to Browning, an 'unimpeachable' character:

I understand that she and Miss Hayes have made vows of celibacy and of eternal attachment to each other – they live together, dress alike . . . it is a female marriage. I happened to say: well u never heard of such a thing before! Haven't you? said Mrs Cockrane. Oh, it is by no means uncommon.

They are on their way to Rome so I dare say we shall see a good deal of turn. Though an actress Miss Cushman has an unimpeachable character.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

#book quotes #normal women #philippa gregory #philosophy #privilege #class #frigid #wlw #lesbian #married #elizabeth barrett browning #matilda hays #charlotte cushman #actress

[queerographies]

[Emma e l'angelo di Central Park][Maria Teresa Cometto]

La misteriosa e affascinante storia dell’angelo di Central Park e della sua scultrice Emma Stebbins, un'artista controcorrente e per troppo tempo dimenticata, raccontata da Maria Teresa Cometto

L’Angelo delle Acque sulla fontana di Bethesda in Central Park è una delle icone di New York e il monumento in assoluto piú fotografato dai turisti e citato nei film. Questo libro rivela la sua storia affascinante e misteriosa, inscindibile da quella dell’artista che l’ha creato centocinquant’anni fa: Emma Stebbins, la prima donna a ricevere la commissione per un’opera d’arte pubblica a New York.…

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#2022 #biografia #Charlotte Cushman #Emma e l&039;angelo di Central Park #Emma Stebbins #gay #Italia #LGBT #LGBTQ #Maria Teresa Cometto #Neri Pozza #New York #nonfiction #USA

[theladyactress]

Anna Cora Mowatt, Mimic Life, and the Critics

Anna Cora Mowatt, Mimic Life, and the Critics

Part III: Publication Although January of 1856 is usually listed as the publication date of Mimic Life, newspaper ads and reviews indicate that there was an initial release of the book starting in the Northeast around December 25, 1855.  This run quickly sold out, leading to the publication of blind items similar to this one that appeared in the Charlotte Democrat in the early weeks of January,…

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#anna cora mowatt #Autobiography of an Actress #Boston Evening Transcript #charles dickens #Charlotte Cushman #edgar allan poe #epes sargent #George Ticknor #James T. Fields #John Rueben Thompson #knor #Mimic Life #shakespeare #Stella #The Lady Actress #The Prompter&039;s Daughter #The Unknown Tragedian #theatrical autobiography #Ticknor and Fields #Victorian Actress #Victorian Literature #Victorian theater #victorian theatre #William Foushee Ritchie

[corvidaedream]

all us interns from different departments took a walking tour of the cemetery highlights today and when we got to isabella's tomb i was so excited and then the docent was like "this one gets a lot of attention because she's sort of an obsession among certain kinds of people for some reason" and I was like. called the fuck out. but also for some reason??? that reason is that she was interesting and funny, fuck off

#messages from the ouija board #the docent leading us also was weirdly snobby about older new england cemeteries #like she literally was like 'cemeteries before the rural cemetery movement were unsanitary and the graves were morbid and ugly' #AND SHOWED US A PICTURE OF THE GRANARY like FUCK YOU I LOVE THE GRANARY #hey lady maybe u fucking hate boston history. maybe you should stay in fucking cambridge i guess #sadies day job #(the cemetery one!) #she did point out all the cool 19th century gay people to us though and there was a little cluster of us theys like !!!!! #charlotte cushman married TWO DIFFERENT WIVES??

[sassmill]

Reading a sentence containing a reference to “Aunt Charlotte” only a few paragraphs after it’s explained that Kate Field’s Aunt Cordelia was close friends with Charlotte Cushman has the most insanely sapphic implications

#my new obsession is Kate field #this woman’s life was buckwild #this record of her life basically starts off with ‘well her parents were actors so that’s a big part of it’ #like yeah she was set up to be the most interesting person you’ve ever heard of from the get go #her parents met while working in the same theatre company in the 1830s #and her aunt Cordelia was absolutely Charlotte cushman’s type #in her journals kate is expressing a feeling of being other #and not knowing quite was she is other than ‘a bit queer’ #obviously that word was not used in the same context in the early 19th century #but in the context of that journal entry and the struggle to self identify as anything #it feels really important that she used that particular phrase #museum musings

[vintagesapphics]

Charlotte Cushman, 19th century Shakespearien actress, and her partner, writer Matilda Hays

#are the commas right here? #source: jesselatour.blogspot.com #1850s #lgbt history #lesbian #wlw #lgbt #vintage lesbians #queer history #history #sapphic #lesbian history #shakespeare

[relevant-catnik]

In light of a local park yanking permission for a production of Romeo & Juliet because the production design emphasizes queer themes (rainbow costumes, 2 afab actors in the title roles), how about some theatre history?

I mean, yes, everyone knows about how the Elizabethan stage would have had two men kissing in the original production.  But today, let’s talk about the Cushman Sisters!

In the mid-19th century, the Cushman sisters, Susanna & Charlotte, had a sensational run portraying Romeo & Juliet.  Rather than causing a scandal, Charlotte was praised for elevating the “soppy” Romeo.  The siblings had a critically & commercially successful run of the play in London, and Charlotte would go on to play over 30 “masculine” roles across her career. (I use ‘her,’ because that is the pronoun Ms. Cushman used in life.  She played both masculine and femine roles, though often styled herself in a mixture of masculine & feminine elements in dress)

Advertisement for the Cushman sisters

Charlotte Cushman as Romeo

Charlotte Cushman and Matilda Hays, one of several women who was an “intimate associate” and, rather openly for the time, a known romantic partner.  Cushman also was known to have had a relationship with the actress Rosalie Sully, sculptor Harriet Hosmer, and several other women.

There are, of course, Staffordshires of the sisters.

#victoriana #theatre history #queer history #romeo and juliet #cushman sisters #lesbian history #lgbtq

[dekarios]

I have awoken and fueled with the power of the ol hyperfixation to lore dump into your inbox :3. So Bethesda Fountain is in central central park and it's both a water feature and a statue as well as some foliage. The plants and fountain are both very pretty and interesting but my absolute favorite is the statue at the top! (there she is hanging out with some bird friends). So early in nyc's history they had a real water issue, disease was prevalent in the city becuase the water supply was poorly managed and very unsafe. Eventually, they gathered the funding to build the Croydon Aquaduct which ment the water in the city was much cleaner and there were less deaths due to the illnesses. In celebration of this, the city commissioned a sculptor named Emma Stebbins to build a statue. She created the Angel of the Waters, inspired by a bible passage about an angel healing people with water in the city of Bethesda. Fun Fact! Emma Stebbins was also in a sapphic relationship with a famous actress named Charlotte Cushman, they even exchanged vows. It's speculated that Charlotte was the model for the statue but I haven't found any evidence for that yet.

So the statue is around 8 feet high and the base of the fountain has 4 cherubs, in one hand she holds a lily which symbolises the pureness of the water and she uses the other hand to bless the waters of the fountain. Becuase of this statue, Emma became the first woman to receive a public art commission in nyc :]

that statue is so pretty what the fuck......... thank you for the lore...!!!!!!!!

#fray.txt #ask #velvineofvirtue #the pigeons on it . i love extra

[keepthisholykiss]

happy international lesbian day, this is your local certified, legally recognized, card-carrying lesbian scholar (who writes about lesbian history) here to recommend you my five favorite books on lesbianism and/or lesbian writers that i have come across in my research (including those that were a part of my master's thesis)

The Literature of Lesbianism by Terry Castle This book was the bible to my thesis work. It helped me navigate writers I never knew of surrounding the topic of lesbianism. Some of my absolute favorite writers are contained in this book and the bibliographies for each section were crucial for me.

Surpassing the Love of Men by Lillian Faderman This book was one of the ones that inspired my entire topic. I have also had the pleasure of talking with Faderman about lesbian history and her new efforts in trans history, read any of her books your life will be changed.

Priestess of Morphine by Ronald Siegel Siegel's work is typically in the realm of drug history which was his approach in initially finding this subject. However, the result was a deep-dive into the history of pseudonym a lesbian whose writings were beloved in lesbian Berlin prior to the second world war. Her work is phenomenal and her impact has been largely overlooked. Tread lightly if anything related to WWII is triggering!

When Romeo Was a Woman by Lisa Merrill This was not a book I included in my thesis work (if I had included Charlotte Cushman it would have been 100+ pages longer lbr) however this is a beautiful collection of work that I think any theatre loving lesbian should read.

Open Me Carefully by Ellen Hart and Martha Smith Emily Dickinson is a well-covered historical lesbian who initially I had not planned on including in my research due to how heavily she is covered. However, the literal erasure of her lesbianism from her manipulated archives is so important to researching any queer person that I think it is very important to look into for future preservation.

I have 85984590684 other resources I could go on and on about but instead I will leave it here. I love being a lesbian, I love being a genderless lesbian, I love lesbians of all genders, levels of disability, races, body types, and expressions. I do a large portion of my academic research for lesbians specifically and I hope that some day everyone can read the beautiful history of queerness and see how far we have come as well as how far we need to continue going.

#lesbian #international lesbian day #lesbian history #history #lgbtq+ #research

[ladygayspanker]

Ah, how dearly how devotedly have I loved C. [Charlotte Cushman] ever since I first knew her, and I look back upon our intercourse although sadly, with feelings of pride & pleasure. .... I love my mother & my brother dearly and my friends, but my love for C was a love that is felt but once in one’s lifetime ....

Oh Father above is such love wrong? Can a feeling which seemed to elevate & refine may nature as did that love for her be wicked? Oh! No it cannot be my inner self whispers, and I feel assured though separated in this life, in another world we shall meet & never know the wretchedness of separation!

______________________________________________

Diary entry by Anne Hampton Brewster, June 1847, after having separated from Charlotte Cushman due to her brother’s interference.

The two women would later meet again, when both settled in Rome, in the 1850s. Cushman, however, had evidently moved on (she lived with Emma Stebbins at the time) and they two never became as close again.

#vintage lesbians #love letter #diary #nineteenth century #Charlotte Cushman #queer history