Title	[Cabinet Card Photo of Helena Modjeska]
Date	Undated
Creator	Mora
Artistic roles	Helena Modjeska (Actor)
Theme	Women in 19th C. Theatre
Places	New York (N.Y.)
Item description	Cabinet card photograph of Helena Modjeska (1840-1909) from the late 1880s. The card was produced by Mora in New York and pictures Modjeska in a gown with laced sleeves and an over-train lavishly decorated with a flowery design.
Object narrative	Helena Modjeska (1840-1909) was born in Poland into a large family with the name Helena Opid. Her paternity has been somewhat disputed, but she claims her father was Michael Opid, a teacher of music and lover of the arts. While some doubt he was her father, he was no doubt at least her godfather and lived with the family, recognizing and encouraging Helena's early musical and dramatic flair. Older siblings joined the acting profession, and at sixteen years of age she attempted to do so as well, although her debut was a laughable failure. Within a few years she had joined a traveling company (other members of which were two of her older brothers), and she began receiving attention. She had changed her last name to Modezejewska in the intervening years through marriage to an old friend of the family, and he was one of those who helped establish the touring troupe. Touring Poland and Germany for the next several years, she honed her talents, had two children, and left her husband. She married a Polish nobleman in 1868 and together they emigrated to the United States in 1876. Their dream of becoming California ranchers died quickly, however, and Modjeska (her shortened name) quickly set about learning English so she could return to the stage, which she did in San Francisco in 1877 as Adrienne Lecouvreur. She had her New York debut later that year in the same role, and her success was immediate. After three years in Europe and London working on her English and performing there, she returned to America in 1882 to even more fame and fortune. By the late 1880s, she was performing alongside Edwin Booth during the last years of his career. She was known as the preeminent American Shakespearean actress of her generation and toured both America and Europe multiple times during her career. Her favorite and most notable roles were Juliet, Ophelia, Queen Anne in Richard III and Nora in A Doll's House, which she initiated the first performance of in the United States in Louisville, KY. She retired to and died in Newport Beach, CA, the first actor celebrity to settle in Southern CA. This is a cabinet card photograph of Modjeska from the late 1880s.
Type	Text
Original format	Portrait photo
Original publisher	[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Language	en
Contributing institution	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Source collection	MSS255 Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection
Series/grouping	10.1.1: Photographs, Cards, Caricatures/Satire and Other Pictoral Materials -- Photographs -- People
Box	88
Finding aid link	http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/mss255.xml
Preferred citation	[Identification of item], Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection, 1753-2006 (MSS255), Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
Rights statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Additional rights information	NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES. This item has been determined to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The user is responsible for determing actual copyright status for any reuse of the material.
Object ID	MSS255.088.015
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304
OCLC number	872280768

[Cabinet Card Photo of Helena Modjeska]

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