|
Title |
[Autograph of Charlotte Cushman] |
|
Date |
1844-11-23 |
|
Creator |
Cushman, Charlotte |
|
Artistic roles |
Charlotte Cushman (Actor) |
|
Theme |
Women in 19th C. Theatre |
|
Places |
Liverpool (United Kingdom) |
|
Item description |
Autograph of Charlotte Cushman given on Nov. 23, 1844 in Liverpool, England. It accompanies a quotation she also wrote from Longfellow's 'Hyperion.' The quotation and autograph are written in ink on pink stationery that looks to have been torn out of a booklet on the left hand side. |
|
Object narrative |
The first daughter of a middle class couple, and from the beginning proudly declared herself a tomboy, not a flattering term at the time. A failing of her father's business dealings sent the family into poverty by the time Charlotte was a teenager, and she soon decided it was up to her to support her mother and brothers and sister. She began singing and her voice attracted the attention of many. A generous benefactor arranged for vocal instruction and within a few years she was a popular opera singer (contralto) in Boston. Traveling to New Orleans to continue building her career, however, she met with harsh critics who declared that she could not sing. Her voice began to decline, and that is when someone suggested she be an actor instead. Also in New Orleans was James Barton, a tragic actor who needed someone to play opposite him. He trained Charlotte, and a short time after the demise of her opera career (at twenty years of age), she opened with Barton as Lady Macbeth. The praise was immediate, Barton declaring her the greatest living actress on the stage. This praise would continue the rest of her performing days, as she built a name for herself in America for the next eight years.
Despite the fame and many engagements Cushman secured in America, it was impossible for her to demand a large salary without English affirmation and approval; London was still the theatre capital of the world, and America had yet to establish a real theatre of its own. By Fall of 1844, she was stepping on board the Garrick to sail for London. Lonely for her family, terrified, and made seasick by the rough seas on the voyage, she often quoted Longfellow to herself to calm her nerves (Leach 132). Three days after landing in England, on Nov. 23, 1844, she penned this autograph, quoting those very words :
Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again: Wisely inform the present - it is thine.: Go forth into the dark & shadowy future without fear and with a manly march. - Hyperion |
|
Type |
Text |
|
Original format |
Autographs |
|
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 |
6.2: Correspondence and Autographs -- Autographs |
|
Box |
79 |
|
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.B79.029 |
|
Digital publisher |
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 |
|
OCLC number |
872280861 |
