Who was Charlotte Cushman?
To say that Charlotte Cushman was a nineteenth-century actress would not completely describe this talented and sometimes controversial woman. True, she was a fine actress. At the height of her career, she was considered America’s greatest actress and one of the most famous women in the English-speaking world. She was also a patron of the arts, and many women artists of the time were indebted to her for her emotional and financial support. Unlike many of our famous actresses today, Charlotte Cushman was not a beauty. At five feet six inches tall, she was large for a woman of her day and often towered over the men who played opposite her. She had a large forehead and a square jaw and was often described as “masculine.” Charlotte Cushman was born on July 23, 1816. The oldest of three children, she grew up with her mother and grandmother, two strong and unconventional women. Her grandmother had left her husband and raised her three children alone, something extremely unusual in the early n
