Mujeres famosas de la era de la guerra civil

Laura Keene 1820/26–1873

Born London, England
English actress Laura Keene achieved fame in the United States, not only as a brilliant comedic star but as one of the nation’s first woman managers of a major theatrical company. Following her American stage debut in 1852, Keene performed in a number of cities and briefly managed theaters in Baltimore and San Francisco before settling in New York City, where she opened her own theater in 1856. Specializing in elaborately staged comic productions, Keene delighted audiences and succeeded in attracting to her company a host of celebrated actors. She assumed a role in each of her productions, achieving her greatest success as Florence Trenchard in the hugely popular comedy Our American Cousin. On the night of April 14, 1865, Keene was appearing in this play at Ford’s Theatre for an audience that included Abraham Lincoln when John Wilkes Booth fired the shot that claimed the president’s life.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1865 wet collodion negative
 

Harriet Lane 1830–1903

Born Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
After James Buchanan won the presidential election of 1856, his orphaned niece and ward, Harriet Lane, assumed the role of First Lady. Though only twenty-six, Lane was already accustomed to moving in exalted circles. In 1854, while accompanying her uncle during his first year as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, she mingled easily with members of the royal family. Later, as President Buchanan’s official hostess, Lane brought a heightened level of sophistication to White House functions. She also took a lively interest in cultural pursuits and supported nascent efforts to found a national gallery in Washington, D.C. Following Harriet Lane’s White House tenure, her name remained in the news. In April 1861, a U.S. Navy ship christened in her honor fired across the bow of the Nashville near Charleston, South Carolina, three days before the U.S. surrender of Fort Sumter that signaled the start
of the Civil War.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1860 wet collodion negative
 

Mrs. J.H. Allen c.1840–1911

Birthplace unknown
As the practice of casting mature actresses to play the roles of youthful heroines began to wane in the mid-1850s, the charming ingénue Mrs. J.H. Allen emerged to claim such roles. Performing exclusively under her married name (she was the wife of actor and theater manager J.H. Allen), Mrs. Allen made her New York City acting debut in 1855. Three years later, the New York Times hailed her as “the most beautiful woman on the New-York stage” and noted her rapid rise as the leading actress at the city’s principal theater. In 1859, Allen portrayed Zoe, the tragic mixed-race heroine, in Dion Boucicault’s stirring new melodrama The Octoroon. When Laura Keene staged the wildly popular extravaganza The Seven Sisters, during the 1860–61 season, Allen appeared as a flag-draped Columbia in one of “a series of tableaux bearing on the great tragedy of Secession, then rending the republic.”

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1861 wet collodion negative
 

Clara Louise Kellogg 1842–1916

Born Sumterville [now Sumter], South Carolina
At a time when opera was dominated by European stars, American soprano Clara Louise Kellogg emerged as a significant, homegrown talent. Kellogg received her vocal training in New York City, where she made her formal debut as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Academy of Music on February 27, 1861. When the public’s taste for entertainment faltered at the start of the Civil War, Kellogg and impresario Max Maretzek brought audiences back to the theater with a rousing, if unconventional, production of Donizetti’s La Figlia del Reggimento that featured American patriotic songs and actual Zouaves. Two years later, in the New York City premier of Gounod’s Faust, the young singer scored a triumph with her performance as Marguerite—a role the New York Times praised as suiting Kellogg’s voice “to perfection,” adding, “there is not a note in it that could be sung more truthfully or with better effect.”

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1863 wet collodion negative
 

Pauline Cushman 1833–1893

Born New Orleans, Louisiana
A brief but harrowing career as a Union spy transformed minor actress Pauline Cushman into a major celebrity. In 1863, while appearing in a play in Unionoccupied Louisville, Kentucky, Cushman gained entrée to Confederate circles by publically feigning Southern sympathies. Hailed as the darling of the rebel troops, she gathered intelligence for the North until her duplicity was discovered. Arrested, tried, and condemned to hang, she was rescued by Union forces before the sentence could be carried out.

In recognition of Cushman’s service to the nation, she received a commendation from President Lincoln and was awarded the honorary rank of major. In June 1864, P.T. Barnum advertised that “MISS MAJOR PAULINE CUSHMAN! THE FAMOUS UNION SPY AND SCOUT,” would recount her “EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOITS and ADVENTURES” during a series of appearances at his American Museum. Barnum also advised patrons that “elegant” carte de visite portraits of Cushman would be offered for sale.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1860-1870 wet collodion negative

Julia Dent Grant 1826–1902

Born White Haven, near St. Louis, Missouri
Julia Grant served as a stabilizing influence in the life of her husband, Ulysses S. Grant. She remained steadfast in her devotion and her belief in his potential, despite a series of setbacks that plagued the couple during the early years of their marriage. When Grant reentered military service during the Civil War, his need for his wife’s companionship and counsel was such that Julia hastened to join him in the field whenever possible. Throughout the war, no general’s wife spent as much time in army encampments as she did. While traveling to meet her husband in Oxford, Mississippi, in December 1862, Julia narrowly avoided capture by Confederate raiders when they swept into the town of Holly Springs. She later joined Grant at his encampments in Jackson, Memphis, Nashville, Vicksburg, and City Point. At the war’s conclusion, Julia accompanied her husband to Washington, D.C, along with his victorious troops.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1864 wet collodion negative

Mary Todd Lincoln 1818–1882

Born Lexington, Kentucky
When her husband was elected president in 1860, Mary Todd Lincoln welcomed her role as the nation’s First Lady. Yet, her years in the White House proved far from happy. Unjustly suspected by many of harboring Confederate sympathies, she quickly became a target of public criticism for everything from her Southern birth to her extravagant style of entertaining. Hurt and embittered by these attacks, Mrs. Lincoln was shaken further by the death in 1862 of the Lincolns’ beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie. Still suffering from that tragic loss, she was utterly devastated by her husband’s assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth in April 1865. Mrs. Lincoln never fully regained her equilibrium and spent her remaining years plagued by mentalinstability.

Mrs. Lincoln posed for this portrait in one of the elegant silk gowns fashioned for her by the talented African American dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from 1862 wet collodion negative

Anna Elizabeth Dickinson 1842–1932

Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Acclaimed as “The Girl Orator” by radical reformer William Lloyd Garrison, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson was still in her teens when she launched her publicspeaking career. An ardent abolitionist and women’s rights advocate, she first found receptive audiences in Philadelphia, where she spoke before the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society (1860) and later delivered an address titled “The Rights and Wrongs of Women” (1861). On the lecture circuit, Dickinson built a following among listeners captivated by her intensity, youth, and dedication to reform. She campaigned effectively for Republican candidates, and in 1863, she joined Frederick Douglass in promoting African American enlistment in the Union Army. On January 16, 1864, at the invitation of Congressional Republicans, Dickinson became the first woman to speak before the U.S. House of Representatives. In her address, she lauded the contributions of African Americans to the war effort and endorsed the reelection of President Lincoln.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from 1863 wet collodion negative
 

Queen Emma 1836–1885

Born Honolulu, Hawaii
On May 6, 1865, less than a month after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender marked the end of the Civil War, Hawaii’s recently widowed Queen Emma embarked from Honolulu on a lengthy international tour. After an extended stay in England, where she met with Queen Victoria and raised funds for the construction of an Anglican cathedral in Honolulu, Queen Emma traveled to a host of European cities. In late July 1866, following a second visit to London and brief sojourn in Ireland, she sailed for New York City. As the first queen of any nation to visit the United States, she was welcomed with great fanfare that included a thirteen-gun salute when her ship docked on August 6. Warmly praised by the New York press, Queen Emma generated similar excitement when she traveled to Washington, D.C., where President Andrew Johnson feted her at a grand White House reception.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from 1866 wet collodion negative

Kate Chase Sprague 1840–1899

Born Cincinnati, Ohio
Consumed by the desire to see her father elected president, Kate Chase did everything in her power to advance Salmon P. Chase’s political career. When her thrice-widowed father won Ohio’s governorship, in 1856, he chose sixteen-year-old Kate to serve as his official hostess. She laid the groundwork for his bid to become the Republican Party’s 1860 presidential nominee by wining and dining the influential politicians who flocked to her glamorous soirees. Bitterly disappointed when Abraham Lincoln secured the Republican nomination and the presidency, Kate took some consolation in her father’s appointment as Secretary of the Treasury. She established their Washington, D.C., residence as a glittering salon and reigned as the belle of capital society while building a network of political alliances. Kate’s marriage in 1863 to millionaire William Sprague helped to finance her father’s presidential ambitions, but her hopes were dashed when Lincoln was nominated for a second term.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1864 wet collodion negative

Lavina Warren Stratton 1841–1919

Born Middleborough, Plymouth, Massachusetts
One of the most famous women of the Civil War era stood just thirty-two inches tall. Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump was a person with dwarfism who began her professional life at sixteen as a schoolteacher. She later embarked on a career as an entertainer when a cousin invited her to perform on his Mississippi showboat. In 1862, famed impresario P. T. Barnum recruited the “Lilliputian Queen”—now known as Lavinia Warren—to appear at his American Museum in New York City. There, she met Charles Stratton, a little person and Barnum protégé, who enjoyed international celebrity as “Tom Thumb.” When the pair announced their plans to wed, Barnum publicized the engagement and reaped as much as $3,000 per day in admission fees from those who flocked to see the couple. Their lavish “Fairy Wedding” in New York City’s Grace Church on February 10, 1863, provided a much-needed diversion for a war-weary nation.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from 1863 wet collodion negative
 

Jessie Benton Frémont 1824–1902

Born Rockbridge County, Virginia
Jessie Benton Frémont spent her life in the public eye—as the daughter of Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton, as the wife of noted explorer John C. Frémont, and later as a popular author. Jessie secured her father’s backing for Frémont to lead a series of government-sponsored expeditions that played a pivotal role in promoting overland migration to the far west. Upon Frémont’s return from the first of these expeditions in 1842, Jessie helped to write the vivid report of his findings that first brought him national recognition. When Frémont ran as the first Republican candidate for president in 1856, she took an active part in his campaign. In September 1861, after President Lincoln reprimanded General Frémont for his conduct as commander of the Union Army’s Western Department, Jessie hurried to Washington, D.C. There, she confronted the president in a futile effort to salvage her husband’s Civil War command.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1863 wet collodion negative
 

Kate Bateman 1842–1917

Born Baltimore, Maryland
Just four years old when she made her acting debut, Kate Bateman enjoyed great success as a child prodigy until she outgrew such roles at the age of fourteen and briefly retired from the stage. She reemerged in 1860 in the title role of Evangeline, a dramatization of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s celebrated poem. She soon confirmed her status as a bona fide adult star with her portrayal of Julia in the 1862 production of The Hunchback. Her most famous role, however, was that of Leah in Leah, the Forsaken—a melodrama adapted specifically for her by playwright Augustin Daly. When Leah opened in New York City in 1863, Bateman’s stirring performance received a wildly enthusiastic reception from the public. Although Bateman would play many parts during her long career, the story of Leah, a Jewish maiden who is cruelly abandoned by her Christian lover, would remain her greatest triumph.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from 1863 wet collodion negative

Teresa Carreño 1853–1917

Born Caracas, Venezuela
Pianist Teresa Carreño was only eight years old and a recent émigré from Venezuela when she gave her first public recital in New York City in 1862. The response was ecstatic, with audiences marveling at a child who could not “reach the pedals with her toes” yet produced “miracles of music upon the pianoforte.” Carreño’s enormously successful debut attracted the notice of composer and piano virtuoso Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who quickly became her teacher and mentor. Within a year, she was performing for President Abraham Lincoln at the White House, where her selections included a dazzling interpretation of the president’s favorite, “Listen to the Mockingbird.” Continuing her musical studies in Europe in 1866, Carreño went on to make the successful transition from child prodigy to adult performer whose virtuosity and power distinguished her as one of the greatest pianists of her time.

Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1862 wet collodion negative