CUSHMAN, CHARLOTTE SAUNDERS, b. Boston, 1816; d. there 1870. She was of Puritan descent, from Robert, one of the organizers of the pilgrim emigration, himself arriving but a few weeks after the landing of the Mayflower. Charlotte was the eldest of five children, left poor with the mother by the early death of her father. She had a good voice, and took lessons in singing in hope of being able to assist in the support of the family. In the spring of 1830, she first sang at a public concert, and her fine contralto voice and good manner were at once approved. It was her intention to follow the lyric profession, and she appeared with success in Marriage of Figaro and other operas. In 1835, she went to New Orleans, where she suddenly lost the control of her voice, so far as singing was concerned. She was greatly disheartened, but at the request of a tragedian (Mr: Barton) she undertook her first dramatic part, and that was no less than "Lady Macbeth." She made a grand success, and the promising prima donna became on the instant the favorite • tragedienne. Every manager wanted her, and she rapidly added such characters as " Romeo" (to bring forward her sister Susan as " Juliet"), "Elvira," "Bianca," "IIelen McGregor," " Queen Gertrude," " Goneril," "Emilia," " Tullia," "Nancy Sykes," and the wonderful "Meg Merrilies." Later on she played
both " Queen Catherine" and " Cardinal Wolsey" in henry also " Oplielia," " Pauline," " Viola," " Katherine" (in The Shrew), " Lady Teazle," and many other parts. While great in Shakespeare, she will be longest remembered as " Meg Merrilies." She visited England and the continent twice or thrice, and had exceptional triumphs in London and the principal cities of England and Ireland. She resided several years in Rome, where she was the intimate friend of Miss Emma Stebbins, the American sculptor. It was not alone success in her art that made Charlotte Cushman celebrated. She was not only a great and good artist, but a good woman, honored in the most culti vated society in America and Europe. Her final appearance in New York, when she took leave of the stage of that city, was memorable. On the last night she played "Lady Macbeth." the curtain fell, a body of the most eminent citizens, with William Cullen Bryant at their head, came upon the stage and presented the actress with a laurel crown, inscribed " C. C. • Palmam qui meruit ferat." Miss Cushman never married. In 1880, her tomb in Mt. Auburn (near Boston) was marked by an obelisk, which is in form an exact copy of Cleopatra's needle as it stood at Ileliopolis.