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“Fame will go by and, so long, I’ve had you, Fame”. This episode looks at people who were famous in their time, but have faded from memory...
Adelina Patti, a 19th-Century opera star with a superb voice and a sound business head, needed protection for her costume when she performed at Covent Garden in 1895.
If you want to delve deeper into this subject, you could try here:
YouTube has a recording of Adelina Patti from 1905, when she is past her prime. Find out about Patti’s Welsh castle. The National Portrait Gallery has many photographs of Patti.
In 1660 Anne Marshall was arguably the first woman to act on an English stage, playing Desdemona in a production of Othello. King Charles II had just been restored to the English throne, and ordered that women act women’s roles instead of the boys who had previously played those parts.
If you want to delve deeper into this subject, you could try here:
The British Library has an article about women actors coming to the stage for the first time in Restoration London. ArtUK has a portrait of Anne Marshall.
Mary Prince was the first freed enslaved woman to have her autobiography published, in 1831. She worked alongside Thomas Pringle and other campaigners in the UK to abolish slavery.
If you like this story and want more information, here are some suggested links:
The Gutenberg Project has a free copy of Mary Prince’s autobiography available to download or read online. There is a blue plaque for Mary Prince at the Senate House, Malet Street, WC1, built on the site of 4 Keppel Street, where she had found work as a servant after escaping slave owner John Wood and before working for Thomas Pringle at his house in Pentonville. University College London has a map showing the slave owners of Bloomsbury.
