top of page
Jul 3, 202310 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and Mary Warner, Grand Dame of the Marylebone
Originally published August 3, 2020 If the Watts Scandal were a musical or a movie, I would want to play Mary Warner. She may not fit our...
Jul 3, 202310 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and The Rag-Picker of Paris
Originally published July 27, 2020 I want to start today’s entry with a complaint about standard volumes of nineteenth century theater...
Jul 3, 20235 min read
Edward Stirling and the Burning of the Olympic
Originally posted July 20, 2020 The history of drama in the 1800s is punctuated by frequent, disastrous theater fires. I can’t think of a...
Jul 2, 202313 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and Walter Watts’ Irish Engagement
Originally posted July 6, 2020 This week I’m going to take a little break from a narrow focus on Anna Cora Mowatt and talk about the one...
Jul 2, 20236 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and the Art of Crisis Communication
Originally posted May 16, 2020 As he lay dying, James Mowatt gave his wife three sealed letters. One contained detailed instructions on...
Jul 2, 20233 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and the Silver Vase
Originally published May 4, 2020 I haven’t devoted a blog to the Watts scandal for some time now. It has not left my thoughts, though....
Jul 2, 20238 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and the Luck of the Irish
Originally published March 9, 2020 Although he’s been dead for almost one hundred and seventy years now, Walter Watts does not cease to...
Jul 1, 20237 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and Princess Zuela – Part III
Originally published Feb. 17, 2020 December 22, 1849 marked the beginning of a truly awful fourteen month period filled with tragedy,...
Jul 1, 20233 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and the Undimmed Mirror
Originally posted Jan. 27, 2020 As I have said before, the Watts scandal did not catch fire in the U.S. like it did in England....
Jul 1, 20232 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and the Puzzled Pastor
Originally posted Jan.6, 2020 In contrast to last week’s fevered scandal-mongering over Watts’ redecoration of Mowatt’s dressing room at...
Jul 1, 20238 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and the Troubling Dressing Room
Originally post Dec. 31, 2019 Today, most of us don’t have trouble identifying instances of sexual innuendo. For the Victorians, though,...
Jul 1, 20235 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and Walter Watts’ Reputation
Originally posted on Dec. 2, 2019 Scandal and rumor need to be fed with feelings of jealousy and malice. Take a moment to consider the...
Jul 1, 20237 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and the Rumor Mill
It is more usual to think of historians as searching for verifiable facts about historical figures and events. Because this research...
Jul 1, 20234 min read
Anna Cora Mowatt and the Watts Scandal – We Begin
Originally posted on Nov. 14, 2019 Twenty-five years ago I knew that Anna Cora Mowatt was obsessed with maintaining her reputation. A few...
bottom of page