#edith craig

[thegoatsongs]

The very first person who portrayed Mina Murray on stage was Edith "Edy" Craig, in 1897, for Stoker's short-lived stage version of the novel. She was an actress, director, producer, designer, and pioneer of the women’s suffrage movement in England.

[yourdailyqueer]

Edith Craig (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 9 December 1869  

RIP: 27 March 1947

Ethnicity: White - British

Occupation: Theatre director, producer, costume designer, activist, suffragette 

[ewzzy]

Edith Craig, who portrayed Mina in Dracula, or The Un-Dead in Stoker's production at the Lyceum Theatre, 1895.

[pers-books]

Why does LGBTQ heritage matter?

LGBTQ heritage is everywhere. Yet stories about Britain’s national and cultural heritage tend to reflect a ‘heterosexual past’; ‘queer’ history and heritage has been blighted by criminal persecution and moral condemnation of gender and sexual nonconformity.

I had no idea that quite a few National Trust properties were previously owned by LGBTQ persons.

[365daysoflesbians]

OCTOBER 10: Ella Overbeck (1890-1919)

The Russian composer Ella Overbeck was born on this day some time between 1870 and 1895. The oft-forgotten, yet accomplished musician was known in her time for her "manly" way of dress and her not-so-secretive relationship with other women.

Ella Overbeck photographed, date unknown (x).

Agnes Elizabeth Overbeck was born on October 10 in either 1870 or 1875 - sources differ on the exact year. She was born in Düsseldorfer Stadtkreis, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany to Russian parents, but eventually moved to England with her family as a young child. Her parents died not long after the move and Ella, as she was called, was adopted by a wealthy English woman. Her adoptive mother paid for her to be educated at the prestigious Royal College of Music. She started to gain notoriety in 1894 for her composition of the music for an adaptation of the play No Trifling With Love at Uxbridge Town Hall, but she was even more well known in polite society for her rather "unpolite" relationship with the socialite Edith Craig.

Edith Craig was the sister of Gordan Craig, the playwright who worked in collaboration with Ella for multiple productions and it is suspected that it was through Edith who introduced the two artists to each other. In her biography of the Edith and Gordon's mother, author Nina Auerbach refers to Ella as "Edy's [Edith's nickname] cross-dressing friend, the Baronness 'Jimmy' Overbeck." Although Ella continued to compose well-reviewed violin sonatas and other music throughout her career, once again, the public's attention continued to be focused on her various lovers.

After Edith came the Russian poet Zinaida Gippius. Zinaida publicly wrote about her bisexuality and her identity as an androgynous woman, so her relationship with Ella was practically ready-made scandal. In her memoirs, Zinaida writes of meeting Ella for the first time in the summer of the late 1890s in the island of Taormina with the passage: "Taormina, Taormina, white and blue town of the most humorous of all loves - homosexuality! I am speaking, of course, about its external form. It is equally good and natural for each person to love any other person." Ella and Zinaida eventually moved to Russia together for a time, where Ella saw a good bit of success with her compositions being performed at the Alexandrisky Theater in St. Petersburg.

As Ella grew older and her trysts with society women began to fizzle out, unfortunately so did her fame in the music world. She is described in the book Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity as a "shadowy figure." What we do know about the later years of her life is that she did not seem to have much camaraderie with the lesbian and bisexual subculture of  London during the the early 20th century and preferred to spend her days in the South West area of England. In the 1910s, her music became a mainstay at Frank Winterbottom's "Symphony Concerts" in Plymouth. she would pass away on November 19, most likely 1919 in Stuttgarter Stadtkreis Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

-LC

[365daysoflesbians]

AUGUST 2: Clare Atwood (1866-1962)

Nicknamed Tony by her close friends, the English painter Clare Atwood passed away on this day in 1962. Known for her portraits, landscapes, and depictions of war scenes, Clare lived openly in what today would be called a polyamorous relationship with two other women.

Self Portrait in a Hat with a Basket of Vegetables by Clare Atwood, Collection: National Trust, Fenton House (x).

Clare was born on May 11, 1866 in Richmond, London. Her father was a wealthy architect whose fortune allowed his daughter to eventually study at the Westminster School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. She held her very first solo exhibit in 1893 and became a member of the prestigious New English Art Club in 1912. The outbreak of World War I saw Clare stray from her niche of portraits and still life when the Canadian government commissioned her to paint scenes of the Canadian war effort. She also created one of her most famous pieces during the war, Christmas Day at the London Bridge YMCA Canteen. Having been commissioned by the UK Women’s Voluntary Service, the painting shows Princess Helena Victoria and the famous actress Ellen Terry visiting soldiers at a YMCA canteen.

One of Clare’s most popular paintings is Christmas Day at the London Bridge YMCA Canteen, which can now be seen at the Imperial War Museum in London (x). 

Although Clare enjoyed a steady and successful career as a painter, she was more well-known for her rather scandalous “ménage à trois” relationship. An open lesbian, Clara lived with her two partners, Christabel Marshall and Edith Craig at Tenterden in Kent. Christabel was a writer and Edith was an actress and they all three were members of a small theater troupe called the Pioneer Players. The women were also close friends with Radclyffe Hall, the author of lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness. The poly relationship lasted for many years until Edith’s death in 1947. Christabel would be the next to pass away in October of 1960. When Clare eventually passed away herself on August 2, 1962, she was buried alongside Christabel at St John the Baptist's Church in Small Hythe. Edith’s will had proclaimed that her ashes were also to be buried with Clara and Christabel, but they were long lost by the time of her two partners’ deaths. Instead, a memorial was erected at their burial site in Edith’s honor.

The only photo of Clare, Christabel, and Edith together was taken at  in the garden of Priest's House at Smallhythe Place. (From left to right: Edith Craig, Clare Atwood, and Christabel Marshall) (x). 

-LC

[abwwia]

Edith Ailsa Geraldine Craig (née Edith Godwin; 9 December 1869 – 27 March 1947), known as Edy Craig, was a prolific theatre director, producer, costume designer and early pioneer of the women's suffrage movement in England. via Wikipedia

Edith Craig, Clare Atwood and Christabel Marshall at Smallhythe Place

[abwwia]

Clare "Tony" Atwood (11 May 1866 – 2 August 1962) was a British painter of portraits, still life, landscapes, interiors and decorative flower subjects. Atwood lived in a ménage à trois with the dramatist Christabel Marshall and the actress, theatre director, producer and costume designer Edith Craig from 1916 until Craig's death in 1947.

Edith Craig, Clare Atwood and Christabel Marshall at Smallhythe Place