Maud Allan Dancer

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In: 20th Century Women, Actresses, Artists, Women's Rights

I am sure you have heard of the Dance of the Seven Veils, but do you know who created it? Dancer Maud Elizabeth Allan (c.1873- 1956), born Ulla Maud Durrant in Toronto, Canada, was raised in San Francisco. Musically talented on the piano, she went to Germany to study. While she studied there, her brother committed a brutal murder in San Francisco. Unable to return, she changed her name, and encouraged by the director of the Meister-schüle, gave up the piano and took up dancing professionally. For five years, she toured Europe dancing to classical music. In 1906, she performed the dance Salome based onRead More →

Georgiana Houghton abstract expressionist artist

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In: 19th Century Women, Artists, Spiritualism

Georgiana Houghton (1814-84) is credited with being the first abstract expressionist. A well-educated middle-class British woman, she devoted her life to spiritualism and hypnotism. One of her practices was to create spirit paintings using watercolor and pen and ink. On the back, using automatic writing, she wrote the symbolic meaning and attributions to her spirit guides who represented famous artists. For example, “The Eye of God” was attributed to Italian Renaissance artist Correggio who “endeavored through Georgiana’s hand, to represent The Eye of God, in the Three Persons of the Trinity.” In 1871, Houghton was encouraged to put on an exhibition of her works. ImpoverishingRead More →

Sophia Peabody Hawthorne

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In: 19th Century Women, Artists, Authors

Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, (1809-1871) was the devoted and artistically gifted wife of the American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne. All through her life, before her marriage to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sophia suffered from migraines brought on by mercury treatments as a child. Because of this, her mother and sisters believed her to be an invalid and treated her like one. They told her she’d never marry. She heard her mother say ‘Sophie will never leave me.’  She was constantly told ‘It’s a woman’s lot. It’s God’s will…’ but she refused to believe she was doomed to this fate. Sophia was lonely growing up—her sisters ignored her, her motherRead More →