Homepage People Places Plays Site Map
Newest additions to this website
I had a wonderful time visiting cousin Sue Spencer in Toronto in June 2005, and getting a sense of John Nickinson's -- and EJ Phillips' time there.
Thomas Phillips [my generation's great-great-great grandfather] helped build the Rideau Ottawa Canal, "arguably the most scenic waterway in North America, links the lakes and rivers between Ottawa and Kingston, and is the oldest continuously operated canal in North America. The locks are operated today much as they were when first opened in 1832." [Sounds like a worthwhile trip someday.]
EJ Phillips grew up in Hamilton and her parents are buried there. Hamilton, Canada city and cemetery tours Hamilton postcards Brief history of the postcard in Canada EJ Phillips first stage appearances
New pictures of EJ Phillips A.R. Miller's Photographic Gallery, Indianapolis No 45 E.
Washington St. [about 1860]
John Nickinson Dewey's Gallery 102 W. Fifth St., bet. Vine & Race, Cincinnati
[1862]
more
on Cincinnati and the Nickinsons
new [to
us] John
Nickinson obituary another new
[to us] John Nickinson photograph
Historical Tourism and
biographies
I'm working on learning more about Google maps to get a sense of
where EJP was in various cities.
Allister Hardiman e-mailed from Australia about a photograph of "Auntie"
Christine Zavistowski
The Nickinsons and the
1870 census.
new
EJ Phillips' professional photographs
revised John Nickinson
account New photograph of
John Nickinson
Did John Nickinson ever meet Edgar Allan Poe?
Did they drink on this street in New York?
John Nickinson compared (favorably) with Charles Dickens
Importance of
Nickinson's military career for his theatrical work
Toronto revised
and expanded after visiting cousin Sue Spencer
in June 2005 walking tour
Royal Lyceum Theatre site today
Lola Montez and John Nickinson
EJ Phillips enters the picture
New pictures of Charlotte
Nickinson Morrison and family, Eliza
Nickinson Peters, Charles Peters, Virginia Nickinson
Marlowe
Owen Marlowe
Many thanks to Toronto theater historian Mary Shortt.
1858 Royal Lyceum playbill The great Nautical Drama of the SEA! Lost and Saved! STORM AT SEA! AND THE RESCUE! John Nickinson may have been a soldier, but grandson Ted Nickinson went to Annapolis and wound up living in Pensacola, a Navy town, as did his parents.
Another Nickinson production of Uncle Tom -- this time the play is by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
In six acts and twelve tableaux, Davies as Uncle Tom, Miles as George Harris
(the fugitive), Nickinson as Phineas Fletcher, Miss Kimberly as Eliza, Miss
Blanche as Eva, Miss Phillips as Cassey and Emily L. Miles as Topsy (the girl
that never was born).
No date,
no place identifiable "To-morrow evening benefit of J. Nickinson,
when a great will be offered. Lady and Gent, front seats 70 cents; single gent,
35 cents other parts of the house admission will be 25 cents. Phineas Fletcher
was the Quaker who helped slaves escape. Cassey was a slave belonging to Simon
Legree.
more on Uncle Tom's Cabin
Historical Tourism
(with thanks to Sarah Vowell and
Richard Holmes)
Buffalo
walking tour Great architecture, Olmstead parks and the Historical
Society building from the Pan American Exposition of 1901 -- reminds me of the
1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. My thanks to Ellen and George
Boston Old Landmarks of Boston Boston Railway stations
Chicago Cincinnati of John Nickinson and EJ Phillips I haven't really been to Cincinnati, only the airport (which is in Kentucky). But I did find some nice photographic histories in the airport bookstore.
New Orleans New York and John Nickinson March 2005 Other letters and the play Burnt Over Manhattan Walking tours
Philadelphia San Francisco Toronto Washington DC
I've been experimenting with Google Maps and Google Earth as they seem incredibly well suited to getting maps of neighborhoods EJ Phillips lived and/or worked in. The web has become increasingly valuable for history and historical accounts over the past 10-15 years. It took me awhile to realize that the Willard and Palmer House Hotels were not the buildings EJ Phillips had stayed at -- though I think they are on the same sites. New York, with a wealth of addresses and years of letters has been the most tractable (and compact) place to investigate. Washington DC probably comes next and Boston is, in some ways the most elusive.
Railway stations
Baltimore Chicago
Cincinnati Denver Los Angeles New York Ogden, Utah
Philadelphia Providence Toronto
Washington DC
Relics
A silver mug "presented by the patrons of the Utica Museum to John
Nickinson, Manger, March 8, 1858. Is this in Pensacola? Can we get a
photograph?
Lizzy has EJ Phillips' traveling mirror. I'd love a photograph of that. Em is to get me a picture of EJP's trunk, and the flowered bodice that was in it recently, too small for anyone but a young girl.
Do we know where the Nickinson sword, shoe buckles and/or Masonic items are?
Bibliography
Gilder, Rosamond, Enter the Actress: The First Women in the Theater, NY:
Theatre Arts Books, 1960
Lerner, Gerda, The Majority Finds its Past: Placing Women in History: NY OUP,
1981
Nye, David E. American Technological Sublime, MIT Press, 1994?
Nye, David E. Electrifying America, MIT Press, 1990
Last updated Oct. 17, 2006