Cordelia Howard

{{Short description|American child actor (1848–1941)}}

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Cordelia Howard ({{date|1 February 1848|MDY}} – {{fdate|8 August 1941|MDY}}) was a child actress on the American stage. Her most famous role was as Little Eva in the stage adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin. One commentator wrote "The name of Little Cordelia has become synonymous with that of Little Eva."{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56923022 |title=The Oxford Companion to American Theatre |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Gerald Martin Bordman, Thomas S. Hischak, Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-991647-4 |edition=3rd |location=[New York, N.Y.] |oclc=56923022}}

Cordelia Howard was born on {{date|1 February 1848|MDY}}, in Providence, Rhode Island, the daughter of actor and theatrical producer George C. Howard and actress Caroline Emily Fox Howard. Her first stage role was in 1850, as a fairy sprite in the opera The Mountain Sylph. She originated the role of Little Eva in George L. Aiken's 1852 stage adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin, with her mother as Topsy and her father as Augustine St. Clare. The play was immensely popular, and Howard starred in Little Eva for hundreds of performances, continuing in the role until she was a teenager. She also starred as Little Dick and Pearl in stage adaptations of Oliver Twist and The Scarlet Letter, as well as the title character in the temperance play Little Katy; or, The Hot Corn Girl.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/71817179 |title=Dictionary of women worldwide : 25,000 women through the ages |date=2007 |publisher=Thomson Gale |others=Anne Commire, Deborah Klezmer, Thomson Gale |isbn=978-0-7876-9394-7 |location=Detroit, Mich. |oclc=71817179}}

In 1871, she married Edmund Jesse Macdonald, a bookbinder, and retired from the stage. Cordelia Howard died on August 8, 1941, in Bourne, Massachusetts.