Louise Woodworth Foss

{{short description|American actress}}

File:Louise Woodworth Foss (1873).png

File:Louise Woodworth Foss (1883).png

Louisa Woodworth Sanborn Foss (April 19, 1841 in Thetford, Vermont{{cite web |title=Vermont Vital Records, 1760-1954 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V8MY-HSV |website=FamilySearch |access-date=6 April 2019}} – September 22, 1892 in Malden, Massachusetts{{cite web |title=Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7TQ-G2N |website=FamilySearch |access-date=6 April 2019}}) was regarded as the best American elocutionist in her day. Compared to Charlotte Cushman, Foss was counted among the first woman elocutionists in the world.

Biography

Louisa Sanborn was a native of Thetford, Vermont. She was educated at Thetford Academy, Vermont.{{sfn|Hanaford|1883|pp=562-70}}

She became a teacher and subsequently married Eliphalet J. Foss, the Boston photographer. After a few years of home life, she adopted the profession of an elocutionist, studying with Richard Reeve Baxter of Harvard College. Her local reputation as a reader was long known to the literary circles of Boston,{{sfn|Kofoid|1887|p=27}} where she was affiliated with the Boston Academy of Elocution and Dramatic Arts.{{sfn|Richards|1878|p=11}} By 1883, she had been before the public for five successive seasons, her engagements extending through the principal cities of twenty-two States,{{sfn|Hanaford|1883|pp=562-70}} and extending from the east coast to the west.{{sfn|Tooker|1873|pp=206-07}}

References

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=Bibliography=

  • {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Hanaford|first=Phebe Ann|title=Daughters of America; Or, Women of the Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJCCoFLIU5kC&pg=PA562|edition=Public domain|year=1883|publisher=B. B. Russell}} }}
  • {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|author=Kofoid|title=Pamphlets on Biology: Kofoid collection|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IS4XAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA14-PA27|edition=Public domain|volume=3160|year=1887|publisher=Kofoid}} }}
  • {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Richards|first=J. H.|title=The Nation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQsyAQAAIAAJ&pg=PR11|edition=Public domain|volume=27|year=1878|publisher=J. H. Richards}} }}
  • {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Tooker|first=T. D.|title=Folio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dtQqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA206|edition=Public domain|volume=8-11|year=1873|publisher=White, Smith.}} }}