Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 11-13-2015 Spirited Pioneer: The Life of Emma Hardinge Britten Lisa A. Howe [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FIDC000183 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Cultural History Commons, History of Gender Commons, History of Religion Commons, New Religious Movements Commons, Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, United States History Commons, and the Women's History Commons Recommended Citation Howe, Lisa A., "Spirited Pioneer: The Life of Emma Hardinge Britten" (2015). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2292. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2292 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida SPIRITED PIONEER THE LIFE OF EMMA HARDINGE BRITTEN A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY by Lisa Ann Howe 2015 To: Dean John F. Stack, Jr. Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs This dissertation, written by Lisa Ann Howe, and entitled Spirited Pioneer: The Life of Emma Hardinge Britten, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ Kirsten Wood _______________________________________ Jenna Gibbs _______________________________________ Meri-Jane Rochelson _______________________________________ Rebecca Friedman, Major Professor Date of Defense: November 13, 2015 The dissertation of Lisa Ann Howe is approved. ______________________________________ Dean John F. Stack, Jr. Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs ______________________________________ Dean Lakshmi N. Reddi University Graduate School Florida International University, 2015 ii © Copyright 2015 by Lisa Ann Howe All rights reserved. iii DEDICATION For John Schyler Seligman and In memory of Grandma, Annie Inez Howe, and Mom, Frances Elizabeth Howe. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to begin by thanking Florida International University Graduate School for funding my time here with graduate and teaching assistantships and fellowships. The assistantships provided a financial ability to continue my studies as well as gain valuable experience teaching in the classroom. The Florida International University Graduate School Dissertation Evidence Acquisition Fellowship afforded my opportunity to spend one year gathering the sources required to fulfill this dissertation, and with the Dissertation Year Writing Fellowship allowed and pushed me to finish my work. The research for this project could not have been completed without the help and attention paid by librarians and archivists throughout England and the United States, and I wish to thank them. They include those at Cambridge University Library, The Wren Library at Trinity College Cambridge, The British Library, Bishopsgate Institute, The Women’s Library at London Metropolitan University, The Wellcome Library, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute Harvard, Harvard University Archives, Massachusetts Historical Society, American Antiquarian Society, Cornell University Library, New York Public Library, Library of Congress, and the Societies for Psychical Research in New York and London. The National Library of Australia and the National Library of New Zealand and their archivists and librarians deserve my gratitude for digitizing and allowing access to thousands of pages of nineteenth-century Australian and New Zealand newspapers. A special thanks goes to Marc Demarest and his Emma Hardinge Britten Archive, which he has been so kind to share. It consists of thousands of pages of digitized Spiritualist magazines. v An exciting, exuberant and healthy, albeit exhausting, exchange of ideas and learning is an integral environment for scholarship. From the first semester of graduate school at Florida International University it has been nonstop. I want to thank all of my professors and colleagues. Aside from my stalwart committee members, professors along the course of this journey have been inspiring. A special thanks goes to Dr. Felice Lifshitz, Dr. Gwyn Davies, Dr. Darden Pyron, Dr. Sherry Johnson, and Dr. Mark Szuchman. Study groups and partners, Amanda Snyder, Jeffrey Austin, Paula de la Cruz- Fernandez, Carolina Zumaglini, Lorraine de la Fe, and Greg Weimer offered laughter and moments of reprieve, along with camaraderie, learning and productivity. These lifelong friends met along the way continue to inspire. A special thank you to my comprehensive and dissertation committee members, past and present. Words cannot express my gratitude. Dr. Lara Kriegel inspired and fed my love of the Victorian world. Despite her move to bigger and better opportunities, she has continued to be a large part of this work. Dr. Hanns Peter Reill and Dr. Whitney Bauman helped in understanding complex and intellectual concepts. Sadly, due to logistical issues, they could not continue as committee members, but continue to inspire. Dr. Meri-Jane Rochelson from the English Department agreed to be a member of my committee and took on this responsibility and project late in the game, and I am grateful. I look forward to incorporating more literary analysis and working with her as this project evolves into a manuscript. Each of my committee members specializes in diverse areas and concepts that brought my dissertation together as a complete exploration of my topic. Their facility, knowledge, and ability to ask all the many questions that needs to be asked amaze and excite my passion for history. I feel very lucky. Dr. Jenna Gibbs has offered vi her experience in regards to the British-U.S. transatlantic nature of the study, but so much more. Her thoroughness and patience has left no stone uncovered. Dr. Kirsten Wood showed me how to examine women, politics and religion in the United States. Her command of the scholarship is astounding and her influence has made me a better historian. The Chair of my committee, Dr. Rebecca Friedman has been part of my academic life since before graduate school. She pushed me to begin. She pushed me to finish. She has inspired me with her intellect, wisdom and passion for history. I thank her for her stern acceptance of nothing less than the best, and her kindness. Finally I would like to thank my friends and family for standing by my side throughout this long, arduous, and delightful process. Special gratitude and affection is given to Aunt Susan Sweeney for her life-giving kidney that has kept me going for the last eleven years. A very special thanks goes to my love, John Seligman. vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION SPIRITED PIONEER: THE LIFE OF EMMA HARDINGE BRITTEN by Lisa Ann Howe Florida International University, 2015 Miami, Florida Professor Rebecca Friedman, Major Professor Emma Hardinge Britten’s life encompassed and reflected many of the challenges and opportunities afforded to women in the Victorian world. This dissertation explores the multi-layered Victorian landscape through the life of an individual in order not only to tell her individual story, but also to gain a more nuanced understanding of how nineteenth-century norms of gender, class, religion, science and politics combined to create opportunities and obstacles for women in Britten’s generation. Britten was an actor, a musician, a writer, a theologian, a political activist, a magazine publisher, a spirit medium, a lecturer, and a Spiritualist missionary. Taking into account her multiple subjectivities, this dissertation relies on historical biography to contextualize Britten’s life in a number of areas, including Modern Spiritualism and political and civic engagement in the second half of the nineteenth century in Britain, the U.S., and Australia. The dissertation is organized thematically in a quasi-chronological manner. Time frames overlap between chapters, as Britten travels from the realm of politics to that of science and to religion. Each chapter reflects this transformation of Britten’s multiple intellectual and spiritual engagements, including performance, religion, politics and science. viii Emma Hardinge Britten challenged, whether consciously or not, gendered expectations by attaining a presence in a male-dominated public sphere. Even though her life and accomplishments pre-date the New Woman of the fin de siècle, Britten established a successful career and her life creates a foreshadowing of the larger movements to come. She was an extraordinarily politically active woman whose influence reached three continents in her lifetime and beyond. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 II. SPIRITED VICTORIAN PERFORMANCES: THE EMERGENCE OF SÉANCES AND TRANCE LECTURES AS MIDDLE-CLASS LEISURE ENTERTAINMENTS .................................................................................................24 VICTORIAN GENDERED PERFORMANCE.....................................................32 VICTORIAN