Menken, Adah Isaacs, 1835 - 1868
Dates
- Existence: 15 June 1835 - 10 August 1868
Biography
Adah Isaacs Menken was an American actress, painter and poet born on 15 June 1835.
Adah started performing as a child, first dancing and later acting. Although receiving poor reviews as an actress, she became most famous for her role in the equestrian drama Mazeppa, in which she was carried by a horse apparently naked. Mazeppa was a well-known hippodrama of the period, based on a poem by Lord Byron, in which Adah played the leading role to great success. She toured her version of Mazeppa in America, London, where she debuted at Astley’s Amphitheatre, and France.
Adah became a benefactor, sharing the fortune she made through her work with friends, theatre people in need and charities.
She also achieved notoriety for her multiple marriages and affairs. Adah married her first husband in 1855 and divorced him a year later to marry Alexander Isaac Menken, a musician from a prominent Reform Jewish family in Ohio and from whom she took her name. She married another three times and had affairs among others with Charles Blondin and Alexander Dumas.
As an author, Adah published about twenty essays, one hundred poems and a book of her collected poems.
Adah travelled between England and France between 1864 and 1868. She fell ill in London in 1868 and died shortly after in Paris on 10 August aged 33.
Found in 7 Collections and/or Records:
Circus Friends Association Collection
This collection consists of a large library of books and journals, as well as archival material including posters, programmes, photographs, films, handbills, research material, scrapbooks, original artwork and many other items of ephemera relating to British, Irish and European circuses
Early Circus Programmes, c1800 - 1999
Early British circus and variety programmes including Astley's, Batty's and Lord George Sanger's circus.
Original Artwork, c1800 - 2000
Original works of art including artists' prints, drawings, watercolours and paintings, and designs for circus posters.
Posters, c1800 - 2011
A wide range of British and international circus and menagerie posters ranging from the 19th to the 21st century including Astley's Amphitheatre, Pablo Fanque, Polito, Bostock and Wombwell, Ducrow, Cooke, Hengler, Sanger, Smart, Gerry Cottle, Bertram Mills, Chipperfield's, Robert Brothers, Fossett, Blackpool Tower, Billy Russell, Belle Vue, Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, Austen Brothers and many more.
Programmes, c1800 - 2019
A collection of mainly British and international circus programmes and some variety and music hall programmes containing circus acts.
Various Items, c1800 - 2019
A range of circus related items related to Hassan Ali, Adha Issacs Menken, Barnum and Bailey, funeral items, illustrations of circus parades, circus tickets, discount vouchers and booking forms, circus themed stickers, famous clown clay models, circus themed jigsaw puzzles, circus model figures, comics books and children's books, Circus Friends Association related material, Montecarlo Circus Festival related items, Jesse Fossett's throwing knives and other items.
Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian Circus Posters, c1800 - 1930
Early circus and menagerie posters including Polito's menagerie, Astley's Amphitheatre and Pablo Fanque's, Sanger's, Powell's, Ducrow's, Cooke's and Hengler's circuses among others.