Individuals >> Deland, Annie

Actor.

Various sources identify Annie Deland as one of several women who frequented Pfaff’s, but little else about her is known. She was hailed by a contemporary as a "very handsome and good-hearted actress of respectable talent, who held receptions in her home Saturday evenings" (Rawson 105). Junius Henri Browne noted that by 1869, her name was “still on the boards” at local theaters (157), which suggests that her career extended beyond the heyday of the bohemian scene at Pfaff’s. She appeared in King Lear in 1868-1869 and she performed with John Brougham in The Red Light, or, The Signal of Danger (Odell 8:442, 557).

References & Biographical Resources

Browne, Junius Henri. The Great Metropolis; A Mirror of New York. Hartford: American Publishing, 1869. 700 p. [more about this work]

She is mentioned as one of the Bohemians' "female companions" at Pfaff's. Browne notes that at that time she was "still on the boards" as an actress (157). [pages: 157]

Hahn, Emily. Romantic Rebels; An Informal History of Bohemianism in America. Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1967. 318 p. [more about this work]

[pages: 21]

Odell, George C.D. Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VIII (1865-1870). New York:Columbia University Press, 1936. [more about this work]

She appeared in King Lear as Regan in the 1868-69 season at Niblo's (442). In the 1869-70 season Deland appeared in The Red Light, or, the Signal of Danger with Brougham. This play was a relative failure (564). Deland was also in The Tempest as Miranda at the Grand Opera House (597). [pages: 442,564, 565,597]

Odell, George Clinton. Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VII (1857-1865). New York: Columbia University Press, 1931. [more about this work]

Odell speculates if Laura Keene's company's performance of House and Home was the first appearance of Annie Deland. [pages: 218]

Personne [Wilkins, Edward G. P.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton (The Circus from the Coulisses)." New York Saturday Press. 21 Jan. 1860: 3. [more about this work]

Personne claims that Keene should "do something nice" for Deland for her performance in Bourcicault's adaptation of Scott (3). [pages: 3]

Personne [Wilkins, Edward G. P.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton: Up with the Tartan!." New York Saturday Press. 14 Jan. 1860: 3. [more about this work]

Personne mentions Deland in his review of Bourcicault's Jeanie Deans at Keene's (3). [pages: 3]

Rawson, A. L. "A Bygone Bohemia." Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. 1896. 96-107. [more about this work]

[pages: 105]

Sentilles, Renee M. Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of American Celebrity. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003. [more about this work]

A regular at Pfaff's. [pages: 142]

Stansell, Christine. "Whitman at Pfaff's: Commercial Culture, Literary Life and New York Bohemia at Mid-Century." Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 10.3 (1993): 107-126. [more about this work]

Deland was an actress who came to Pfaff's with her male companion/manager. She is also mentioned as one of "the handful of women artists [who] figure in the accounts of New York Bohemia" (111). [pages: 111]