Alberta Gallatin (April 5, 1861 â€" August 25, 1948) was an American
stage and film actress active in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. During her near forty-year career she acted in support of
the likes of Elizabeth Crocker Bowers, James O’Neil, Edwin Booth,
Joseph Jefferson, Thomas W. Keene, Richard Mansfield, Sir Johnston
Forbes-Robertson, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Otis Skinner, Maurice
Barrymore, Joseph Adler, E. H. Sothern and James K. Hackett. Gallatin
was perhaps best remembered by theatergoers for her varied classical
roles, as Mrs. Alving in Henrik Ibsen's domestic tragedy Ghosts and
the central character in the Franz Grillparzer tragedy Sappho. Counted
among her few film roles was the part of Mrs. MacCrea in the 1914
silent film The Christian, an early 8-reel production based on the
novel by Hall Caine.According to at least one of her obituaries, the
American critic Alexander Woollcott had considered Gallatin "the
greatest American-born actress ever to grace the stage."Alberta
Gallatin Jenkins was born at the Jenkin’s plantation near
present-day Lesage, West Virginia, the middle of a son and two
daughters born to Virginia Southard Bowlin and Albert Gallatin
Jenkins. Her father, a descendant of the politician and diplomat
Albert Gallatin, was a Harvard-educated attorney, planter and Virginia
congressman who served as a general with the Confederate Army during
the American Civil War. Gallatin’s mother was the daughter of
Missouri congressman James Butler Bowlin. Gallatin was later legally
adopted by her maternal grandfather after Albert Jenkins lost his life
at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain. Sometime later her mother married
George Center Brown, an attorney and newspaper correspondent who in
1867 covered the signing of the Medicine Lodge Treaty along with
fellow journalist Henry Morton Stanley.Gallatin was raised in St.
Louis where she attended the Mary Institute and afterwards involved
herself in social activities that often drew mention in the society
pages of local newspapers. She made her professional acting debut
during the 1885â€"1886 theatre season.
stage and film actress active in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. During her near forty-year career she acted in support of
the likes of Elizabeth Crocker Bowers, James O’Neil, Edwin Booth,
Joseph Jefferson, Thomas W. Keene, Richard Mansfield, Sir Johnston
Forbes-Robertson, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Otis Skinner, Maurice
Barrymore, Joseph Adler, E. H. Sothern and James K. Hackett. Gallatin
was perhaps best remembered by theatergoers for her varied classical
roles, as Mrs. Alving in Henrik Ibsen's domestic tragedy Ghosts and
the central character in the Franz Grillparzer tragedy Sappho. Counted
among her few film roles was the part of Mrs. MacCrea in the 1914
silent film The Christian, an early 8-reel production based on the
novel by Hall Caine.According to at least one of her obituaries, the
American critic Alexander Woollcott had considered Gallatin "the
greatest American-born actress ever to grace the stage."Alberta
Gallatin Jenkins was born at the Jenkin’s plantation near
present-day Lesage, West Virginia, the middle of a son and two
daughters born to Virginia Southard Bowlin and Albert Gallatin
Jenkins. Her father, a descendant of the politician and diplomat
Albert Gallatin, was a Harvard-educated attorney, planter and Virginia
congressman who served as a general with the Confederate Army during
the American Civil War. Gallatin’s mother was the daughter of
Missouri congressman James Butler Bowlin. Gallatin was later legally
adopted by her maternal grandfather after Albert Jenkins lost his life
at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain. Sometime later her mother married
George Center Brown, an attorney and newspaper correspondent who in
1867 covered the signing of the Medicine Lodge Treaty along with
fellow journalist Henry Morton Stanley.Gallatin was raised in St.
Louis where she attended the Mary Institute and afterwards involved
herself in social activities that often drew mention in the society
pages of local newspapers. She made her professional acting debut
during the 1885â€"1886 theatre season.
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