Kate Bateman

A carte-de-visite portrait of the American actress Kate Bateman (1845-1917).

Kate Bateman made her acting début at the age of five and enjoyed a successful career as a child prodigy until she outgrew such roles at the age of fourteen. Returning to the stage in 1860 in the title role of Evangeline, a dramatization of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s celebrated poem, she later achieved stardom for her portrayal of Julia in the 1862 production of The Hunchback. Her most famous role, however, was as Leah in Leah, the Forsaken, a play adapted specifically for Bateman by the young Augustine Daly from a melodrama then popular in Vienna. The play received an enthusiastic reception from the public when it opened in New York in 1863, and remained Bateman's primary dramatic vehicle for many years.

Photographed by William and Daniel Downey of Newcastle and London.