Lander, Mrs.

Lander, Mrs. [née Jean Margaret Davenport] (1829–1903), actress. The daughter of English performers, she made her American debut in 1838 as a child prodigy. When she returned to New York in 1849, both she and her art had matured. She won applause for her interpretation of the heroines in such popular plays as Romeo and Juliet, The Hunchback, The Lady of Lyons, and Ingomar. In 1853 she was the first actress to portray Adrienne Lecouvreur and Camille in English to American audiences. She retired briefly after her marriage in 1860 to Frederick Lander, but resumed her career after he was killed in the Civil War. Among her later parts were the title role in Legouvé's Medea, Colombe in Colombe's Birthday, Peg Woffington in Masks and Faces, and Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. A small, attractive woman, she was, according to William Winter, “remarkable for thoroughness of impersonation, complete command of the essential implements of histrionic art, a fine intellect, a lovely feminine temperament, peculiar clarity and sweetness of elocution, and the controlling faculty of taste.”