Harry Watkins (January 14, 1825 – February 5, 1894) was an American actor, diarist, playwright and theatre manager, whose career spanned the latter half of the nineteenth century. He is best remembered for his diary, kept from 1845 to 1860, which is considered a rare source of firsthand information about theater in the U.S. during the antebellum period.
After beginning his long acting career in 1845, Watkins became manager of P. T. Barnum's American Museum's theatrical enterprises in 1857. He performed in England from 1860 to 1863. He was the author of more than 25 plays by 1889. His 13-volume diary, kept from 1845 to 1860, is a rare source of firsthand information about the theater during the antebellum period.
Life and career Watkins was born in New York.Graham, Franklin. "Harry Watkins", Histrionic Montreal: Annals of the Montreal Stage, J. Lovell (1902), p. 158 He began his acting career in 1845 and, although he was constantly employed as an actor for nearly five decades, he never achieved widespread fame. On February 5, 1854, Watkins married Harriet M. SecorWatkins (Diary), vol. 11, February 5, 1854 with whom he had two children.Watkins (Diary), vol. 12, February 18, 1855 and vol. 13, October 6, 1857 It is not known what became of Harriet, but in 1860, Watkins married English-born actress and singer Rosina Shaw (widow of Charles Howard), who used the stage names Rose Howard and Rose Shaw."Rose Shaw, Mrs. Harry Watkins" , PictureHistory.com, accessed September 16, 2013 Watkins became manager of P. T. Barnum's American Museum's theatrical enterprises in 1857,"Harry Watkins" , Picturehistory.com, accessed June 3, 2014 where he wrote, presented, and acted in, among other things, The Pioneer Patriot.Hughes, Amy. "White Rebels, 'Ape-Negroes', and Ignoble Savages: Race and Revolutionary Resistance in The Pioneer Patriot (1858)" , Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 15, 2012, accessed abstract on October 18, 2014 He and his wife, Rose, performed in England from 1860 to 1863. He was described by the British press as "decidedly one of the best delineators of Negro character", but in general his wife had more success in England.Stubbs, Naomi J. "Watkins in England", The Diary of Harry Watkins website, accessed June 3, 2014
Watkins played such roles as Edward Middleton in The Drunkard, Wool in his own adaptation of The Hidden Hand, and Titus in Brutus by John Howard Payne.Brown, Thomas Allston. A History of the New York Stage: From the First Performance in 1732 to 1901, Vol. 1, pp. 303, 306, 360, 469, Dodd, Mead (1903) He was the author of more than 25 plays by 1889.Watkins, Harry. His Worst Enemy: Photographed from Life in New York, New York: The American News Company (1889) He was also actively engaged in politics, often expressing his views in his diary as well as in bulletins, such as How Shall I Vote? (1885),Watkins, Harry. How Shall I vote?. New York: Lowe & Co., Printers (1885) and in his book His Worst Enemy: Photographed from Life In New York (1889).
Diary Watkins' diary, which he kept during the first fifteen years of his acting career (November 20, 1845 – 1860), is a rare source of firsthand information about the theater during the antebellum period.Skinner, passim It "is the only known diary of its size and scope written by an American actor during the decade prior to the Civil War"."The Harry Watkins Diary: Digital Edition", University of Michigan, accessed June 5, 2025
Although Watkins' daughter, Amy Lee, had intended to use his diary as support to write a book about him, she exchanged it with Maud Durbin Skinner (the wife of Otis Skinner), probably due to financial hardship, for the amount of her dentist bill and a small compensation.Skinner, Foreword, p. vii The complete thirteen volumes of the original manuscript of the diaries are held as part of the Skinner Family papers at Houghton Library, Harvard University, which has digitized and made them available online.Skinner Family papers, 1874–1979, Harvard University, 2014, accessed February 3, 2017 From 2012 to 2018, a group of scholars at the University of Michigan transcribed and publish the diaries in digital form to shed new light on pre-Civil War theatre culture and the experiences and conditions of artists during that period.Hughes, passim
Personal Watkins and his first wife Harriet had two sons, George Washington Watkins (named after Harry's brother) and Harry Clay Watkins. With his second wife Rose, Watkins had two more children, William S. Watkins and Amy Lee Watkins. The children, as well as Watkins's stepson (Charles Howard Watkins), became actors. Charles and William both died in 1887, the former of consumption, and two weeks later the latter from a grape seed lodged in his appendix, which caused an inflammation and abscess, leading to a perforation of the intestine. Charles was 29, and William was 19."That Mysterious Organ: Death Caused by a Grapeseed in the Vermicular Appendage", The New York Times (1857–1922): 8. April 25, 1887. ProQuest, accessed May 20, 2014
In popular culture Watkins is fictionalized in the Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, in a scene where The Five Points Mission presents a dramatization of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Barnum had presented H. J. Conway's popular version of Uncle Tom's Cabin at the American Museum in the 1850s, which varied from the novel especially in ending happily.Cashmore, Ernest. "What the People Want", Martin Scorsese's America, Polity (2009) , accessed October 18, 2014
Notes
References Skinner, Maud and Otis. One Man in His Time: The Adventures of H. Watkins, Strolling Player, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (1938). Watkins, Harry. The Diary of Harry Watkins (1860), Skinner Family Papers, Houghton Library, University of Michigan Hughes, Amy E. and Naomi J. Stubbs. A Player and a Gentleman: The Diary of Harry Watkins, Nineteenth-Century US American Actor, University of Michigan Press (2018)
External links The Harry Watkins Diary: Digital Edition (searchable uncorrected text, linked to scanned images, from the University of Michigan)