Post 4- Featuring Elizabeth Patterson

When reading the letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, it is something of a surprise to see the dramatic personal life of a Bonaparte make its entrance, if only as a brief gossip-y aside. It is worth expanding upon who exactly Jerome Bonaparte married, since Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte lived quite a life following her separation from this member of French royalty. Further, taking a deeper look at a celebrity who inspired gossip will provide some insight into how information spread during this time.

As mentioned in a footnote of Calvert’s letters, the marriage between Elizabeth and Jerome was annulled by Napoleon in 1807 (Callcott 62), although they interacted for the last time when Jerome embarked alone to France during 1805 (Sadosky 250). By this time, Elizabeth had already accumulated a somewhat tawdry reputation in the United States for her risque, French style of dress (Lewis, 2012 17). She would also be known in America for her politics, as an outspoken critic of republican government with a preference for empire and monarchy (Lewis, 2012 69). Her split identity as an American with a European spirit, would define the nature of her celebrity as she attained a kind of self-sufficiency not often achieved by women during her time (Lewis, 2020). Elizabeth never exactly left the limelight, but the nature of her celebrity became more subdued unto her death in 1879.

Calvert’s mention of Elizabeth Patterson is a primary manifestation of the way in which Patterson’s celebrity existed at the time. By looking at the substance of Patterson’s life one can see the ways in which the stories we tell, and have always told, about the famous reflect aspects of their lives, but strike more to the hearts of our own. Patterson lived a life of her own, but the story Calvert told of her came in the context of a letter to her mother. While Patterson’s life was very spicy and interesting, she ultimately was only a footnote in the stories of those who lived at the time.

Works Cited

Callcott, Margaret Law, ed. "On Her Own." In Mistress of Riverdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. 47-73.

Lewis, Charlene M. Boyer. Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte: An American Aristocrat in the Early Republic. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/14636.

---. “Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Patterson-Bonaparte.

Sadosky, Leonard J. Old World, New World : America and Europe in the Age of Jefferson. University of Virginia Press, 2010. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=388845&site=ehost-live.