Hollywood Classics

  Jessie Bartlett Davis, ca. 1896; from the Philip Hale Photograph Collection of the Boston Public Library =============================================================================================== Sunday 02, March 2025, 17:30. Jessie Bartlett Davis - Actress =================================================================================================== Jessie Bartlett Davis Introduction: Jessie Bartlett Davis (1860 – May 14, 1905) was an American operatic singer and actress from Morris, Illinois, who was billed as "America's Representative Contralto". ==================================================================================================== Opera and acting: She was born Jessie Fremont Bartlett, one of ten children of farmer and country schoolmaster Elias Lyman Bartlett (b. 1821) and his wife Rachael Ann (née Conklin) Bartlett (b. 1826). After Jessie and her older sister Arabelle "Belle" (1855–74) had become known locally as singers, they wer...