Isabelle Evesson

Isabelle Evesson (c. 1870 – August 9, 1914) was an American actress born in New York City to Henry Evesson Jr. and Florine Augusta Bassford Evesson. Her sister, Estelle Clayton, pursued a parallel career as both an actress and playwright, writing A Puritan Romance as a vehicle for the two of them to perform together.

Evesson began appearing on stage while still in her teens, building her experience through touring companies and engagements in Boston and Chicago before spending two years performing in London. As early as 1887, she was part of the original cast of Richard Mansfield's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Boston Museum. Her Broadway career spanned from 1888 to 1914 and included roles in Mr. Barnes of New York (1888), the musical Papa's Wife (1899–1900), Anna Karenina (1905), and The Charm of Isabel (1914). In addition to her stage work, Evesson appeared in two silent films, A Mother's Atonement (1914) and The Girl and the Bachelor (1915).

Beyond her performing career, Evesson was a charter member of the Professional Woman's League, participating in the organization's founding meeting in 1892. In 1907, she and her sister Estelle formed the Bassford Estate Corporation in an effort to recover compensation for land holdings in the New York City area that had belonged to their grandfather.

In 1895, Evesson married journalist Almyr Wilder Cooper in a civil ceremony conducted by the Mayor of New York at his office. Cooper died the following year, in 1896, from injuries sustained in an assault. Evesson died in 1914 at her home in Stamford, Connecticut, while in her forties.