Bertha Lincoln Heustis

Bertha Lincoln was born in Coldwater, Michigan, the only child of Mary Lawrence Price Lincoln and Col. Charles P. Lincoln, a veteran of the American Civil War. She was a descendant of John Howland, a passenger on the Mayflower.^[1] Bertha Lincoln spent her early years in Canton, China, where her father was the American consul.^[2]

Bertha Lincoln trained as a singer, and performed throughout her life, in concerts and as a song leader at other events.^[3]

Heustis wrote, directed, and produced silent films, including the only production with an all-deaf cast, His Busy Hour (1926), co-produced with James Spearing and starring deaf actor Albert Ballin.^[4][5] However, in the silent era films were already reasonably accessible to deaf audiences, and the film remained a novelty, never finding wider distribution.^[6]

As a clubwoman, Heustis was elected national president of the National League of American Pen Women for 1915–1916,^[7] and was elected to the national post again in 1928.^[8] From 1918 to 1927 she was president of the organization's Los Angeles branch.^[9] She was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and similar organizations.^[10] She contributed recipes to the Economy Administration Cook Book (1913), a project of the wives of legislators and diplomats in Washington, edited by fellow Pen Women president Susie Root Rhodes.^[11]

Published writings by Bertha Heustis include Word Pictures (1923) and Pietro (1915).^[1]