Nella Bergen
actress and singer (1873-1919)
Nella Bergen (December 2, 1873 – April 24, 1919) was an American stage actress and singer who performed in operettas on Broadway and in London at the turn into the 20th century.
Early life and education
Ellen G. Reardon was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of John Edward Reardon and Margaret M. Reardon. All of her grandparents were immigrants from Ireland. Her father was a police captain in Brooklyn. She studied voice with Polish-born opera singer Adelina Murio-Celli d'Elpeux.
Career
Bergen was a church soloist as a young woman. She began her professional stage career as a soloist with the bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore. As an actress and singer she appeared mainly in operettas, musicals, and comedies. Her Broadway credits included roles in The Charlatan (1898–1899), Baroness Fiddlesticks (1904), Wang (1904), The Free Lance (1906–1907), The Talk of New York (1907), and He Came from Milwaukee (1910).
Bergen also toured with theatrical productions, including in London performances of The Mystical Miss, El Capitan and The Charlatan in 1899.
The public source identifies “Nella Bergen” as actress and singer (1873-1919). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nella, Bergen and actress.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Nella Bergen”, the useful work is to connect “actress and singer (1873-1919)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q106231414. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1873, 1919, 1898 and 1899.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Nella Bergen”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Nella Bergen primary sources, Nella Bergen archive and Nella research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nella Bergen”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Nella Bergen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.