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1/7 Ok, @Lin_Manuel & other #Hamilton nerds... about Philippa Schuyler! I passed an NYC school in BK named for her and it caught my eye, knowing Philip Schuyler was the wealthy father of Angelica, Peggy & Eliza (et al) as featured in @HamiltonMusical. Surely a connection...
2/7 So I read up: this Philippa Schuyler was a prodigy born 1931 to Josephine Cogdell, who was white, & author George Schuyler, who was black. Her parents advocated for interracial marriage & Philippa was propped up as an example of how much good could come from such a union.
3/7 Philippa was wildly successful (read at age 2.5, composed at 5, featured by @nyphil & toured internationally in her youth). She became disillusioned in her teens, feeling like her life was an experiment. Further confrontations with racial prejudice took her out of performing.
4/7 Also a multilingual writer, she worked in journalism. Philippa passed in & #39;67 at 35 in a helicopter accident while covering the Vietnam War. She was mourned by thousands at St. Pat& #39;s in NYC. Her mother took her own life under the weight of grief, and her father passed in & #39;77.
5/7 It& #39;s believed the Schuyler surname was adopted by Philippa& #39;s great-great-grandfather, a black soldier under Gen. Philip Schuyler. So while not blood-related (or perhaps there are other theories?), this Philippa Schuyler does bear connection to the Schuyler/Hamilton families.
6/7 Worth noting, of course, that Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, the beloved wife of Alexander, was played in the original #broadway cast by @PhillipaSoo. I don& #39;t know many people named Philippa, so I found the synchronicity of that fact intoxicating! (Is the tag #Hamilnerd a thing?)
7/7 All of this to say, @Lin_Manuel, maybe I& #39;m repeating things you already know, but ... lmk if I should delete this thread so we can keep it hush-hush & start working on our first collaboration together. Amazing stories, and I& #39;ve got time!
