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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 '67 at 35 in a helicopter accident while covering the Vietnam War. She was mourned by thousands at St. Pat's in NYC. Her mother took her own life under the weight of grief, and her father passed in '77.
5/7 It's believed the Schuyler surname was adopted by Philippa'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'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'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've got time!
