She had a great following among females

“At the end of Maude's [Little Minister] tour and at her last performacne of that play in 1905, the girls of Smith College, Massachusetts, lined up at the stage entrance, and with great enthusiasm caroled the song they had written especially for her- 'Maude Adams, We Love You! Maude Adams, We Love You!' Maude was deeply touched. She would not leave until she had shaken hands with every one of the girls.” Green Book Magazine, Oct. 1914

Heroines of the Modern Stage, 1915: Forrest Izard referred to the “unorganized Maude Adams cult” among American women.

Ouida Meyer, once a member of Maude's young female fan club, saw Chantecler 12 times: “Miss Adams never married. We who worshiped her twenty years ago and more resented furiously any rumors indicating that she might be. Though she was aloof to the point of isolation from those who loved her best, we considered her ours; our feeling for her was too intense and, to us, too real to permit of sharing her with a mere husband. I doubt if we would have acknowledged him had we seen him with our own eyes.” New York Times, Dec. 6, 1931

“It was as Peter Pan that my generation first worshiped Maude Adams...We made an idol of him. We became so obsessed with Peter and his portrayer (they could not be separated) that our elders doubted our sanity and feared for their own. We counted our precious photographs at odd and inconvenient moments. We boasted on the number of times we had seen “Her.” If we were taken to see her play we would not leave until we had watched her emerge from the stage door and make her way to the carriage which waited at the curb. Louise Boynton, her secretary, usually came first, and helped to open up a little lane through which Miss Adams walked while adoring pests pressed in about her. On one of these well remembered days she bestowed upon me the bounty of her personal recognition—a white carnation which she pulled from a bouquet she was carrying. And I, rendered speechless, could think of nothing less silly to do than kiss her hand. The pattern of her white woolen glove remains in my mind to this day. To those, now nearing forty, who were youngsters in the early days of Peter Pan, Maude Adams was more than a beloved actress. She was a religion.” (same source)

“The group that clusters about the stage door are there to feel the influence of an unusual woman-a much rarer privilege than admiring the art of a great actress. All they want is to meet the glance of her eye, share in the warmth of her smile, hear her 'good night,' and they are rewarded—every mother's daughter of them, for however many hours' waiting and however many suburban trains home consequently missed. A small army of fair-faced girls and cultured looking women have been known to gather thus and wait for hours, simply to exchange smiles with Miss Adams. It does not look so much like a crowd as gathering of disciples. Almost noting is said, and in a moment after the object of it all disappears, everybody goes their different ways wreathed in smiles of happiness.” Burr McIntosh Monthly, June 1908

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