The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Fred W. Atkinson Drama Collection 1880-1925
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| Title: | Atkinson, Fred W. Drama Collection |
|---|---|
| Dates: | 1880-1925 |
| Size: | 5.25 linear feet (5 boxes) |
| Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | Fred W. Atkinson (1865-1941) was an educator and administrator best known for his tenure as the general superintendent of education in the Philippines (1900-1903) and president of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1904-1925). This collection contains his materials related to the history and practice of American drama. It includes a significant number of theatrical programs from the early-twentieth century (largely based in New York City), as well as articles and essays he compiled concerning the American dramatic tradition. It also contains correspondence related to his collection of American plays, as well as scrapbooks and photo albums of famous actors and actresses from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. |
This collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Atkinson, Fred W. Drama Collection, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
Fred Washington Atkinson was born in 1865 in Reading, MA. He was the son of George W. and Eliza Atkinson. He received his B.A. at Harvard College in 1890, and was married the same year to Winnifred G. Whitford in Waltham, MA. Atkinson then studied at Berlin, Halle, Leipzig, and Jena Universities, as well as the Sorbonne in Paris. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Leipzig in 1893.
Atkinson then worked as a teacher and principal in the Springfield, MA school system from 1894-1900. In 1900 he was selected to assume the post of general superintendent of education in the Philippines. When he returned to the United States, he served briefly as the superintendent of schools in Newton, MA in 1904 before he was selected to assume the presidency of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, a position he held until 1925. From 1916-1918 he served as a member of the New York City Board of Education. A frequent contributor to magazines and educational journals, Atkinson also published The Philippine Islands (1905), an account of the political and social conditions he encountered while serving in the Philippines' colonial government.
This collection is divided into three series: Series I: Correspondence; Series II: Theatrical Ephemera; and Series III: Oversize.
Series I includes Atkinson’s correspondence regarding his collection of American plays, including his efforts to collect plays performed by members of the military from the War Department in the years following World War I.
Series II is divided into four subseries: Theater Programs and Playbills; Press Clippings and Notes; Writings Concerning American Drama; and Scrapbooks and Photographs. These subseries contain numerous theatrical programs from the early-twentieth century; newspaper and magazine clippings regarding the state of American drama; articles and essays concerning the history and character of American drama; and photographs and magazine prints of prominent actors and actresses from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Series III contains oversized newspaper articles and clippings related to the history of American drama as well as contemporary theatrical performances. It also includes four photo albums with pictures of famous actors and actresses from the late-nineteenth century such as Lillian Russell, Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, Maurice Barrymore, Julia Marlowe, and Lillie Langtry.
Barron, Elwyn A. Papers
Campbell, Mrs. Patrick. Letters
Chicago Drama Performances. Index
Goldman, Samuel. Papers
Goodrich, Adelaide Eunice. Collection
Moody, William Vaughn. Papers
Morton, Charles, Agency. Collection of American Popular Drama
Playbill and Program. Collection
Theatrical Portraits and Illustrations. Collection
Wilt, Napier. Papers
Please see also the Fred W. Atkinson Collection of American Drama. The University of Chicago acquired this substantial collection of American plays from Fred W. Atkinson in 1925. Six years later, the University of Chicago acquired Atkinson’s collection of 72 early American novels and works of fiction. The collection is notable both for the breadth of its early American holdings and its Ethiopian Drama section, which consists of nineteenth-century minstrel plays and joke books.
Series I: Correspondence |
| Box 1 Folder 1 | Helen Tyler Brown, 1918-1920 |
| Box 1 Folder 2 | Gladys Cisney, 1924 |
| Box 1 Folder 3 | Jane Dransfield, 1923 |
| Box 1 Folder 4 | Julia M. Johnson, 1921 |
| Box 1 Folder 5 | Frederick H. Koch, 1921-1923 |
| Box 1 Folder 6 | G. Tyler Mairs, 1916 |
| Box 1 Folder 7 | Frederick J. Shepard, 1915 |
| Box 1 Folder 8 | War Department, 1923-1924 |
Series II: Theatrical Ephemera |
Subseries 1: Theater Programs and Playbills |
| Box 1 Folder 9 | American Drama Matinees broadside, 1917 |
| Box 1 Folder 10 | Theater program booklets, 1909-1921 |
| Box 1 Folder 11 | Theater programs, 1914-1924 |
Subseries 2: Press Clippings and Notes |
| Box 1 Folder 12 | The Carolina Dramatic Association – Regulations for the play contests, 1924 |
| Box 1 Folder 13 | The Dial clippings, 1915-1917 |
| Box 1 Folder 14 | The Drama clippings, 1919-1922 |
| Box 1 Folder 15 | The Literary Digest clippings, 1923 |
| Box 1 Folder 16 | The Nation –"The First American Play," fragment, 1918 |
| Box 1 Folder 17 | Newspaper clippings, circa 1915-1924 |
| Box 1 Folder 18 | Eugene O'Neill clippings, circa 1921-1922 |
| Box 1 Folder 19 | The Theatre clippings, circa 1915-1922 |
| Box 1 Folder 20 | Notes regarding various plays, circa 1915-1925 |
Subseries 3: Writings concerning American Drama |
| Box 1 Folder 21 | "America's First Dramatic Satire," and "A Review of Early American Plays," typescript, undated |
| Box 1 Folder 22 | American Drama Year – "Revival of America's First Comedy," 1917 |
| Box 1 Folder 23 | William Archer, "The Development of American Drama," Harper's Magazine, 1920 |
| Box 1 Folder 24 | The Bookman's Literary Club Service – "Contemporary American Drama," undated |
| Box 1 Folder 25 | The Bulletin of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences," 1916 |
| Box 1 Folder 26 | Oral Sumner Coad, "The American Theatre in the Eighteenth Century," The South Atlantic Quarterly, 1918 |
| Box 1 Folder 27 | The Drama League of America – Monthly Bulletin and Study Course on American Drama, 1916 |
| Box 1 Folder 28 | Joseph Wood Krutch, "George Henry Boker," Sewanee Review, 1917 |
| Box 1 Folder 29 | Clara Morris, "A Memory of Dion Boucicault," The Cosmopolitan, 1905 |
| Box 1 Folder 30 | New York Drama League – "Drama Calendar," 1919 |
| Box 1 Folder 31 | The New York Public Library – Branch Library News, 1916 |
| Box 1 Folder 32 | Old Penn: Weekly Review of the University of Pennsylvania, 1916 |
| Box 1 Folder 33 | Arthur Hobson Quinn, "The Significance of Recent American Drama," Scribner's Magazine, 1922 |
| Box 1 Folder 34 | Arthur Hobson Quinn, "The Value of American Plays," reprint from The New York Evening Post, 1921 |
| Box 1 Folder 35 | E.J. Streubel, "The American Drama," Branch Library News, 1916 |
| Box 1 Folder 36 | Theodore S. Woolsey, "The American Vasari," The Yale Review, 1914 |
| Box 1 Folder 37 | T. R. Ybarra, "New York's Don Juan of A Century Ago," The Literary Digest International Book Review, 1923 |
Subseries 4: Scrapbook and Photographs |
| Box 2 Folder 1 | Magazine photographs, circa 1922 |
| Box 2 Folder 2 | Scrapbook containing mounted clippings of actors and actresses, 1880-1911
|
Series III: Oversize |
| Box 3 Folder 1 | Newspaper Clippings, circa 1916-1924 |
| Box 3 Folder 2 | Newspaper Clippings, circa 1916, 1922 |
| Box 3 Folder 3 | William Lyon Phelps, "The Clyde Fitch I Knew," The Evening Post, The Literary Review, newsprint, 1920 |
| Box 4 | Two albums containing photographs of actors and actresses, circa 1890s |
| Box 5 | Two albums containing photographs of actors and actresses, circa 1890s |