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Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm97084002
Collection material in English and Danish
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Eva Le Gallienne, actress, theatrical director and producer, author, and translator, were donated to the Library of Congress by Eloise Armen, Le Gallienne's literary executor, in 1997. Additional items were given by Armen in 2011 and by her daughter, Rebecca Armen Lyman, in 2014.
The papers of Eva Le Gallienne were arranged and described in 1998. The finding aid was revised in 2006. Additional material received between 2011 and 2014 was processed in 2016.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some photographs and sketches have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Sound recordings and moving image material have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. A piece of sheet music was transferred to the Music Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Eva Le Gallienne Papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Eva Le Gallienne in these papers and in other collections in the custody of the Library of Congress is reserved. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division for further information.
The papers of Eva Le Gallienne are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Eva Le Gallienne Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Eva Le Gallienne (1899-1991) span the years 1823-1997, with the bulk of the material covering the period 1916-1983. They document the life and work of an actress, director, and producer whose professional career lasted seventy years and who influenced twentieth century American theater through her acting, directing, establishing and promoting repertory theater, training young actors, and translating plays by writers such as Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekov. The papers are in English and Danish and are arranged into the following series: Diaries , Family Papers , Correspondence , Professional File , Speeches and Writings Miscellany , Addition, and Oversize .
The Diaries provide a personal record of Le Gallienne's activities and thoughts from a young actress in her teens to a woman in her eighties.
The Family Papers series contains documents relating to members of Le Gallienne's family, most significantly her mother, Julie Nørregaard Le Gallienne, a Danish journalist, and her father, Richard Le Gallienne, a poet and novelist. Included among her mother's papers is correspondence from her daughter from 1908 through 1942, a valuable source of information on Le Gallienne's various activities. Particularly useful are letters from the 1920s which describe her successes on Broadway in
The Correspondence series is primarily personal but also includes fan mail and letters pertaining to Eva Le Gallienne's career. Prominent individuals in this series include former companions Marion Gunnar Evenson, Josephine Hutchinson, and Margaret Webster, all three of whom were involved with Le Gallienne professionally as well as personally. There are also letters from actress Nazimova in which she discusses returning to the stage to work with Le Gallienne as part of the Civic Repertory Theatre.
The Professional File consists of working material and files from Le Gallienne's lengthy career including production scripts, many with annotations on staging, programs and playbills, and press clippings covering seventy-five years. There are also records from her work with repertory companies, primarily her Civic Repertory Theatre through which Le Gallienne endeavored to bring the classics to more people at popular prices. From 1926 to 1934, at the Fourteenth Street Theatre in New York, Le Gallienne staged thirty-four productions, directed thirty-two of them, and acted in most. She also trained apprentice actors. The most frequently performed plays in the repertory were
The Speeches and Writings series includes Le Gallienne's writings and lectures on her experiences on the stage, her hopes for the theater in America, two autobiographies, a biography of Eleonora Duse, and a children's book. There is also a large group of her English translations of plays by Chekov and Ibsen and the stories of Hans Christian Andersen and Carl Ewald. Le Gallienne's versions of plays by Ibsen were published in several editions, and the drafts of prefaces in which she analyzed the plays and characters are included in these files.
In the Miscellany are appointment books and biographical material which identify the chronology of events and activities in Le Gallienne's life. Several academic papers discuss Le Gallienne's career. In addition there are files compiled by Helen Sheehy, who used Le Gallienne's papers in writing
Items in the Addition series complement the material found in the previous series and consist of additional diaries, family papers, correspondence, professional papers, speeches and writings, and miscellany. Among the family papers in the Addition are letters to Le Gallienne from her mother, Julie Nørregaard Le Gallienne, and her half-sister, Hesper Le Gallienne Hutchinson. Those from her sister describe conditions in England during World War II and the work she did with her husband to run clubs for American servicemen there. Among the correspondence are letters from actress Constance Collier, who was a mentor to young Eva Le Gallienne when she first became an actress, and her patron, Mary Louise Curtis Bok Zimbalist. Included in a grouping of LeGallienne's honors and awards is a special Tony Award she received in 1964.
The collection is arranged in eight series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm97084002
Bound volumes and loose-leaf pages.
Arranged chronologically.
Correspondence, diaries, legal papers, clippings, writings, and personal items.
Arranged alphabetically by name of family member, then by type of material and chronologically therein.
Letters sent and received.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent and chronologically therein.
Scripts, programs, playbills, clippings, correspondence, notes, schedules, set plans, contracts, printed matter, and other items relating to Le Gallienne's career.
Arranged alphabetically by type of activity or by type of material and chronologically therein.
Articles, book manuscripts, essays, lectures, notes, translations, miscellaneous writings, and related material.
Arranged alphabetically by type of writing and title and chronologically therein.
Address books, appointment calendars, awards and honors, biographical material, childhood material, theatrical memorabilia, writings about Le Gallienne, and material accumulated by Le Gallienne's biographer, Helen Sheehy.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material and chronologically therein.
Diaries, family papers, correspondence, scripts, programs, scrapbooks, book drafts, notebooks, lecture notes, awards, and other papers.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material, name of person, or topic and therein chronologically.
Scrapbooks, set plans, and logbooks, artwork, an award, and lecture notes. Described according to the series, folders, and boxes from which the items were removed.