Research Catalog

Title

Elizabeth Bragg Cumming scrapbooks, 1893-1920.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Cumming, Elizabeth Bragg, 1858-1929.
• Earle, William P. S., 1882-1972
• Henry, Grace R.

Description

2 bound volumes; 26 cm or smaller

Donor/Sponsor

In honor of George Freedley

Subjects

• Popular music > New York (State) > New York > 20th century
• Pavlowa Ballet
• Actors' Fund of America
• Women engineers > United States > 19th century
• Theater programs
• Opera > New York (State) > New York > 20th century
• Playbills
• Vitagraph Company of America
• Junior League of New York
• Vaudeville > New York (State) > New York > 20th century
• Printed ephemera
• Blackface entertainers
• New York (N.Y.) > Social life and customs > 20th century
• Minstrel shows
• Motion pictures > New York (State) > New York > 20th century
• Marginalia
• Delta Upsilon Fraternity
• Women > Diaries > 19th century
• Benefit performances
• Ballet > New York (State) > New York > 20th century
• Popular culture > New York (State) > New York > 20th century
• Theater > New York (State) > New York > 20th century
• Scrapbooks
• Primrose & Dockstader's Great American Minstrels
• Pageants > New York (State) > New York > 20th century
• Music-halls > New York (State) > New York > 20th century

Genre/Form

• Marginalia.
• Theater programs.
• Playbills.
• Scrapbooks.
• Printed ephemera.

Note

• Two scrapbooks of cuttings from programs and playbills documenting performances attended by Elizabeth Bragg Cumming between 1893 and 1920 in New York, including opera, ballet and, most often, theatre, with a number of plays in German, some in French, and many popular and variety productions. Of note is the 1894 benefit for The Actors' Fund at the Star Theatre; Primrose and Dockstader's Great American Minstrels; the ballet Raymonda performed by the [Anna] Pavlowa Ballet; The Flame of Kapur, a 1916 film created as a benefit for the Junior League of New York, written by Grace R. Henry and produced by the Vitagraph Company under the direction of William P.S. Earle; the Delta Upsilon Theatricals (probably the Harvard College chapter) in King Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare.
• Many entries are annotated with dates. Some are annotated with the names of attendees. There are two loose programs in the second scrapbook.
• MWEZ+ n.c. 5445 (1893-1900) is bound in 19th century blue cloth with embossed decoration in black and "The Popular Scrapbook" embossed in black lettering. A title leaf identifies it as "The Popular S, Shipman's Patent, June 13th, 1871. No. 105." (Asa L. Shipman & Sons, Manufacturers and Proprietors, 25 Chambers St. N.Y.)
• MWEZ+ n.c. 5446 (1900-1920) is bound in 20th century black cloth with "Scraps" in gilt scripted lettering on the spine. A label pasted to the inside endpaper indicates it was purchased from "Pusey and Troxell, Printers, Stationers Blank Book Makers, Typewriter Supplies, 123 West 42d St. New York."

Provenance (note)

• Gift of Elizabeth Bragg Cumming. (Mrs. George M. Cumming)

Call Number

MWEZ+ n.c. 5445-5446

OCLC

1008569341

Title

Elizabeth Bragg Cumming scrapbooks, 1893-1920.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Biography

Elizabeth Bragg Cumming, a life-long resident of San Francisco, California, was born there, April 23, 1858, and died there, November 10, 1929. She is often cited as an early feminist role model as the first woman in the United States to earn a degree in civil engineering (University of California, Berkeley, 1876) though no documentation exists that she worked as an engineer. A daughter of Robert Bragg, a wealthy Bay Area shipbuilder, and Mary Philbrook, Elizabeth Bragg is listed in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Lineage Book (v. 56, #55053) as a descendant of John Bragg (1755-1804) of Maine. In 1888, Elizabeth Bragg married George Marion Cumming, a civil engineer with the Southern Pacific Railroad, and had four sons. Between 1893 and 1920, with decreasing frequency as time passed and no documented visits at all for a period of five years, Elizabeth Bragg Cumming travelled annually or bi-annually to New York during which she made social excursions later commemorated in two folio volume made-to-purpose scrapbooks where she pasted cuttings from her theatre programs.

Provenance

Gift of Elizabeth Bragg Cumming. (Mrs. George M. Cumming)

Connect to:

Request Access to Theatre Division Special Collections material

Added Author

Cumming, Elizabeth Bragg, 1858-1929.

Earle, William P. S., 1882-1972, director.

Henry, Grace R. Flame of Kapur (Motion picture), 1916.

Research Call Number

MWEZ+ n.c. 5445-5446