Research Catalog

Alice Putnam papers.

Title: Alice Putnam papers.
Publication: 1895-1922.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

3 Items

Item details
Status	Container	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Not available - Please for assistance.	Box 3	Mixed material	Supervised use	*T-Mss 2020-007 Box 3	Performing Arts Research Collections - Theatre
Request Appointment Not available - Please for assistance.	Box 2	Mixed material	Supervised use	*T-Mss 2020-007 Box 2	Performing Arts Research Collections - Theatre
Request Appointment Not available - Please for assistance.	Box 1	Mixed material	Supervised use	*T-Mss 2020-007 Box 1	Performing Arts Research Collections - Theatre

Details

Additional Authors

Description

3 boxes; .63 linear feet

Summary

A collection of clippings, ephemera, and photographs (1895-1922) documenting the life and career of the actress Alice Putnam.

Donor/Sponsor

In honor of George Freedley

Subjects

Genre/Form

Autographs.
Contracts.
Photographic prints.
Printed ephemera.
Clippings.

Note

Box 1 contains clippings, contracts, one letter, souvenir books, and opening night telegrams. A portion of the Springfield (Mass.) Homestead local newspaper (May 15, 1907) with a feature story about Putnam contains advertising for Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. Two contracts are signed by David Belasco and one by a representative of Cohan and Harris. Among the souvenir books is one created for Putnam's cousin, the actress Fay Davis, who specialized in recitations and monologues. An illustrated souvenir book for an 1898 production of Much Ado About Nothing at St. James's Theatre (London) contains autographs of Julia Neilson, Arthur Royston, H. B. Irving, George Alexander, Henry V. Esmond, Harry H. Vincent, J. D. Beveridge, W. H. Vernon, Robert Lorraine, and Fred Terry. Of note is a signed letter (September 2, 1921) to the producer Charles Dillingham containing a personal review of William LeBaron's play, The Scarlet Man, by J. C. H. Beaumont, ship's doctor of the RMS Olympic, a luxury transatlantic ocean liner then popular among celebrities, a sister ship to the Titanic on the White Star line.
Box 2 contains photographs of Alice Putnam and those she worked with, many of whom inscribed their photographs to her as remembrances. Among the individual actors depicted candidly and in costume are Carlotta Addison, Fay Davis, Frank Dekum, George Fawcett, George W. Howard, Francine Larrimore, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, and Fred Terry. Of note is E. O. Hoppé's signed photograph of the company of actors affiliated with the Serbian Society of Great Britain who performed Ollaya by E. Temple Thurston at the Drury Lane Theatre, May 9, 1916, as a benefit for the Serbian Relief Fund. In addition to Doris Keane, the professional actors included Gilda Varesi, Cecil Humphreys, J. V. Bryant, J. J. Day and Gerald Lawrence. Non-professional actors included members of the British aristocracy, ambassadors from the Spanish Embassy in London, the author and early feminist Mrs. Crackanthorpe, and Lady Hazel Lavery, the well-known model of the Irish portrait artist, Sir John Lavery, to whom she was married.
Box 3 contains four oversized photographs inscribed by George Alexander, John Mason, and Charles Cherry.
Materials were previously cataloged as MWEZ + n.c. 19189.

Source (note)

Mrs. Ansley W. Sawyer.

Call Number

*T-Mss 2020-007

OCLC

1039720234

Title

Alice Putnam papers.

Publisher

1895-1922.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

sheet

Biography

Alice Putnam was born in Houlton, Maine, which had been settled by the Putnam family in 1805, and died in New York City on January 26, 1957. A daughter of Jerusha Snell and Captain Black Hawk Putnam, commander of Company E, First Maine Cavalry Regiment, in the U. S. Civil War, Alice Putnam became inspired to seek a career in theatre after seeing her cousin Fay Davis perform with George Alexander's company in London. Putnam demonstrated skill as a stock player and achieved success, first as a popular ingenue and supporting member of David Belasco's company and later as a hostess and arts patron.

Source

Gift: Mrs. Ansley W. Sawyer.

Added Author

Putnam, Alice, -1957, actor.

Davis, Fay, 1869-1945, actor.

Belasco, David, 1853-1931, director, producer.

Dillingham, C. B. (Charles Bancroft), 1868-1934, producer, correspondent.

Beaumont, J. C. H., correspondent.

LeBaron, William, 1883-1958. Scarlet Man.

Hoppé, E. O. (Emil Otto), 1878-1972, photographer.

Thurston, E. Temple (Ernest Temple), 1879-1933. Ollaya.

Cookson-Crackanthorpe, B. A., 1847-1928, actor.

Lavery, Hazel, Lady, 1880-1935, actor.

Research Call Number

*T-Mss 2020-007

View in Legacy Catalog