From the Princeton Weekly Bulletin, November 17, 1997
David Garrick to Woody Allen
Mary Ann Jensen is curator of Seymour Theatre Collection
in Firestone Library
By Caroline Moseley
Ask curator Mary Ann
Jensen to list some of the treasures of Firestone Library's William
Seymour Theatre Collection and be prepared for an embarrassment of
riches.
The collection, part of the Visual Materials Division of the library's Rare Books and Special Collections, "covers English and American performing arts from the mid-18th-century to the present," Jensen says. It includes books, manuscripts, correspondence and "more than 100 collections of papers." It also includes graphic materials such as posters, playbills, photographs, prints and paintings, as well as artifacts such as 19th-century porcelain figurines of ballet dancers.
Among the oldest holdings is a 1749 David Garrick playbill from the Drury Lane Theatre, and among the most recent acquisitions are the papers of Richard Schechner, whom Jensen describes as "director, writer, teacher and editor of The Drama Review, who created the concept of `performance studies.'"
Her office on the second floor of Firestone displays some items from the collection: a portrait of 19th-century ballerina Fanny Elssler; a Catskills landscape by Joseph Jefferson, who frequently portrayed Rip Van Winkle on 19th-century American stages; a bronze self-portrait and inkwell created by actress Sarah Bernhardt, who toured Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. (Jensen points out that the self-portrait has wings and a serpent's tail "because Bernhardt saw herself as very exotic.")
And in the extensive stacks and numerous cases outside her office ... let's see. There's a collection of film scripts from James Stewart, Class of 1932. There's the Albert M. Friend Collection of 18th-century Theatre Drawings. There are vocal scores of most American musicals produced between 1920 and 1970. There's the L. Ashton Sly collection relating to musical comedies, comic operas and operettas produced in England between 1890 and 1940. There are the Woody Allen Papers, containing, says Jensen, "original drafts and typescripts of many of his writings."
There's the McCaddon Collection of circus materials. "McCaddon was the brother-in-law of James Bailey of Barnum & Bailey, as well as the company's manager," Jensen explains. "The collection consists of the working papers of Barnum & Bailey up to its 1907 merger with Ringling Bros."
There's "a wonderful collection on the Romantic Ballet." And, as they say, much, much more. "It's really a performing arts collection," Jensen emphasizes, "not simply a theater collection."
Founder a friend of Booths
William Seymour (1855-1933) was an actor, stage manager and director, born into a family of performers, whose career involved theaters and theatrical folk in New Orleans, Boston and New York City. His library and papers formed the core of the original library collection, which was dedicated in 1936.
For example, says Jensen, Seymour's mother was a friend of the actor John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln. Hence, Seymour had "quite a lot of material relating to the Booth family of actors: the father, Junius Brutus Booth the Elder; Junius Brutus Booth the Younger; Edwin Booth; and John Wilkes Booth.
"The women in the family also married actors and theater managers," Jensen notes, "so it was a family with many theatrical connections."
The Seymour Collection is used by University faculty and students for research projects and to enrich courses. Recently, for example, for an English department seminar examining Shakespeare's Richard III, led by Lecturer Robert Sandberg, Jensen compiled historical posters of productions of Richard III, playbills from 1750 to 1995, and relevant prints and photographs. Many users come from outside the University. They may become aware of the collection in publications or indices to special collections and performing arts collections, says Jensen, as well as at meetings of such organizations as the Theater Library Association and the American Society for Theater Research--where they are likely to meet and talk shop with the curator.
Torn between two careers
Jensen herself is a valuable resource, because her familiarity with the collection enables her to make connections that would not appear in an index.
"A person might be interested in the Woody Allen Papers," she points out. "There's no way that person would know, without being told, that we have Groucho Marx letters in the papers of producer Max Gordon, in which Woody Allen is mentioned."
Consequently, much of Jensen's day is spent answering queries from researchers--such as "Do you know of any 19th or early 20th century American actors involved in social causes?" (Yes, John Howard Payne supported the cause of the Cherokee Indians in Georgia and Alabama.) "Do you have any materials relating to the early theater in Charleston? (Yes, playbills from the 1830s).
Jensen grew up in Milwaukee, "torn between two careers: one in the theater, one in the ministry." Since "women were not eligible for ordination at that time," she majored in theater at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisc.
After experiencing a number of aspects of theater life, including acting and costuming, Jensen became assistant director of the Wisconsin Center for Theatre Research (now Film and Theatre Research), part of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in Madison. Working with and learning from "an extraordinary team of archivists and librarians" there, she found her niche. "People think of archivists as dealing with papers and librarians as dealing with books," she says. "I learned to deal with both."
In 1966, friends drew Jensen's attention to an ad in the New York Times: Princeton University needed a curator for its Theatre Collection. "I didn't think I'd stand a chance," she says, but in that same year she assumed her current position.
Since 1966, Jensen has "had the joy of seeing the collection more than double in size." She urges faculty and students to explore the collection, which is "filled with materials for people seeking research and thesis topics."
Episcopalian deacon
Jensen's obvious pride in the Seymour Collection is enhanced these days by the opportunity to follow not one but both paths she dreamed of in high school. In addition to her work in the library, she has embarked on a program that she hopes will lead to ordination as an Episcopal deacon; she is now in the first of three requisite years of evening classes and weekend hospital chaplaincy.
"How many people end up with two careers," she asks, "one in each of their chosen fields?"
Are there any connections between curating a performing arts collection and serving as a deacon of the Episcopal Church?
"Well," Jensen muses, "the liturgy of the Episcopalian church is very theatrical. And `deacon' comes from the Greek work for `servant.' Service to others is the purpose of the diaconate; that's not so different from being a librarian."
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