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Charlotte Cushman Club records
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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Founded in 1907 by Lydia Ellicott Morris and a group of subscribers, the Charlotte Cushman Club was intended to provide respectable lodgings for actresses appearing in Philadelphia theaters. After having discarded the original idea of naming the Club after British actress Sarah Siddons – a member of the famed Kemble theatre family – Morris and her friends opted for a local figure, and eventually dedicated their organization to Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876), America's first internationally renowned actress, who briefly served as manager of the Walnut Street Theatre in the 1840s.
The Club's main house changed several addresses over the years. Initially located in a building on 10th and Pine Street, which the management had leased for one year, the house moved first to 1200 Locust Street, and later to 1010 Spruce Street (1920), where it would remain until the Depression years. In that period, financial difficulties led many touring companies to reduce their activities, and the Club, deeming its lodging services no longer a priority, relocated its headquarters to a suite at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in the years between 1932 and 1941. By the time the organization opened its new house at 1216 Locust Street, in 1942, it was no longer a residential club, having become a favorite gathering place for theater lovers as well as for the many actresses and actors visiting the city with their touring companies. A museum and a library were also opened and maintained during the clubhouse's subsequent relocations to 1314 Locust Street (1958-1964) and to the former home of the Poor Richard's Club, at 239 South Camac Street (1964-1998).
The activities and events organized by the Club included member parties and receptions in honor of some among the most prominent actresses, actors, and companies visiting Philadelphia. These events are very well documented in the collection, along with other initiatives launched by the Club beginning in the 1950s. The most notable of them was the Cushman Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, inaugurated in 1957 as "a tribute to a man or woman for distinguished contribution to the vitality of the American theatre". The list of recipients of the Award includes Helen Hayes, Julie Harris, Dame Judith Anderson, Angela Lansbury, Katherine Hepburn, Richard Burton, John Houseman, Henry Fonda, Joshua Logan and Zoe Caldwell. Other activities included the Fanny Kemble Award, annually bestowed in the 1960s to honor an actress and an actor for performances in Philadelphia in non-featured roles, and the Charlotte Cushman Scholarship Award (1970-1998), to support promising actresses and actors in the early stages of their career. In the late 1990s, believing that the Club had overcome its original residential and educational purposes, the management decided to cease its activities. In 2000, the clubhouse was sold, and its collections, including the Eleanor Westcott Library of rare theater memorabilia and books, were dispersed. The Club has recently transformed itself into the Charlotte Cushman Foundation, which awards theater-related grants in the Greater Philadelphia area. The Foundation also provides scholarships to performing arts students in area colleges and universities and continues to give the Cushman Award "for outstanding leading actress in a play", as part of the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre organized annually by Theatre Philadelphia. The University of the Arts, where the Foundation now has its offices, is home to the Cushman Club Board Room and Exhibit, which were established in 1999.
The Charlotte Cushman Club records offer insight into the activities, the administration, and the membership of the Club. At the same time, because of the direct involvement in the Club's activities of several theatrical actresses, actors, directors, playwrights, and theater companies that visited Philadelphia during the whole twentieth century, the collection provides a privileged perspective on many of the theatrical events organized in the city in that period. The clippings, photographs, and correspondence documenting such events, as well as the wide number of nineteenth- and twentieth-century playbills, programs, and engravings also included in the collection, will be of special interest to theatre and cultural historians focusing on the United States and on Philadelphia in particular.
The collection is divided into 19 different series. Series I-III are dedicated to administrative, financial, and property records. Series IV is devoted to membership records, including nomination and resignation forms and letters, information cards, and other correspondence with the membership. Series V is dedicated to the rest of the Club's correspondence. Series VI-VII consist of the material relating to the guests and the social events hosted and organized by the Club. Series VIII gathers the Club's publicity records. Series IX includes the material relating to the Club library and museum. Series X-XI contain clippings and photographs documenting the city's theatrical activities and the events organized by the Club. Series XII consists of a collection of scrapbooks. Series XIII is devoted to scripts and theatrical production plans. Series XIV-XV include collections of theatrical playbills, programs, brochures, plays, and libretti. Series XVI is dedicated to drawings and engravings. Series XVII comprises published material, such as theatrical magazines, books, and articles. Series XVIII consists of a small collection of memorabilia relating to the Club. Finally, series XIX is devoted to artifacts and includes two toy theaters and their related stage sets. Please see the finding aid for more detailed information on each series.
Gift of the Charlotte Cushman Club, 2000-2001
A portion of the collection, including programs and playbills, artifacts, scrapbooks, and engravings, had been previously processed as Print Collection no. 3. The engravings have been digitized and can be consulted on the Penn Libraries Rare Books and Manuscripts catalogue.
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- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- Siel Agugliaro
- Finding Aid Date
- May 25, 2017
- Access Restrictions
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The bulk of this collection is open for research use. However, items within Box 8, Folders 5, 6, 9, 12, and 21 are restricted because they contain personally identifiable information. For further information regarding access to portions of these folders, please contact the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rarebooks, and Manuscripts.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.