William A. Drake photograph album with other papers
Overview
Photograph album and related material of Canadian American theatrical designer, William A. Drake.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1947-1963
Creator
- Drake, William Alexander, 1891-1979 (Person)
Condition Description
All loose photographs as well as all the photographs in the album are in sleeves.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.1 linear feet (1 box)Collection includes an album of black and white 8 x 10-inch photographs of scene painting in progress; the loose material includes an award, a composition, a program, correspondence, and a painting order sheet for a production of "Streetcar Named Desire" (1947) for which Jo Mielziner was designer.
Biographical / Historical
William Alexander Drake was a Canadian-American theatrical designer, painter, printmaker, draftsman, and educator. He was a scenic artist and later supervisor in New York theaters from 1914 until his retirement in 1975, working with stage designers including Jo Mielziner and Donald Oenslager. In 1953 he became an art director for NBC‐TV. (Sources: obituary in The Record, Hackensack, New Jersey,10 Apr 1979; https://www.askart.com/artist/William_Alexander_Drake/20912/William_Alexander_Drake.aspx, accessed 2022 January 7)
Arrangement
Arranged as received.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Custodial History
Ownership of this collection prior to this acquisition is unknown.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2020MT-111. Purchased from Between the Covers, 2020 March 12.
Processing Information
This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation. (Melanie Wisner, 2021)
Creator
- Drake, William Alexander, 1891-1979 (Person)
- Title
- Drake, William A. William A. Drake photograph album with other papers, circa 1947-1963 (MS Thr 2099): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2022 January 7
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03378
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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