Overview
Papers of actor, playwright, director and theatrical producer Douglas Turner Ward
Dates
- Creation: circa 1950-2022
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Check with Houghton Public Services staff.
Extent
14 linear feet (16 boxes)Collection comprises compositions, scripts, treatments, correspondence, photographs, business records of Douglas Turner Ward and the Negro Ensemble Company, clippings, promotional material, notes, and ephemera. This collection is a small part of his papers, his archive is kept at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
Biographical / Historical
Douglas Turner Ward (1930-2021) was an actor, playwright, director, and theatrical producer whose work was integral to shaping black theater in the United States. Turner was founder and artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company, established in 1967.
Arrangement
Papers arranged as received. Collection material is not sorted, but arranged by material type. Some material is in poor condition. Collection is arranged into the following series:
Play scripts and other wiritings;
Interviews with Douglas Turner Ward;
Correspondence;
Business records of the Negro Ensemble Company;
Promotional material and press; and
Photographs;
Douglas Turner Ward biographical material.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Custodial History
These papers were previously owned by Douglas Turner Ward.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2022MT-54. Purchased from Boo-Hooray LLC, 2022 January 28.
Processing Information
Processed by Irina Klyagin, 2022 March.
Additional material incorporated into the description, 2023 May.
Processing Information
This collection and its description contains many uses of the outdated term "negro;" it was the preferred language in the mid-twentieth century used by Ward and his peers and colleagues at the founding of their theater company. This finding aid was reviewed in 2024 for the use of this term in descriptive language. Because the term was used by Ward and continues to be used for the Negro Ensemble Company, no usages were changed. If you have questions or comments about this, please contact Houghton Library. For more information on reparative archival description at Harvard, see Harvard Library’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
- Title
- Ward, Douglas Turner. Douglas Turner Ward papers, circa 1950-2022 (MS Thr 2176) : Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- 2022 March 8
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03445
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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