Overview
Photographs, contracts, and other papers relating to vaudeville performer, Dolly Dumplin'.
Dates
- Creation: 1920-1929
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.5 linear feet (2 boxes)Collection includes photographs of Dolly Dumplin' and of theater marquees, itineraries (also known as route sheets), contracts, fan mail, correspondence with vaudeville agents, receipts, clippings, and placards.
Biographical / Historical
Myrtle Greb of Freeport, New York (the family name sometimes appears as Grell), known in her act as Dolly Dumplin', began her theatrical career at the age of four. Her mother Olma was a vaudeville performer; her father Walter managed her career through the 1920s, Dolly's childhood and teenage years. She traveled extensively throughout the United States and into Canada. By the beginning of the 1930s, Dolly had become "Dolly Dalton, the Syncopatin' Songstress".
Arrangement
Arranged in 9 series:
- Photographs
- Vaudeville routines
- Itineraries
- Contracts
- Fan mail
- Clippings
- Placards and oversize advertising
- Correspondence with agents
- Music
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2019MT-102. Purchased from Marc Selvaggio, Bookseller, with funds from the Frank E. Chase Bequest, 2019 February.
Processing Information
Processed by Melanie Wisner, 2019.
- Title
- Dolly Dumplin' vaudeville collection, 1920-1929 (MS Thr 1907): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2019 February 20
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou03098
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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