This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Research Library at the Nantucket Historical Association. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the internet.
Summary
The Fawcett family moved from New York, N.Y., to Nantucket, Mass., in 1899. George Fawcett (1860–1939) and Percy Haswell Fawcett ( –1945) were both actors. Their daughter Margaret Fawcett Barnes (1896–1980) wrote plays, essays, and poems, and founded the Straight Wharf Theatre with her first husband, Robert Wilson. This collection contains plays, essays, poems, and journals written by the Fawcett family and Robert Wilson, as well as theater ephemera.
Collection Details
- Collection Number:
- MS59
- Title:
- Fawcett Family Papers
- Date(s):
- 1893–1979, undated
- Creator:
- Fawcett family.
- Repository:
- Nantucket Historical Association
- Language:
- Material is in English.
Information for Users
Restrictions to Access: No restrictions. Open for research.
Restrictions to Use: No usage restrictions.
Copyright Notice: Copyright is retained by the authors of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Preferred Citation: [identification of item], in the Fawcett Family Papers, Nantucket Historical Association.
Acquisitions Information:
Gift of Margaret Fawcett Barnes (Acc. 84-147).
Sensitive Materials Statement:Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual’s private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the Nantucket Historical Association assumes no responsibility.
Related Collections
- A19 Margaret Fawcett Barnes Photoalbum, Nantucket Historical Association.
- PH56 Margaret Fawcett Barnes Photographic Collection, Nantucket Historical Association.
- Oral History Interview with Margaret Fawcett Barnes, 1958, Cassette Tape Collection, Nantucket Historical Association.
- Oral History Interview with Margaret Fawcett Barnes, 1975, Cassette Tape Collection, Nantucket Historical Association.
Subject Headings
-
Personal Name
- Barnes, Margaret Fawcett, 1896–1980.
- Fawcett, Alan.
- Fawcett family.
- Fawcett, George, 1860–1939.
- Fawcett, Percy Haswell, –1945.
- Wilson, Robert A.
-
Corporate Name
- Fawcett Players (Nantucket, Mass.)
-
Topical Term
- Theater.
- Theatre Workshop (Nantucket, Mass.)
Biographical Information
The Fawcett family moved from New York, N.Y., to Nantucket, Mass., in 1899. George Fawcett (1860–1939) and Percy Haswell Fawcett ( –1945) were both stage actors. George transitioned from theater to films in 1914 at the age of 54 and worked with well-known figures such as D.W. Griffith, Joan Crawford, and Greta Garbo. Percy was a Broadway star and directed the play “The Complex” in 1925. Their daughter Margaret Fawcett Barnes (1896–1980) wrote plays, essays, and poems, sometime using the pen names Georgia Fawcett, Georgianna Fawcett, and Margaret Georgia Fawcett. In 1940, she and her first husband, Robert Wilson, founded the Straight Wharf Theatre as the home of their acting troupe the Fawcett Players. She later married Landon Barnes.
Scope and Content
This collection contains plays, essays and poems written by Margaret Fawcett Barnes; essays, poems, and an autobiography by George Fawcett; journals and reminiscences of Percy Haswell Fawcett; a play by George Fawcett’s brother, Alan; plays by Robert Wilson; and theatre programs, ephemera, and letters.
Contents
Folder 1 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: Autobiography of George Fawcett, undated
SV-59/1 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: baby book, 1896
Folder 2 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: biographical Information, 1943–1944
Folder 3 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: essays, undated
Folder 4 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: essays, undated
Folder 5 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: letters in, 1939–1973
Folder 6 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: letters out, 1963–1979
Folder 7 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “1890 and Another Time”, undated
Folder 8 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Across the Unknown”, undated
Folder 9 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Airy Fairy Lilian”, undated
Folder 10 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Cameos”, undated
Folder 11 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Captain Dunsack”, undated
Folder 12 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “The China Trade”, undated
Folder 13 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “The Crime that was Hers”, undated
Folder 14 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “The Devil Fighter”, undated
Folder 15 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Estre Bien”, undated
Folder 16 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Forty Drops”, undated
Folder 17 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Good-Bye”, undated
Folder 18 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Henry Clay”, undated
Folder 19 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “I Tell of an Island”, 1977, undated
Folder 20 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “In Old Nantucket by the Sea”, undated
Folder 21 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “It Will Pass”, undated
Folder 22 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Judy’s Father”, undated
Folders 23–24 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Macy’s Bright Star”, undated
Folder 25 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Maria Mitchell”, undated
Folder 26 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Mejico” or “Revolution a la Carte”, undated
Folder 27 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Pass Friend”, undated
Folder 28 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Prepare”, undated
Folder 29 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Proud Island Epic”, 1956, undated
Folder 30 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Quits”, undated
Folder 31 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Reformation of Zilly-Ann”, 1922, undated
Folder 32 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “’Sconset Heyday”, 1969, 1970, undated
Folder 33 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Sun Dried”, undated
Folder 34 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “The Three Marys”, undated
Folder 35 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Tipperary Mary Jane”, undated
Folder 36 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “The Tramping Gentleman”, undated
Folder 37 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “A Western Camp”, 1909, undated
Folder 38 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “When it’s All Over”, undated
Folder 39 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: play “Zanoni Jones”, undated
Folder 40 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: untitled play, undated
Folder 41 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: untitled play, undated
Folder 42 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: poems, 1925–1970
Folder 43 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: poems, 1928–1979
SV-59/2 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: sketchbook, 1926
Folder 44 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: short story “Brother Sims Mistake”, undated
Folder 45 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: short stories, undated
Folder 46 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: speech to Sons and Daughters of Nantucket, undated
Folder 47 Margaret Fawcett Barnes: Straight Wharf Theatre ephemera, undated
Folder 48 George Fawcett: essays, 1933, undated
Folder 49 George Fawcett: letters in, 1926, undated
Folder 50 George Fawcett: poems, 1922–1928
Folder 51 George Fawcett: poems, 1922–1937
OP-59/1 George Fawcett: recital sign, circa 1930
Folder 52 George Fawcett: theatre ephemera, 1925–1932
SV-59/4 George Fawcett: Chase’s Theatre Programs, 1902–1903
Folder 53 Alan Fawcett: play “Master Will’s Players”, undated
SV-59/5 Alan Fawcett: Scrapbook, 1943
SV-59/6 Alan Fawcett: Scrapbook, 1943
Folder 54 Percy Haswell Fawcett: essays, undated
Folders 55 Percy Haswell Fawcett: letters in, 1912, 1941, undated
SV-59/3 Percy Haswell Fawcett: journal, 1893–1894
Folder 56 Robert A. Wilson: play “As it was in the Beginning”, undated
Folder 57 Robert A. Wilson: play “Eighteen Ninety”, undated
Folder 58 Robert A. Wilson: play “Keziah Coffin”, undated
Folder 59 Robert A. Wilson: play “The Main from Salem”, undated
Folder 60 Robert A. Wilson: play “Moby Dick or the Whale”, undated
Folder 61 Robert A. Wilson: play “Night Watch”, undated
Folder 62 Robert A. Wilson: play “O Smothering Sea”, undated
SV-59/7 Robert A. Wilson: Straight Wharf Theatre Press, 1940s
Folder 63 Robert A. Wilson: theatre ephemera and contract, 1940, 1947
Items Separated
- OP-59/1
- SV-59/1–7
Processing Information
Finding aid by Ashley Miller, July 2022.
This collection was reprocessed in July 2022. Existing order in each folder was maintained, but files were refoldered, given DACS-compliant descriptive titles, and the collection was renamed from Margaret Fawcett Barnes Collection to Fawcett Family Papers.