Guide to the Fawcett Family Papers, 1893–1979, undated

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.