- Creator
- Mortimer, Owen
- Call number
- Sc MG 424
- Physical description
- 0.21 linear feet (1 box)
- Language
- English
- Preferred Citation
- [Item], Owen Mortimer collection, Sc MG 424, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Access to materials
- Request access to this collection.
This collection consists of exhibition and biographical materials relating to Ira Aldridge, and correspondence between his daughter, Amanda Aldridge, and biographer Owen Mortimer.
Biographical/historical information
Owen Mortimer is the biographer of Ira Aldridge, the free born African-American actor who achieved fame in Europe for his interpretation of Shakespearean roles from the 1820s to his death in 1867. Mortimer began collecting materials on Aldridge after his migration to the United States in 1946, some of which were exhibited at the Chicago Public Library in 1954. His biography, Speak of Me As I Am: the Story of Ira Aldridge, was published in 1989. Owen Mortimer is a native of Australia.
Amanda Christina Elizabeth Aldridge, or Amanda Ira Aldridge (1866-1956), was a British opera singer, teacher, and composer, who performed under the pseudonym of Montague Ring; born in Upper Norwood, London, she was the third child of Ira Frederick Aldridge.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift of Owen Mortimer, ca. 1991.
Revision History
Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark. (2021 March 26)
Processing information
Processed by Andre Elizee, March 1991, through the Schomburg NEH Automated Access to Special Collections Project.
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor