Jo Mielziner designs and technical drawings

Description data
Resources (attachments and links)
Repository assets
Living At
Child components

id: 3190
origination: Mielziner, Jo, 1901-1976
date statement: 1924-1976
key date: 1924
identifier (local_mss): 21478
org unit: Billy Rose Theatre Division
call number: *T-Vim 1993-002
b-number: b14708879
total components: 268
total series: 0
max depth: 1
boost queries: (none)
component layout: Default Layout
Extended MARC Fields: false
Extended Navigation: false
created: 2013-04-01 15:04:41 UTC
updated: 2026-08-15 02:29:50 UTC
status note: (missing)
Display Aeon link: true

Description data TOP

physdesc: {"format"=>"simple", "value"=>"127 linear feet (141 oversized boxes)"}
unitid: {"value"=>"*T-Vim 1993-002", "type"=>"local_call"}

{"value"=>"21478", "type"=>"local_mss"}
unitdate: {"value"=>"1924-1976", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1924/1976"}
date_inclusive_start: 1924
date_inclusive_end: 1976
keydate: 1924
unittitle: {"value"=>"Jo Mielziner designs and technical drawings"}
repository: {"value"=>"The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Billy Rose Theatre Division."}
abstract: {"value"=>"Jo Mielziner, set and lighting designer, theater architect and consultant. The collection consists of set and costume designs, technical drawings, elevations and whiteprints documenting the work of Jo Mielziner."}
prefercite: {"value"=>"<p>*T-VIM 1993-002, Jo Mielziner Designs and Technical Drawings, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</p>"}
origination: {"value"=>"Mielziner, Jo, 1901-1976", "type"=>"persname"}
bioghist: {"value"=>"<p>Born in Paris in 1901, Jo (born Joseph) Mielziner became in adulthood the quintessential New Yorker, leaving for short periods of time only when it was necessary in his work. His father Leo, of middle-European Jewish ancestry, was an artist in Paris at the time of his birth; his mother Ella Friend, of mixed colonial and recent Irish immigrant heritage, was a correspondent for Vogue Magazine and a freelance journalist. The family returned to America in 1909. Jo and his older brother Leo, Jr. attended the Ethical Culture School in New York but were never graduated. Jo turned to art study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art in Philadelphia and Leo, Jr. became an actor under the name Kenneth MacKenna.</p> <p>It was Kenneth who introduced Jo to the theater and urged him to follow a career as a scene designer. He worked as an apprentice and assistant to Robert Edmond Jones and Lee Simonson, both leading exponents of the New Stagecraft, a movement that emphasized the importance of scenery in the interpretation of a play or musical. Their insistence on making the designer a full collaborator in the production process brought a new day to stage art in America. Mielziner struck out on his own, gaining confidence in his ability to ferret out the right scenic metaphor for the production. He soon outstripped his mentors. His first real success was his designing for <span class=\"title\">The Guardsman</span> (1924), an early Theatre Guild production that brought attention to both the producing company and the designer. Between 1924 and his death in 1976, he designed some 270 plays, musicals, revues, and an occasional opera, movie and ballet. Among them were such memorable successes as <span class=\"title\">Strange Interlude</span>, <span class=\"title\">Death of a Salesman</span>, <span class=\"title\">A Streetcar Named Desire</span>, <span class=\"title\">Carousel</span>, <span class=\"title\">The King and I</span>, <span class=\"title\">South Pacific</span>, <span class=\"title\">Of Thee I Sing</span>, the <span class=\"title\">Little Shows</span>, <span class=\"title\">Look Homeward, Angel</span>, <span class=\"title\">Tea and Sympathy</span>, <span class=\"title\">Picnic</span>, the motion picture <span class=\"title\">Picnic</span>, the ballet <span class=\"title\">Slaughter on Tenth Avenue</span>, and the opera <span class=\"title\">The Emperor Jones</span>.</p> <p>Midway in his career, he turned his attention to the architecture of theaters out of his own displeasure in working in small, cramped and under-equipped stages and auditoriums. Although many of the projects on which he worked never came to fruition, his most notable achievements were the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, the Wake Forest University Theatre, the Power Center at the University of Michigan, Denver Theatre Center, and the Mark Taper Forum. From time to time, he also designed for such special projects as the Vatican display of the Pieta at the New York World's Fair, the White House East Room stage, and the convocation of the United Nations organization in San Francisco in 1945.</p> <p>Mielziner lived and worked most of his life at the Dakota apartment house in New York, and died suddenly in a taxicab four days short of his 75th birthday.</p>"}
custodhist: {"value"=>"<p>The Jo Mielziner materials came to the New York Public Library after his death in 1976, according to his deed of gift. From 1994 to1998 the collection was completely re-housed and re-cataloged.</p>"}
scopecontent: {"value"=>"<p><span class=\"persname\">Jo Mielziner</span>'s designs and technical drawings span the years 1924-1976, reflecting his long and varied career as set and lighting designer, theater architect and consultant. This collection consists of oversized production items, which include technical drawings, painter's elevations, rough sketches, set renderings, light plots, detail drawings, preliminary drawings, and paint and materials samples. Almost every play, musical, ballet, opera or project Mielziner worked on is represented and, for the most part, can be followed from inception to finished technical drawings.</p> <p>Included are theatrical productions (Boxes 1-128), <span class=\"subject\">ballets</span> and <span class=\"subject\">operas</span> (Boxes 129-130), and architectural and industrial design projects (Boxes 131-138).</p> <p>Also included are renovation plans for Mielziner's Dakota apartments, his Newtown, Connecticut house, and Kenneth McKenna's house in Truro, Massachusetts (Box 139).</p> <p>Other oversized materials are: unidentified Mielziner set designs; original art work by <span class=\"persname\">Henry McCarter</span>, <span class=\"persname\">Hugh Hardy</span>, and <span class=\"persname\">Robert Barnhart</span>; rough sketches by <span class=\"persname\">Roger Planchon</span> (Box 140); and original drawings for Mielziner's book <span class=\"title\">The Shapes of Our Theatre</span> (Box 141).</p>"}
accessrestrict: {"value"=>"<p>Photocopying prohibited.</p>"}
userestrict: {"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.</p>"}
relatedmaterial: {"value"=>"<p> <ul> <li>Jo Mielziner Papers - *T-Mss 1993-002</li> <li>Jo Mielziner Papers (Boston University)</li></ul></p>"}
arrangement: {"value"=>"Arrangement is alphabetical by title of production or project"}
acqinfo: {"date"=>"1976", "materials"=>"Designs", "source"=>"Jo Mielziner", "method"=>"Bequest", "extent"=>"141 o", "value"=>"Designs: Bequest, Jo Mielziner, 1976"}
note: {"value"=>"<p>Forms part of: Jo Mielziner Papers, Designs and Technical Drawings</p>", "encodinganalog"=>"500"}
processinfo: {"value"=>"<p>Processed by Susan McArthur.</p>"}
date_start: 1924
date_end: 1976

Update Collection TOP

Update from EAD XML File

Resources TOP

PDF finding aid

No PDF finding aid attached.

File attachments

No files attached.

Links to external resources

No links associated with this collection.

Repository Assets

No UUIDs attached.

Living at NYPL Archives

Sign in to add or edit a living at feature for this collection.

Export Collection to ArchivesSpace

Child components TOP