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Creator
Grant, Ethel Watts Mumford, 1878-1940
Call number
MssCol 2080
Physical description
3 linear feet (9 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation

Ethel Watts Mumford Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Collection contains Mumford's writings, legal papers, correspondence, art work, and printed matter. Writings consist primarily of manuscripts of her plays with some short stories, poems, musical lyrics, and clippings of a literary column she wrote for the New York Evening World during 1913-1914. Also, contracts and royalty agreements, 1904-1934; letters, 1900-1924, concerning the sale of her works; clippings of reviews; and sketches and a watercolor.

Biographical/historical information

Ethel Watts Mumford (1878-1940), New York born playwright, poet and novelist, was the daughter of Dickson Given Watts and Mary Atwater Hughes. She married George Dana Mumford in 1894 and had a son, George. The union ended in divorce, allegedly because of the husband's jealousy of her devotion to literature and art. Ethel later married Peter Geddes Grant.

Mumford studied art in Paris at the Julian Academy, and while in Paris she also took lessons from Benjamin Constant. She also studied with Merie Guise in New York. Her first listed work was “Dupes,” published in 1901 by Putnam. Others include “Whitewash,” 1903; “The Hundred Love Songs of Kamal,” 1905; “The Wedding Song” and “Hand Reading Today,” 1925. Her plays include “The Young Idea,” “Good Night Nurse,” “The Scenario” and “Easy Money.”

Scope and arrangement

Ethel Watts Mumford's papers, 1900-1934, consist primarily of manuscripts of her plays. Among other writings are short stories, poems, musical lyrics and clippings of a column she wrote for the New York Evening World during 1913-1914, entitled Novelettes of the New York Streets.

Also included are a few contracts and royalty agreements, 1904-1934; letters received relating to the sale of her works, 1900-1924; clippings of reviews; sketches and a watercolor.

The Ethel Watts Mumford papers are arranged in five series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mrs. George M. Watts October, 1966

Processing information

Processed by Laura Bailey; machine readable finding aid created by Apex Data Services and revised by Chatham Ewing.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328