Virginia Girvin collection

1891-1975 D

Virginia Girvin was an actor, print ad-model, real estate agent, and community activist. As an actor, Girvin worked in multiple mediums such as stage, film, and radio. Her roles were mainly as a domestic, nurse, chorus member, or crowd member. A lifetime member of the Negro Actors Guild, the high point of Girvin's involvement with the organization was in 1970 when she served as its Vice President. Between acting roles and after she could no longer secure that type of work, Girvin was employed as a secretary and a real estate agent. She worked with Donbar Enterprises-Sundale, a real estate development corporation based in Westbury, Long Island, that developed a number of integrated communities throughout the Northeast in the 1960s. The Virginia Girvin papers are comprised of biographical information, drafts of her memoirs, letters primarily acknowledging her volunteer efforts, and one letter from Orson Welles offering his advice on her acting career. There are also playbills (1930s-1950s) from productions in which Girvin appeared; Negro Actors Guild yearbooks and souvenir journals; reviews; book jackets and magazine articles, including Native Son by Richard Wright; romance magazines, for which she modeled (1942-1953); and a file on Donbar Enterprises (1961).