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Creator
Wilson, Francis, 1854-1935
Call number
*T-Mss 1999-020
Physical description
3.25 linear feet (8 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Francis Wilson Papers, *T-Mss 1999-020, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

The collection contains correspondence, speeches, accounts, clippings, scripts and other papers reflecting the personal and professional life of Francis Wilson. Wilson carried on an active correspondence with many contemporaries prominent in the theatrical or literary field. The large series of speeches illustrates his wide-ranging interests. There is material on the plays in which he appeared, especially ERMINIE, and information on his involvement with the Players Club, but very little documenting his role as first president of the Actors' Equity Association or on the pivotal strike he led in 1919. The main political battle documented in these papers is Wilson's efforts to keep child actors out from under the jurisdiction of state labor laws. There is also some information on Wilson's family and his personal financial transactions.

Biographical/historical information

Born in Philadelphia on February 7, 1854 to Charles Edwin and Emily Von Erdon Wilson, Francis Wilson began his theatrical career as a child in minstrel shows. "It may seem a little odd that a boy of Quaker forebears should have gravitated so early toward the stage. I was not older than eight or nine when I made my first appearance. I can explain it only on the theory that it was an overdue protest against the solemn repression suffered by generations of ancestors," Wilson wrote in his 1924 autobiography, Francis Wilson's Life of Himself (Houghton Mifflin Company, p. 33). He was soon the main breadwinner of his family.

Wilson made his debut on the legitimate stage at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia in the 1878-79 season. For thirty-five years he was one of the best known and best loved of American comedians. His greatest success was as Cadeaux in Erminie. This operetta opened at the Casino Theatre in New York City in May 1886, ran for 1256 performances, had a long run on the road and was revived in 1921 with Wilson and his co-star, De Wolf Hopper, assuming again their famous roles.

In 1889 Wilson established his own production company, Francis Wilson and Company, and ran up against the Theatrical Syndicate, a trust trying to control theater bookings. Allied with other actor-managers including Joseph Jefferson, Richard Mansfield, Minnie Maddern Fiske and David Belasco, Wilson fought the Syndicate beginning in the 1896 season, but ultimately surrendered. This experience led the founders of Actors' Equity Association to ask him to serve as the first president of the organization, a post he assumed in 1913. Frank Gillmore, one of the founders and a later president said, "No man was more responsible for the success of the Actors' Equity Association than Francis Wilson... He was a notable actor, a fiery and logical speaker, and he was a man of independent means whose livelihood could not be destroyed by his assumption of the leadership of this movement." (The New York Times, "Francis Wilson, 81, Noted Actor, Dead" Oct. 8, 1935.) In 1919, Wilson led the successful strike against the Producing Managers' Association, a strike that involved 8 cities, closed 37 plays, and prevented the opening of 16 others. Most of the casts of the leading Broadway productions walked out. Equity won recognition as the bargaining agent for actors and eventually affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Wilson retired from the presidency in 1920, but was made president emeritus for life.

Wilson was also a writer and lecturer. He wrote books on Eugene Field, Joseph Jefferson, John Wilkes Booth and Edwin Booth as well as plays including The Bachelor's Baby and his own reminiscences. Except for roles in the Players Club productions, Wilson made his last professional appearances in the title role of Rip Van Winkle and in The Rivals, both at the opening of the new Boston Repertory Theatre in 1925. His final appearance was in the Players Club revival of The Little Father of the Wilderness in 1930.

Wilson was married twice: first to Mira Barrie from 1881 until her death in 1915, then to the actress, Edna Bruns, from 1917 until his own death in 1935. He had four children, two daughters, Frances Barrie and Adelaide Craycroft, with his first wife and a son and daughter, Craycroft Francis and Margalo Francis, with his second. He had three homes: in New York City, Lake Mahopac, N.Y. and Clearwater, Florida. In Florida he was active in the Little Theatre movement where the Francis Wilson Little Theatre was named for him. Francis Wilson died of a heart attack at his home on Gramercy Park in New York City on October 7, 1935. He was 81 years old. At his request, he was buried in the Actors' Fund Plot in Kensico, N.Y. under an epitaph he composed for himself: "Here lies the man who tried to free the actor."

Scope and arrangement

This collection reflects the life and career of Francis Wilson. There is much material on the plays in which he appeared especially Erminie as well as extensive correspondence with publishers on his writings. The large series of speeches illustrates his wide-ranging interests. There is also information on his involvement with the Players Club, but there is very little material documenting his role as the first president of Actors' Equity Association or the pivotal strike he led in 1919. The main political battle documented in these papers is Wilson's efforts to keep child actors out from under the jurisdiction of state labor laws. The collection also sheds some light on Wilson's family and his personal financial transactions.

The Francis Wilson papers are arranged in nine series:

  • Series I: Professional Correspondence

    The professional correspondence documents Wilson's career as an actor, theater manager, dramatic author and activist for theater interests.

  • Series II: Family Correspondence
    1920-1958
    7 folders

    This series is predominately the correspondence of Wilson's second wife, Edna Bruns Wilson. It includes correspondence between husband and wife, personal letters from third parties and letters of condolence she received on the death of her husband. It also contains her correspondence with lawyers, real estate agents and insurance companies on Wilson's property and estate after his death. There is also one folder of correspondence of other Wilson family members, mostly his children Craycroft and Margalo.

  • Series III: Financial Papers

    The financial papers reflect primarily Wilson's personal affairs rather than his professional relations. They include correspondence, accounts and contracts.

  • Series IV: Speeches
    1893-1932
    49 folders (1.5 boxes)

    This series includes manuscript and typescript drafts for speeches, as well as notes, fragments and partial speeches. It is arranged alphabetically by topic or title. Includes speeches given before the Actors' Equity Association and the Players Club, opening night speeches at the 1893 revival of Erminie and at the opening of the Repertory Theatre of Boston, and his Rip Van Winkle speech made nightly in Boston in 1925. Other topics include the issue of child labor law as it pertains to stage children, various subjects of his research such as Eugene Field and Joseph Jefferson, and liberty bonds and theater's contribution to the war effort during World War I. Wilson also spoke at honorary dinners for fellow actors, at graduations and gave miscellaneous addresses on topics such as laughter.

  • Series V: Clippings
    1875-1935
    18 folders

    This series documents the various aspects of Wilson's career. It begins with clippings on Wilson's career overall, from "Early scrapbook - Chestnut St. Theatre, Philadelphia, etc." to more general, non-specified clippings. Clippings of reviews of many of the plays in which he appeared especially Erminie and on his writings including his book, John Wilkes Booth and his play, The Bachelor's Baby are arranged alphabetically by title. Also arranged in the alphabetical sequence are clippings on his political work with the Actors' Equity Association and on the issue of child labor as it pertains to stage children. The clippings of writings and speeches by Wilson published in newspapers follow and then his obituaries, a good source of biographical information. Miscellaneous clippings found with the papers are at the end of the series. Some of the clippings were pasted into scrapbooks, but now all of the material has been photocopied onto acid-free paper.

  • Series VI: Printed Material
    1881-1926
    5 folders

    Printed material is arranged in the following order. First, a libretto and a sheet music cover for Erminie, then theater programs for shows in which Wilson appeared and usually starred, programs for addresses given by Wilson, cast lists photocopied from programs, and finally, a souvenir program for the Woman's Titanic Memorial at the Century Theatre, December 6, 1912. This last contains a photograph of Wilson as well as of many of the other well-known actors who participated.

  • Series VII: Visual Materials
    1910-1928
    2 folders

    One folder contains photographs of Francis Wilson, most cut from newspapers and magazines. Also includes photos of one of his homes and some of his family members. The other folder contains drawings of Wilson and some other actors in costume for various roles as well as the drawing of an unidentified country home.

  • Series VIII: Ephemera
    1893-1940
    2 folders

    One folder contains poems, most written about or in honor of Francis Wilson, some are anonymous. Includes poems by Eugene Field to Francis Wilson and to De Witt Miller and a poem written to honor Field. The other folder contains bookplates, membership cards, an auction catalog [1940] of Rare Books, Autographs, and Manuscripts "comprising the library collected by the late Francis Wilson, Actor - Bibliophile," and a few miscellaneous scraps.

  • Series IX: Scripts
    1897-1921
    9 folders

    The scripts series consists of three typescripts of Erminie, two containing revisions some of which are in the hand of Francis Wilson, the third with annotations in an unknown hand; two handwritten scripts: The Inventor and The Monks of Malabar, in Wilson's hand; two annotated typescripts for plays in which Wilson appeared: The Mountain Climbers and When Knights Were Bold with revisions in an unknown hand; an actor's side with Wilson's handwritten notes for the part of David in Robert Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals; and a typescript for the play Robert Macaire stamped property of Arthur W. Tams Musical Library. Wilson had extensive dealings with this organization so the script, an early version of the Erminie story, may have come to be in his possession. All the scripts were removed from the papers sometime after their arrival in the Library so provenance is not clear in all cases.

Administrative information

Custodial history

The Francis Wilson Papers were most likely given to The Billy Rose Theatre Division of The New York Public Library by his widow, Edna Bruns Wilson in the late 1950s.

Source of acquisition

Papers: gift, Mrs. Edna Bruns Wilson

Processing information

Processed by Elisabeth Elkind.

The papers were originally cataloged in the Library's MWEZ classification system and were reprocessed in 1999 for inclusion in the Library's online system and posting on the web.

Related Material

Other related materials held in the Billy Rose Theatre Division are:

  • Francis Wilson letters to DeWitt Miller, 1890-1911 - *T-Mss 1998-016
  • Francis Wilson letters to Otto Fleischner, 1889-1909 - *T-Mss 1998-015

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Access restrictions

Photocopying prohibited.