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Creator
Booth-Grossman family
Call number
*T-Mss 1967-001
Physical description
3.5 linear feet (8 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Booth-Grossman Family Papers, *T-Mss 1967-001, 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
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

The primary subject of this collection of family papers is the life of Edwin Booth, one of the most famous American actors of the 19th century. However, it has not been titled the Edwin Booth Papers because the bulk of the collection would more accurately be described as the papers of his daughter and biographer, Edwina Booth Grossman. There is also a small amount of material on other family members including Booth's father, the actor Junius Brutus Booth, his brother, the notorious John Wilkes Booth, and other relatives with less impact on history.

Biographical/historical information

The collection centers on Edwin Thomas Booth(11/13/1833-6/7/1893) of the theatrical Booth family. An outstanding tragedian and the first American actor to achieve a European reputation, Booth was one of ten children born in Maryland to the English actor, Junius Brutus Booth, Sr. (1796-1852) and his second wife Mary Ann Holmes. Edwin Booth's brothers included the lesser actors, Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. (1821-1883) and John Wilkes Booth (1839-1865), who achieved his fame as the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

The elder Booth, on stage since the age of 17, was a rival of Edmund Kean's in London and acted and managed several theaters in the United States from 1821 on. Edwin Booth made his first appearance at 16 in his father's company, playing Richard III as had his father. He made his first visit to London in 1861. From 1863-1867, Edwin Booth was the manager of the Winter Garden on Broadway in New York City. In the 1864-1865 season he played the role of Hamlet 100 times, a record unbroken until John Barrymore's 101 in 1922. Also in 1864, Booth played Brutus in Julius Caesar with his brothers John Wilkes Booth as Anthony and Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. as Cassius. This was their only performance together. On March 23, 1867, the theater burned down just as Booth was about to appear as Romeo. He built his own theater, Booth's, on 6th Avenue and 23rd Street in New York City, opening in 1869 with Romeo and Juliet. This venture was not successful and Booth went bankrupt in 1873.

Booth did return to successful touring in the United States, England and Germany. In 1881 he appeared at the Lyceum in London at the invitation of Henry Irving, alternating with him the roles of Othello and Iago. In 1888 Booth presented his house in Gramercy Square to the newly founded Players' Club. He served as the first president of the club, kept a suite of rooms there and died in office.

Edwin Booth was married twice: on July 7, 1860 to Mary Devlin Booth (5/19/1840-2/21/1863), who died after a brief illness and on June 7, 1869 to Mary McVicker Booth (9/1848-11/13/1881). Both wives had done some acting before marriage. Mary Devlin Booth was the mother of Edwin Booth's only surviving child, Edwina Booth Grossman (12/9/1861-12/25/1938). Concerned for her father's legacy, Edwina Booth Grossman published a book of recollections of her father including edited transcriptions of many of his letters. She married Ignatius Grossman and had two children: Mildred Booth Grossman Tilton and Clarence Edwin Booth Grossman, an artist and member of the Players' Club who went by Edwin as an adult and died in 1957.

Scope and arrangement

The collection contains correspondence, writings, clippings, photographs, personal ephemera, programs, printed material and a few speeches. The primary focus of the collection is on the actor Edwin Booth. While there is some professional correspondence with colleagues and letters from Booth's first wife, Mary Devlin Booth, the bulk of the correspondence consists of his letters to his daughter Edwina from 1867 until his death in 1893. Most of these include her transcriptions made in preparation for her book, Edwin Booth: Recollections by His Daughter Edwina Booth Grossman and Letters to Her and to His Friends, a published edition of a selection of edited letters to his family and friends. The writings include Edwina Booth Grossman's reminiscences of her father, the clippings document Booth's theatrical career, the printed material is mainly about Booth and the photographs are of Booth as well as of his immediate family members and descendents.

The Booth-Grossman family papers are arranged in six series:

  • Series I: Edwin Booth
    ca. 1859-1926
    1 box

    Primarily incoming letters, both personal and professional, to the actor Edwin Booth, and printed material and miscellaneous ephemera pertaining to his career.

  • Series II: Mary Devlin Booth
    1859-1863
    7 folders

    This small series contains personal correspondence of Edwin Booth's first wife and one folder of her writings.

  • Series III: Edwina Booth Grossman
    1867-1941
    4 boxes

    The largest series in the collection is this series of the papers of Edwina Booth Grossman. It has a wealth of information on her father, Edwin Booth, containing his letters to her, her transcriptions of many letters that he wrote to friends and manuscript drafts of her recollections of him. It also contains some material pertaining to her marriage and personal life.

  • Series IV: Other Family Members
    1840-1953
    15 folders

    Family members represented here are primarily Ignatius R. Grossman, the husband of Edwina Booth Grossman, and their son, Edwin Booth Grossman. There is also a small amount of Booth family material.

  • Series V: Clippings
    ca. 1855-1918
    34 folders

    Clippings, all photocopied, document the career of Edwin Booth. They are arranged chronologically (1870-1879, 1875: carriage accident, 1879: assassination attempt, 1880-1889, etc.) and then alphabetically by author/title for reviews of specific plays. This is followed by undated theater reviews, then undated general reviews on Booth's career and travels, then final illness, death and funeral, posthumous (reminiscences of, estate, memorial, etc.). Finally Booth family, miscellaneous and clippings on the actor Edwin Forrest found with the rest of the clippings. Other clippings on a very wide range of topics from humor to taxes but with no mention of any Booths or Grossmans or the theater or any annotations or explanations of why they were kept or by whom were removed from the collection.

  • Series VI: Photographs
    ca. 1867-1926
    1 box

    The bulk of the photographs are of Edwin Booth including portraits from his young manhood to old age, photographs of him in costume and photographs of him with others including his friend, the actor Lawrence Barrett, his daughter, Edwina as a little girl, and his grandchildren. There is one portrait each of his two parents, one of his brother, Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., two of his brother, John Wilkes Booth, and two of his first wife, Mary Devlin Booth so obviously some of the photographs predate 1867. There are also photographs of other members of the Booth and Grossman families, some unidentified; photographs of the unveiling ceremony in 1918 of the statue of Edwin Booth as Hamlet in Gramercy Square Park; a photograph of an interior of the Players Club; and a few miscellaneous photographs sent to Edwin Booth or his daughter.

Administrative information

Custodial history

It is difficult at this point to reconstruct the exact provenance of this collection. Originally in the possession of Edwina Booth Grossman, she left it to her son, Edwin Booth Grossman, who left it to his daughter Mrs. Henry White (Dorothea?). The material was moved from a house in East Fishkill, NY to one in Millbrook, NY though two trunks may have been left behind in the attic and ended up in the hands of Richard Winslow through the auspices of the Peekskill Historical Society. Winslow sold some of the material to the Players Club and some to the Library in about 1969. Prior to this though, ca. 1967, at the time the Millbrook house was slated for demolition and the Whites moved to Florida, they donated portions of the collection to the Billy Rose Theatre Division. Due to various delays, by the time the Theatre Collection Curator, Paul Myers, arrived to retrieve the collection, it had been placed in the trash and rained upon. It was salvaged nonetheless.

Source of acquisition

Papers: gift, Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. White, 1967

Processing information

Processed by Elisabeth Elkind.

The collection was re-processed and cataloged in 2000.

Separated material

Scripts used or owned by Edwin Booth that were received in the gift of Mrs. Henry C. White were cataloged individually in the Library's Scripts Collection. They include:

  • Don Caesar de Bazan by Beckett & Lemon
  • Richelieu by Bulwer-Lytton
  • The Court Fool, or A King's Amusement by W.E. Burton
  • Manfred by Byron
  • Hamletby William Shakespeare
  • Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

An oversized photograph of the grave of Edwin Booth at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts has been placed in the Library's "C" Photo Files.

Three-dimensional items such as stage jewelry and accessories were separated from the collection and placed in the Library's T-cabinet many years ago.

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.