Scope and arrangement
The collection, dated 1915-1969 (bulk dates 1940s-1950s), documents the performing career of American actress Mary Morris as well as her work as an educator at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. The collection contains clippings, letters, notebooks, notes, playbills, posters, and writings.
The collection consists mostly of correspondence from friends, acquaintances, educators or other individuals in the performing arts. She received congratulatory telegrams for her acting and later her directing skills with regional theatres. Other correspondents wrote about current events on timely topics or events in their lives. The correspondence is alphabetically arranged.
Several incoming letters offer information about her personal life and include letters from her son Richard as a young child. These letters were inter-filed with several letters from caretakers. An income tax statement indicates that she had been divorced. Morris also received letters from a friend in 1919 that addressed the envelope as Mrs. R.V. Richard (sic). The correspondence indicates that she wrote frequently to her friends but did not retain copies of personal letters.
One issue that occasionally arose was the British actress Mary Morris having the exact same name. Actors Equity indicated in their correspondence that the other actor be known as Mary Morris of Great Britain.
The files also document how Morris transitioned from an actor to an educator during the late 1940s through teaching acting to drama students and assuming the responsibility to develop theatrical programs to showcase aspiring actors under the auspices of the National Theatre Conference.
These files document that she worked in consultation with George Freedley of the New York Public Library, the leading educator Sawyer Falk, and other educators.
Morris retained typed copies of her work for the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, the National Theatre Conference and other related organizations. Documentation about these institutions is located throughout the collection.
The writings of notes and notebooks created by Morris reflect her work as an educator. Morris's cursive style of handwriting renders her notes nearly illegible. The writings include notes that indicate one or several meetings were held by a committee on efficiency and economy during the late 1930s; notebooks and notes that focused on classroom exercises for students on acting; her thoughts on the portrait of an actress; a notebook on the play Richard the III; a notebook on an unidentified play during the year 1961; and some additional notes on Shakespeare and acting. Her notes and notebooks remain in their original location in the collection and do not necessarily reflect the other files in that particular box.
The scripts document theatrical productions that reflect Morris's work as an actor and an educator. Most of the scripts were written by other playwrights. Morris's scripts are An Evening of Poetry and writing; Iasta's production of Electra by Sophocles, and Rodina Rehearsing Electra (single chapter).
The Printed Matter consists of clippings documenting her performances in theatres in the United States and abroad in Great Britain; posters from the First Unitarian Church where she directed plays; playbills from the Carnegie Institute; playbills and from her performances.
The MWEZ numbers represent the Library's former classification system. When requesting materials, please refer to the finding aid's box list.