Title: M. Eleanor Fitzgerald Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1915-1974

Creator:

• Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor (Mary Eleanor), 1877-1955

Call Number: UWM Manuscript Collection 13

Quantity: 3.8 cubic ft. (7 boxes)
Repository:

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives Department

Archival Location:

UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

The collection mainly consists of the papers of M. Eleanor Fitzgerald, a Wisconsin born Seventh Day Adventist sanatorium worker, literary agent, theatrical manager, and associate editor of the anarchist magazines, The Blast and Mother Earth Bulletin.

Also included in the collection are correspondence, passports, diaries, play programs, memorabilia, and photographs documenting Fitzgerald's life and activity in the anarchist/labor movement, and in the Provincetown Playhouse. Correspondence included associates and friends such as; the anarchists Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, writers or theatrical administrators, E.E. Cummings, Susan Glaspell, Paul Green, James Lights and Eugene O'Neill, long-time friend Pauline Turkel, and Danish tenor Mischa Lèon.

Photographs in this collection span the period of 1890 to the 1950s and include images of, Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, Ben Reitman, Eugene O'Neill, and Paul Robeson, also included are Fitzgerald and her family members, colleagues at the Seventh Day Adventist sanatoria in Battle Creek and Chicago. The particular strengths of the Fitzgerald collection are the Alexander Berkman material, and the materials on the Provincetown Playhouse.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-mil-uwmmss0013

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Mary Eleanor Fitzgerald was born in Deerfield, Wisconsin in 1877, the daughter of James and Ada Fitzgerald. She lived with her family, siblings Arthur and Cora, in Hancock, Wisconsin, teaching grade school there from 1893 to 1898 when she moved to Battle Creek, Michigan to work in the Sanitorium to prepare for missionary work for the Seventh Day Adventists.

Between 1901 and 1902, Fitzgerald became interested in the anarchist and labor movement. She joined a lecture circuit in about 1902, travelling around the country, speaking in behalf of imprisoned labor leaders. She formed friendships with two fellow speakers, Benjamin Reitman and Pauline Turkel. Pauline Turkel became her life-long friend. Through her involvement with the anarchist movement, she met Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, joining them in the publication of the Mother Earth Bulletin around 1906. During World War I (1914-1918) she turned her attention to the "political prisoners"-the conscientious objectors. She raised money for their bail and defense and spoke in their behalf. She also co-edited The Blast: Revolutionary Labor Weekly at this time. She left the movement in 1918 when Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were deported. It is often claimed that Fitzgerald gave up on political work after Berkman and Goldman were deported from the United States.

In 1918 George Cram Cook, founder of the Provincetown Players, an experimental theater group, asked Fitzgerald to join his theater company. She joined the Provincetown Players as a part-time secretary in October 1918, and consequently served as executive manager for the Players until it disbanded in 1929. Keeping the group together through financial difficulties and morale problems, she became acquainted with such playwrights as Eugene O'Neil, Paul Green, and E.E. Cummings, with whom she corresponded.

From 1929 to 1940 Fitzgerald managed various theatrical enterprises. In 1940 she joined the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research. During these years she corresponded with Erwin Piscator, Helen Deutsch, Susan Jenkins, Peggy Guggenheim and Stella Hanau.

In 1953 she retired to Hancock, Wisconsin where she remained until her death two years later from cancer. The bulk of the correspondence she produced in these last years are addressed to her friend Pauline Turkel.

The collection contains correspondence, contracts, financial records, play scripts, play bills, political printed materials, and photographs related to the life and varied work of M. Eleanor Fitzgerald.

Scope and content notes of each series are included in the contents list.

The records are arranged into the following series:

1. Political Files, 1892-1955
2. Provincetown Playhouse Files, 1919-1955
3. Family and Personal Files, 1916-1955
4. Pauline Turkel Files, 1918-1976
5. Mischa Lèon Files, 1917-1927

The files are organized alphabetically by personal name or subject within each series.

Citation Guide for Primary Sources

• Little Review Records. UWM Manuscript Collection 1.

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law.

Use Restrictions

The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).

Acquisition Information

The collection was acquired as a gift from Pauline Turkel in 1979.

Processing Information

Processed by Nancy Sandleback in 1984. Reprocessed by Gareth Evans in 2002. Finding aid completed by Karen Bjork in 2003.

	Series: 1. Political Files, 1892-1955 Scope and Content Note: The bulk of the Political Files contains material about the period from 1917 to 1929. The focus of these files include a number of signed, typed and carbon copied drafts of work by Alexander Berkman, as well as a series of letters and postcards Berkman sent to M. Eleanor Fitzgerald and Pauline Turkel. Photographs of Fitzgerald's political colleagues and acquaintances are included in the Political Files. They include pictures of Alexander Berkman, Ben Capes, Emma Goldman, Frank Harris, Hippolyte Havel, Robert Minor, Harry Kelly, Carl Nylander, Ben Reitman, Bob and Lucy Robins, and Harry Weinberger. There are eleven photographs of Berkman, a number of them affectionately inscribed to Fitzgerald. The collection also includes a photograph of Emma Goldman inscribed to Fitzgerald. Transcriptions of letters between Goldman and Rietman from May 31-June 1 1909, September 14, 1913, and September 20, 1913 can be found in the Fitzgerald, Eleanor case file.
Box   1 Folder   1	Alsberg, Henry G., "Unearthed Roman Parchment," undated
Box   1 Folder   3	Anonymous, Quotes, undated
Box   1 Folder   4	Anonymous, "What's the Use of Poetry?" undated
Box   1 Folder   5	Avrich, Paul, "Introduction To The Dover Edition," 1971
Box   1 Folder   6	Berkman, Alexander, undated
Box   1 Folder   9	Berkman, Alexander, Correspondence, 1922-1925
Box   1 Folder   8	Berkman, Alexander, Correspondence, Contract Agreements, 1926-1927, 1929, undated
Box   1 Folder   7	Berkman, Alexander, Correspondence, M. Eleanor Fitzgerald, undated
Box   1 Folder   10-11	Berkman, Alexander, Correspondence, M. Eleanor Fitzgerald, and Pauline Turkel, 1919-1923, undated
Box   1 Folder   12	Berkman, Alexander, Deed, 1919
Box   1 Folder   13	Berkman, Alexander, "Introduction," The Bolshevik Myth, 1925
Box   1 Folder   14	Berkman, Alexander, "Kronstadt" 1922
Box   1 Folder   15	Berkman, Alexander, "My Odyssey," 1922
Box   6 Folder   2	Berkman, Alexander, Photographs, 1892, 1919, 1927, undated
Box   1 Folder   16	Berkman, Alexander, Release from the United States Penitentiary, 1919
Box   1 Folder   22	Berkman, Alexander, "Russian Lessons," undated
Box   1 Folder   17	Berkman, Alexander, "The Surgeon's Duty," 1918
Box   1 Folder   28	Deportation Fund, 1919
Box   1 Folder   20	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Correspondence, Kropotkin, Peter, 1921
Box   1 Folder   19	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Correspondence, Morton, E. B., 1925-1926
Box   1 Folder   21	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Correspondence, Political Prisoners and Deportees, 1918, 1924, 1926,1955, undated
Box   1 Folder   18	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Correspondence, Union Memberships, 1925, 1927, 1940
Box   6 Folder   7	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Photographs, Berkman, Alexander, 1916, undated
Box   6 Folder   8	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Photographs, Reitman, Ben, 1906, undated
Box   1 Folder   25	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Press Release, 1918-1919
Box   1 Folder   23	Goldman, Emma, Correspondence, Ballantine, Stella, and M. Eleanor Fitzgerald, 1920, 1923-1924, 1927, 1929, undated
Box   1 Folder   26	Goldman, Emma, Mother Earth Bulletin, 1918
Box   6 Folder   9	Goldman, Emma, Photographs, 1928, undated
Box   1 Folder   24	Kropotkin, Peter, "Ethics," undated
Box   1 Folder   30	Miscellaneous Printed Material, Announcements, undated
Box   1 Folder   27	O'Carroll, Joseph, "The City of Our Dream," undated
Box   6 Folder   12	Photographs, 1916, undated
Box   6 Folder   1	Photographs and Postcards, 1915, undated
Box   6 Folder   14	Reitman, Ben, Photographs, 1905-1906
Box   1 Folder   29	Tolstoy, Leo, "Count Leo Tolstoy's War Prophecy," undated
	Series: 2. Provincetown Playhouse Files, 1919-1955 Scope and Content Note: The bulk of the Provincetown Playhouse Files contains material about the period from 1910 to 1947. The focus of this file includes contract agreements, correspondence, financial reports, newspaper clippings, playbills, photographs of Provincetown Playhouse colleagues, press list, and proposed budgets. Included are correspondence material covering the period 1921 to 1929. Correspondence include Susan Glaspell, Paul Green, Edmond Robert Jones, Edna Kenton, James Light, Kenneth Macgowan, Macklin Marrow, and Agnes O'Neill.	⇧
Box   2 Folder   32	Address Book, 1925, 1928
Box   2 Folder   31	Address Book, undated
Box   2 Folder   33	Address Book, undated
Box   2 Folder   39	Anonymous, "Milestones in American Drama," undated
Box   2 Folder   14	Blair, Mary, Correspondence, 1938, 1947
Box   2 Folder   34	Brookfield Players, Correspondence, 1932
Box   2 Folder   8	Contracts and Agreements, 1924
Box   2 Folder   9-11	Contracts and Agreements, 1926-1929
Box   2 Folder   5	Contracts and Correspondence, Dream Play, 1924-1926
Box   2 Folder   6	Contracts and Correspondence, Fashion, 1924-1939
Box   2 Folder   1	Contracts, Correspondence, Receipts, 1926
Box   6 Folder   3	Cook, George Cram, Photographs, undated
Box   2 Folder   12	Cook, Nilla Cram, Correspondence, 1927, 1931-1932
Box   6 Folder   4	Cook, Nilla Cram, Photographs, undated
Box   2 Folder   25	Correspondence, 1931
Box   2 Folder   13	Correspondence, 1936
Box   7 Folder   2	Cummings, E. E., Playbills, undated
Box   2 Folder   27	Cummings, E. E., Prompt Scripts, undated
Box   7 Folder   1	Cummings, E. E., Summary Listing of Scenes, undated
Box   2 Folder   29-30	Financial Reports, 1924-1926
Box   2 Folder   35	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Diary, 1926
Box   6 Folder   13	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Photographs, Colleagues, undated
Box   2 Folder   2	Garrick Building Company, Contracts, 1929
Box   2 Folder   28	Garrick Theatre, Estimated Budget, 1929-1930
Box   2 Folder   53	Garrick Theatre, Playbills, 1929-1930
Box   2 Folder   15	Glaspell, Susan, Correspondence, 1924-1925
Box   2 Folder   3	Green, Paul, Contracts, 1927
Box   2 Folder   16	Green, Paul, Correspondence, 1932
Box   2 Folder   36	Green, Paul, Diary, Playbill, Photographs, 1932
Box   2 Folder   37	Investments, Preferred Stockholders, 1924-1926, undated
Box   2 Folder   38	Johnson, Hall, Run Little Children, 1933
Box   2 Folder   17	Jones, Edmund Robert, Correspondence, 1926, 1937, undated
Box   2 Folder   18	Kenton, Edna, Correspondence, 1924
Box   2 Folder   19	Light, James, Correspondence, 1930, undated
Box   2 Folder   55	Lists of Productions and Subscription Forms, 1922, 1924, 1927-1929
Box   2 Folder   4	Liveright, Horace B., Contracts, 1927
Box   2 Folder   45	Madden, Richard, Agreement, 1928
Box   2 Folder   20	Macgowan, Kenneth, Correspondence, undated
Box   2 Folder   21	Marrow, Macklin, Correspondence, 1927
Box   2 Folder   7	Matthias, Rita, Contracts and Correspondence, 1923-1925
Box   2 Folder   40	Miscellaneous, Correspondence, 1925-1927, 1929
Box   2 Folder   22	Miscellaneous, Correspondence, 1940, 1954-1955, undated
Box   7 Folder   3	Music and Song Sheets, undated
Box   2 Folder   41	Newell, Willard, "History of the Drama," undated
Box   2 Folder   42	Newspaper Clippings, 1926, 1929
Box   2 Folder   23	O'Neill, Agnes, Correspondence, undated
Box   2 Folder   24	O'Neill, Eugene, Correspondence, To M. Eleanor Fitzgerald and Pauline Turkel, 1924-1925, 1929, undated
Box   2 Folder   43-44	O'Neill, Eugene, Play Script, undated
Box   2 Folder   46	Playbill, 1919
Box   2 Folder   47-51	Playbills, 1923-1929
Box   2 Folder   52	Playbills, Listing, 1923-1924, 1924-1925, undated
Box   2 Folder   54	Press List and Theatre Statement, 1939, undated
Box   7 Folder   4	Proposed Budget, 1925-1926
Box   2 Folder   56	Seating Diagrams, undated
Box   2 Folder   26	Young, Stark, Correspondence, 1933, 1936, undated
	Series: 3. Family and Personal Files, 1916-1955 Scope and Content Note: The bulk of the Family and Personal Files contains material about the period 1890 to 1950. The focus of this file includes an account and date book, correspondence with her brothers Arthur and Judson, her sister, Cora, and the last letter sent to Fitzgerald by her mother, Ada. The series also includes a penciled hand-written four page biography on Fitzgerald, a 1906 farewell book with messages from her colleagues at Seventh Day Adventist sanatoria, Fitzgerald's passports from the 1920s, and photographs of her family. Miscellaneous material in this series includes cancelled mortgage deeds and maps of the property Fitzgerald owned in Sherman, Connecticut, and photographs of Fitzgerald and her colleagues at the Seventh Day Adventist sanatoria where she worked in the late 1890s and early 1900s.	⇧
Box   3 Folder   1	Account Book, 1948-1949, 1951
Box   3 Folder   2	Bills and Expenditures, 1947-1952
Box   3 Folder   7	Fitzgerald, Ada, Correspondence, 1916
Box   3 Folder   8	Fitzgerald, Arthur, Correspondence, 1930, 1932-1933, 1935
Box   3 Folder   9	Fitzgerald, Cora, Correspondence, 1930, 1938-1941, 1944-1948, undated
Box   3 Folder   19	Fitzgerald, Cora, Certificate of Death, 1948
Box   3 Folder   10	Fitzgerald Family, Correspondence, 1938-1939, 1949, undated
Box   3 Folder   26	Fitzgerald Family, Genealogy, undated
Box   6 Folder   5	Fitzgerald Family, Photographs, 1958, undated
Box   3 Folder   11	Fitzgerald, Judson, Correspondence, 1948-1951
Box   3 Folder   3	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Biography, [1910]
Box   3 Folder   6	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Correspondence, 1940
Box   3 Folder   18	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Farewell Book, undated
Box   3 Folder   20	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Property, Sherman, Connecticut, 1943
Box   3 Folder   23	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Obituaries, 1955
Box   3 Folder   24	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Outpatient Card, 1955
Box   3 Folder   25	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Passports and Boarding Ticket, 1923, 1927-1928
Box   6 Folder   6	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Photographs, 1923-1924, undated
Box   3 Folder   17	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Property Detail, Sherman, Connecticut, Season Ticket Order, undated
Box   3 Folder   22	Guggenheim, Peggy and Vail, Laurence, Remittances, 1951-1952
Box   3 Folder   12	Job Applications, Correspondence, 1931
Box   3 Folder   5	Mattekeunk Cabin Colony, Inc., Capital Stock, 1922
Box   3 Folder   13	Miscellaneous, Correspondence, 1923-1928, undated
Box   3 Folder   14	Miscellaneous, Correspondence, 1941-1942, 1947, 1949, 1952
Box   3 Folder   15	Miscellaneous, Correspondence, 1954-1955
Box   3 Folder   16	Miscellaneous, Correspondence, undated
Box   3 Folder   21	Miscellaneous, Images and Printed Materials, 1917, 1920, undated
Box   6 Folder   11	Miscellaneous, Photographs, 1930, undated
Box   3 Folder   4	Mortgage Deeds, 1936, 1948, 1951
Box   6 Folder   15	Seventh-Day Adventist and Chautauqua, Photographs, undated
	Series: 4. Pauline Turkel Files, 1918-1976 Scope and Content Note: The bulk of the Pauline Turkel Files contains material about the period 1899 to 1987. This file focuses on correspondence between Turkel and Fitzgerald, as well as correspondence to and from the Fitzgerald family. Also included are correspondences about Fitzgerald's death and contributions to the manuscript In Memory of Fitzi. Included are signed original letters of the contributions made by Djuna Barnes, Malcolm Cowley, E. E. Cummings, Trixie Martin, Erwin Piscator, and Edmund Wilson. The series also includes information about the political activities of Turkel in the period 1910s and early 1920s and her involvement in the International Workers' Defense League, and the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations with Russia.	⇧
Box   4 Folder   1	American Labor Alliance, Correspondence, 1921
Box   4 Folder   2-4	Fitzgerald Family, Correspondence, 1954-1961
Box   4 Folder   5	Fitzgerald Family, Correspondence, Will and Testament, 1963, 1964
Box   4 Folder   13	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Correspondence, 1944, 1954
Box   4 Folder   6	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Correspondence, Turkel, Pauline, 1954
Box   4 Folder   7	Fitzgerald, M. Eleanor, Correspondence, Turkel, Pauline, 1955
Box   4 Folder   8	International Workers' Defense League, Correspondence, 1918
Box   4 Folder   9-10	Miscellaneous, Correspondence, 1954-1956
Box   4 Folder   11	Miscellaneous, Correspondence, 1957, 1962-1964, 1974, 1976
Box   4 Folder   12	Turkel, Pauline, Correspondence, Jenkins, Susan, 1955
Box   4 Folder   14	Turkel, Pauline, In Memory of Fitzi, Booklet, 1956
Box   4 Folder   15	Turkel, Pauline, In Memory to Fitzi, Manuscript 1955-1956
	Series: 5. Mischa Lèon Files, 1917-1927 Scope and Content Note: The bulk of the Mischa Lèon Files contains material about the period 1918 to 1927. Lèon, a tenor trained in Cophenhagen, toured Europe, worked in Paris and came to the United States in 1924. The file focuses on contracts, concert programs, correspondences to Fitzgerald, notebook containing lyrics from songs, press clippings, and photographs of Lèon and one of his sons.	⇧
Box   5 Folder   1	Announcements and Concert Programs, 1918, 1925-1926, undated
Box   5 Folder   4	Correspondence, 1924
Box   5 Folder   3	Correspondence, Contracts, 1921-1926, undated
Box   5 Folder   2	Lèon, Mischa, Application to Reenter the United States, 1924
Box   5 Folder   6	Lèon, Mischa, Diary, 1926
Box   5 Folder   8	Lèon, Mischa, Newspaper Clippings, undated
Box   5 Folder   10	Lèon, Mischa, Pen Drawing, undated
Box   6 Folder   10	Lèon, Mischa, Photographs, 1917, undated
Box   5 Folder   5	Lèon, Mischa, Postcard, 1926
Box   5 Folder   7	Miscellaneous, Correspondence, 1926-1927
Box   5 Folder   11-13	Newspaper Clippings, 1921-1926
Box   5 Folder   14	Newspaper Clippings, undated
Box   5 Folder   15	Proposal, Establish Art Theatre, undated
Box   5 Folder   9	Song Lyrics, undated