Happy Summer! Campus may be quieter, but your SCRC processing team continues to keep busy (and cool) working on another group of new and updated finding aids. As usual, all of the following collections are available for use in the Special Collections Research Center and the finding aids are available on our website (or use the links included below).
Staff of the Research Center for the Federal Theatre Project, Fenwick Library, 1976, R0021.
George Mason University Institute on the Federal Theatre Project and New Deal Culture records, R0021
Collection processed by Maegan Jankowsi and Robert Vay
This collection contains records pertaining to the operation of the the Institute on the Federal Theatre Project (IFTP) and its prior iteration, the Research Center for the Federal Theatre Project (RCFTP). These records include operational, research and correspondence files, materials related to the Institute’s outreach, programming, audiovisual and photographic materials, and publications.
The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) began in 1935 as part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), employing several thousand actors, directors, playwrights, producers, and others in the performing arts industry during the Great Depression. During its four-year run the FTP produced plays, musicals, dance and radio programs, circuses, and marionette shows. It featured the early works of actors and producers such as Orson Welles, Arthur Miller, and Elia Kazan. The federal government discontinued the program in 1939, and thousands of scripts, photographs, posters, and other FTP records were dispersed between the National Archives, the Library of Congress, public libraries, and educational institutions. For over twenty-five years the main body of these records sat forgotten in a government-owned storage facility in Middle River, Maryland until they were located by George Mason University English professors Lorraine Brown and John O’Connor.
A full history of the IFTP can be found in the collection’s finding aid linked above.
“Bull Run. Tune – ‘Wait for the Wagon’” Confederate broadside, C0434
Collection processed by Meghan Glasbrenner
Broadside ballad titled “Bull Run. Tune – ‘Wait for the Wagon'” containing the lyrics to a Confederate song laughing at the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861 in Virginia. The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas, was the first major battle of the American Civil War. Fought on July 21, 1861 in Virginia, the battle was ultimately won by the Confederates, led by General Pierre G.T. Beauregard. Union forces, led by Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, attempted numerous tactics to overtake the Confederates, but to no avail. Defeated, the Union army left Manassas for Washington, D.C., which led many to conclude that the war they were fighting was far from over, and provided the Confederate army with what historians view as an ultimately misguided confidence in their ease of victory over Union forces.
An inexpensive format of mass publication, broadsides were particularly popular in the United States during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War, many containing lyrics that documented events with humor, often satirically. Broadside ballads contained no musical notation and were intended to be sung to existing melodies, such as the 1850s folk song “Wait for the Wagon” which was popular with both Union and Confederate broadside ballads.
Cover and detail from John Patrick Hawker’s Bletchley Park diary, March 6-June 19, 1944 , C0275
John Patrick Hawker papers, C0275
Collection processed by Meghan Glasbrenner
John Patrick Hawker MBE (1922-2013), British SOE (Special Operations Executive), popularly known as Pat Hawker, was a professional and amateur radio engineer, who during WWII was actively engaged in British Intelligence services, and is associated with the Bletchley Park code-breaking centre, working with clandestine radio to support resistance units. Hawker was involved in many aspects of radio, beginning in WWII as a member of the Radio Security Service (RSS) and its connections to British Security Service Military Intelligence Ml5 and the Secret Intelligence Service Ml6. In 1941, at the young age of 19, he started at Bletchley Park as an intercept operator and was eventually sent into war zones where covert communications were required. After the war, Hawker was regarded as an authority on clandestine radio. He became a key figure in British radio and television, and was Vice President of the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB).
The collection contains personal and professional writings, research materials, and correspondence pertaining to British intelligence, cryptography, and clandestine radio during WWII created and compiled by Hawker and is arranged in three series. Series 1: Writings by Pat Hawker (1944-1990s) includes personal and professional writings, most attributed to Pat Hawker by name accompanied by his code name G3VA. Series 2: Research notes and materials (circa 1942-2002) includes personal notes and research materials created and compiled by Hawker pertaining to WWII intelligence, cryptography, and clandestine radio. Much of this series consists of photocopies of articles, handwritten notes, and transcripts of BBC television or radio documentaries. Series 3: Correspondence (1960-2010) includes personal correspondence, mostly consisting of letters sent to Hawker with inquiries related to clandestine radio history or technology. This series also includes correspondence sent by author Geoffrey Pigeon regarding Hawker’s contributions to Pigeon’s book The Secret Wireless War, as well as editions of his SCU Newsletter.
George Mason University publications, R0153
Collection processed by Maegan Jankowski and Robert Vay
The George Mason University publications consist of serial publications, both short and long-running conceived and published under the authority of George Mason University or its previous iteration, George Mason College of the University of Virginia. The types of publications include schedules, catalogs, statistical reports, directories, handbooks, brochures, journals, and magazines created and disseminated from 1959 to present. Several recurring publications designed to announce class offerings, codify university regulations and policies, report statistical data and university news, and other reference sources are no longer printed (beginning around 2009) and are now published and accessed on-line via the university website (www.gmu.edu).
Nearly all early official George Mason publications (from the late 1950s until 1972) were designed and printed by the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. They prominently displayed the University of Virginia seal (often on the front cover and title page). These publications included the George Mason College catalog (known as the “Virginia Record”) and Schedule of Classes publications. Other publications that were more “local” in nature, such as telephone directories, George Mason College newsletters, reports, and publications produced for Mason students, staff, faculty, and the public displayed the University of Virginia logos and language much less. After April 1972 the University of Virginia seal and references disappeared, altogether, as George Mason University became an independent entity with its own identity.
“Right Side Elevation, 4 of 13” Old Fairfax Courthouse restoration drawing, December 8, 1965, C0522
Walter M. Macomber Old Fairfax Courthouse restoration drawings, C0522
Collection processed by Meghan Glasbrenner
A total of 52 architectural drawings and plans for the renovation of the Old Fairfax Courthouse by Walter M. Macomber. Most drawings focus on individual details of the courthouse interior and exterior. Attribution to “Walter M. Macomber, Architect for Restoration” is written or stamped on all formal architectural drawings. The collection also includes two smaller sketches with notes that are not signed. Walter Mayo Macomber (1894-1987) is best known for his specialization in restoration of Colonial-period architecture. From 1928-1934 he supervised the reconstruction and restoration of most major public buildings in the area known today as Colonial Williamsburg, including reconstruction of the Governor’s Palace and the Capitol.
After moving to Burke in 1946, Macomber worked on numerous historic properties in both Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., including the Fairfax County Historic Courthouse in Fairfax, which he was commissioned to restore the historic look and feel of the interior in 1967, as well as Gadsby’s Tavern, the Ramsay House, and the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, and Ford’s Theater and the City Tavern in Washington, D.C.. Beginning in 1950, he began what would become 30 years of service as a consultant for George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Macomber completed his last major project at the age of 90, restoring the diplomatic reception rooms at the U.S. Department of State, and passed away two years later on January 2, 1987 at the age of 92.
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