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Performing Arts

New Deal Performing Arts

Federal Theatre Project Collection
The Federal Theatre Project Collection contains administrative records, play service and research records, library records, and production records created or collected by the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) from 1935 to 1939. A few items in the collection were created before or after this time period but directly relate to the 1930s material. This collection consists of original materials with some duplicates and photocopies.
Federal Theatre Project personal papers
This collection brings together over 90 individual donations of Federal Theatre Project material. The material in this collection consists of employment papers, correspondence, scrapbooks, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, playscripts, programs, fliers, and production notebooks.
Federal Theatre Project Photograph Collection
Throughout the existence of the FTP, they formed a photographic unit to document their productions and create a visual record of their work. The photographers in this unit worked in all major cities and on every major production. They captured not only the live theater performances, but also rehearsals, audience reactions, backstage activities, and the tools used to put on FTP plays.
Works Progress Administration Oral HIstories
The interviews in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Oral Histories Collection were conducted between 1961 and 1984. A majority of the interviews were done in the 1970s and 1980s by Lorraine Brown and John O'Connor as part of the Institute on the Federal Theatre Project and New Deal Culture, with people who were associated with various WPA projects in the 1930s. The interviews were conducted by members of the Federal Art Project, Federal Music Project, and Federal Writers Project.
The Arnold Goldman Living Newspaper Collection
This collection consists of research materials, on the living newspaper "Injunction Granted". Introduced in the time of the Federal Theatre Project, FTP members wrote and presented a number of Living Newspapers on social issues of the day, including Triple-A Plowed Under, Injunction Granted, One-Third of a Nation, Power, and Spirochete.
Arnold Sundgaard papers
The Arnold Sundgaard papers include materials created and collected by Arnold Sundgaard. The collection is divided into eight series: Correspondence; Musical Scores; Newspaper Clippings; Photographs; Playscripts; Programs and Posters; Writings, Reviews, Publications; and Audio Recordings.

Local Theatre

Arena Stage Records
The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.
Zelda Fichandler Papers
This collection contains the working and personal papers of Zelda Fichandler, the founding director of Arena Stage. This collection is currently being processed, and is unavailable for access.
Living Stage records
The Living Stage records include pieces related to the traveling theater company, which was founded by Robert Alexander, between 1965 and 2001.
Robert and Wilva Breen papers
The Robert and Wilva Breen papers consists of correspondence, memoranda, newsclippings, photographs, notebooks, and audiovisual materials largely related to the creation and running of the American National Theater and Academy (ANTA), as well as Robert and Wilva Breen's long-term involvement with the organization. The bulk of the collection originates from 1933 - 2000s, with an outlier date of 1834 from an antique newspaper.
Porgy and Bess poster collection
This collection contains posters promoting the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA)- sponsored production of the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess, which toured various countries—mostly European—during the mid-1950s. It also contains poster mock-ups and artwork related to the production. Content warning: Racist imagery.
L. Claire Kincannon theatre collection
The L. Claire Kincannon theatre collection contains promotional materials for theatre productions attended by theatre critic and radio journalist Lois Claire Kincannon in Washington D.C., Dayton, Ohio, New York City, London, Paris, and other areas across the United States and Europe, dating from 1941-2015. Materials include programs, playbills, photographs, press kits, newspaper articles, drafted and published reviews, and articles, as well as visual and audio materials from a project in Hungary and Kincannon's radio show Behind the Scenes.
Robert Prosky papers
The Prosky papers contain documents spanning Prosky's career in theatre, film, and television. Materials include playbills, photographs, scripts, reviews, fan letters, scrapbooks, and audiovisuals.
Henry O. Lampe papers
This collection contains materials pertaining to Henry O. Lampe's diverse career as a government employee, transportation planner, and civic activist, as well as his personal interests and lifelong love of theatre.
Alan Bowne papers
This collection consists of five boxes of materials created throughout Bowne's career as a playwright and author. These include play scripts and drafts, short story and novel drafts, screenplays, technical writings, correspondence, notebooks, photographs, audio cassettes, and one reel-to-reel tape. These materials originate from circa 1964 - 1991, with the bulk of the collection originating from the 1980s. Content Warning: Many of the notebooks in this collection contain graphic sexual content.

STEM Highlights

STEM Collections

Abraham Anson Papers
The collection includes aerial photographs, publications, newspapers, magazines, correspondence, notebooks, color slides, glass slides, and maps.
David Bauer Papers
This collection contains original notes and a typed autobiography of Bauer's career at International Business Machines from 1974 - 1995.
John Patrick Hawker Collection
Personal and professional writings, research materials, and correspondence pertaining to British intelligence, cryptography, and clandestine radio during World War II created and compiled by John Patrick Hawker, British SOE (Special Operations Executive).
Leonid M. Ozernoy Papers
Collection contains original research materials and published papers of Leonid M. Ozernoy.
Martin Sedlazek NASA Collection
The Martin Sedlazek NASA Collection includes educational and informational reports, white papers, memos, and press information from Martin Sedlazek's career in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), including information on Saturn V, Apollo missions, and the Space Station.
Medical Slides Collection
35mm color slides with magnified images of human and animal respiratory systems, digestive systems, nervous systems, blood systems and other bodily systems. Digitized versions can be found on LUNA.
Clarence E. Larson Science and Technology Oral History collection
This collection contains 49 VHS videotape cassettes, some of which have been copied to DVD, featuring interviews with famous scientists and historians of twentieth-century technology conducted by Clarence E. Larson.

Peace and Conflict Resolution

Harold Saunders papers
- The collection consists largely of speeches, meeting transcripts, peace conference documents, news clippings about Saunders, photographs, and approximately 150 pocket notebooks that he carried with him that include insights from conversations and other experiences that were important to him.

John W. Burton papers
- The John W. Burton papers contain materials from Burton's work in international relations and conflict resolution from the 1940s through the 1990s. It includes correspondence, working papers, notes, news clippings, scholarly publications, workshop and conference material, images, and memorabilia. It also contains materials pertaining to the creation of the George Mason University School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR).

John N. Paden papers
- The collection includes periodicals, pamphlets, reports, conference proceedings, photographs, maps, printed ephemera, and manuscripts related to Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on Nigeria, but embracing political and social history, biography, economics, sociology, languages, culture, and religions of the entire region. The role of Islam in the region is an important component. Documents are primarily in English but occasionally in German, French, Arabic, or Hausa.

Ronald J. Fisher papers
- Materials from the professional life of Dr. Ronald J. Fisher, a distinguished visiting professor at the George Mason School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.