https://masonhistory.gmu.edu/files/original/44f927394d342da36c56ecd8c0e63652.png 6810ba68cf360e873cf3e575c0dcffe9 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Washington Post Article About the Finding of the Federal Theatre Program Collection Subject The topic of the resource Lorraine Brown John O'Conner Federal Theatre Program Description An account of the resource An article in the Washington Post by Doree Lovell was written about Lorraine Brown and her colleague John O’Conner, both English professors at George Mason University. The article starts out by mentioning how the documents from the Federal Theatre Program have been “lost for a quarter of the century.” Lorraine started the search for the materials, “because of a course I taught in American drama. Materials from the 1930s were very scant. When I heard about some unedited play scripts at the Library of Congress, I began slogging around there one day asking questions.” Brown’s determined search landed her in John Cole’s office, the then reference librarian at the Library of Congress. Cole, Brown, and O’Conner set out to Maryland where 900 cubic feet of materials were found in an abandoned airport hangar. The collection was then brought back to Mason: “…in 1974, a research center for the Federal Theatre Project was set up in the George Mason library in Fairfax. The FTP materials have been on permanent loan there by the Library of Congress…” A National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant was given to make an archive possible. Brown is quoted saying the staff had completed, “the phenomenal task of unpacking, analyzing, and cataloging the materials in just three years.” According to assistant curator Louanne Wheeler, 25,000 production photographs, 7,000 play scripts, and 1,645 costume design sketches were amongst the vast number of materials in this collection. Additional funds in the NEH grant were allotted for oral history interviews of surviving actors and directors from the program. Lorraine Brown’s insistence on finding the materials allowed for the FTP materials to be the first collection to be brought to George Mason's Fenwick Library and brought the need for our Special Collections Research Center where currently over 600 collections can be viewed. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Doree Lovell Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived ProQuest Historic Newspaper: Washington Post Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 15 September 1974 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Grace Owens HIST390 Spring 2025