The Grace Chandler Footlight Club scrapbook contains around 45 pages of correspondence, photographs, plays, and ephemera pertaining to the club's activities in the late 19th century. Most items are dated between 1894, when Chandler joined, and 1898.
Chandler collected numerous programs from the Footlight Club's many performances, including several in which she participated as a member of the cast and a few that served as charity events for a convalescent home and other causes; tickets for performances and dress rehearsals are also included. Chandler received official correspondence regarding her membership and directors' reports, as well as manuscript letters congratulating her for recent performances; most are still in their original envelopes. Of particular interest is a letter from Horace Vale to "Miss Verrinder" calling off their engagement after hearing rumors of her "desperate flirtation" with another man (postmarked March 20, 1895). The album includes 7 photographs of sets on a stage. Other items include newspaper clippings, printed copies of plays, an advertisement, a dried rose, and copies of the Footlight Club's constitution as amended in December 1888 and January 1895.
Grace Chandler was born on February 12, 1870, the daughter of Horace Parker Chandler and Grace Webster Mitchell. She had five siblings: Cleaveland Angier, Whitman Mitchell, Ellen, James Mitchell, and Peleg Whitman. In 1894, Chandler became a member of the Footlight Club, an amateur theatrical group based in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.
The Footlight Club, was founded in 1877, one of the oldest community theaters in the United States. In 1889, the club's members collectively purchased Eliot Hall, which has since served as the club's home and primary performance venue.
