The collection contains 41 photographs of the British born actor, Owen Fawcett (1838-1904) and his family. It includes formal portraits of Owen Fawcett at various ages, as well as portraits of Fawcett in costume. The collection contains formal portraits of families and children, most of which are photographs of Owen Fawcett's grandchildren; also included is a photograph of the Charles E. Hunter family given to Fawcett in 1894. A loose bookplate of Fawcett's is also present in the collection.
Items of note include:
- Two autographed portraits of Fawcett. (1, 2)
- Owen Fawcett, his wife, daughter, and grandchild in their backyard. (13)
- A late 19th century cabinet card enlargement of an earlier portrait of an unidentified young man (a member of the Fawcett family?); this portrait is housed in its original paper-wrapper. (16)
- Two portraits of Fawcett in costume as Colley Cibber. (26, 27)
- Three 1903 portraits of Fawcett in costume as Darby Keegan in the play Robert Emmett. This was Fawcett's last performing role before his retirement. (39-41)
Owen Stanley Fawcett was born on November 21, 1838 in London, England. His family emigrated to the United States in 1840 and by 1842 had settled in Philadelphia. Owen's father, Charles, was a playwright in Philadelphia and Owen followed his father into the theatrical profession, making his stage debut in 1853. Over the course of his 50-year career Fawcett worked with many of the famous actors of his era including Edwin Booth.
Fawcett married Mary Jane Peters in Chicago on December 2, 1870. They had one daughter together, Mary, born in 1875. Fawcett died at his home in Flat Rock, Michigan on February 21, 1904 and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.
