Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

The Ellen Van Volkenburg and Maurice Browne Papers document their personal and professional lives together. The papers are also an important source for American and British theater history.

Correspondence – Extensively documents the personal and professional activities of MB and EVV – Letters to their families, to each other, correspondence to/from other people connected with the theatre – Major correspondents include: Mary Aldis, Dorothy Crawford, Cyril Edwards, Dorothy and Leonard Elmirst, Arthur Davison Ficke, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Alexander Greene, Harold Monro, John Cowper Powys, R.C. Stewart, Charles Erskine Scott Wood – Also correspondence about Henry Morley, related to MB's attempted revision of Morley's A First Sketch of English Literature

Writings – Typescripts, annotations, notes, galleys, etc. – MB's autobiography, Too Late to Lament; his plays, including multiple drafts of titles such as The King of the Jews, The Mother of Gregory, and Wings over Europe; prose, including Recollections of Rupert Brooke; and poetry – EVV plays, including Ameriga Vespucci, The American, The Queen's Keys; her prose – Works by others

Theatrical Work – Companies and associations such as Chicago Little Theatre, Cornish School, Maurice Browne Ltd. - contracts, correspondence, financial records, meeting minutes, programs, scripts – Playbills - productions associated with Maurice Browne and Ellen Van Volkenburg, divided into United States and Great Britain; other productions – Printing plates of images and text used for Chicago Little Theatre materials such as playbills, etc. – Promptbooks for many of their plays, including published versions of the plays marked with cuts and edited versions EVV used in readings she gave – Puppets - small amount of material related to puppet productions

Samurai Press – Maurice Browne's project with Harold Monro – Correspondence, business records, several manuscripts, scrapbook, clippings, etc.

Personal and Family – Personal materials related to Maurice Browne and Ellen Van Volkenburg, including correspondence about their engagement, divorce, etc. – EVV's 39 journals covering 1910-1966 – Papers of other family members - Frances Anna Browne, F.H. Browne (MB's father - his papers, dismissal as headmaster, suicide), Edward Stanley Browne, F.W. Mercer (manuscripts he hand lettered and illuminated) – Family papers - Browne family, Neligan family, indentures on vellum

Photographs – Have been organized into groupings by subject – Family and Friends (roman numerals signify subject groupings - legacy from earlier cataloging) - Many photographs of EVV and MB, their families, travel photographs (MB went to India as a young man), Molly Underwood, John Cowper Powys, Arthur Davison Ficke, Mary Aldis, Marjorie Morris, other friends – London and New York I and II - organized by title of play - production/cast photographs (see both categories - not intermingled) - many from Journey's End production – Chicago Little Theatre, Cornish School, and Carmel - organized by title of play - many from Trojan Women – Associates - actors, guest artists, others associated with them

Artwork – Costume and stage designs for various productions (organized by last name of artist when known) - separate section for Othello – Miscellaneous art works - including portraits, woodcuts, watercolors, prints, sketches (organized by last name of artist when known)

Scrapbooks – contain photographs, clippings, programs (some not represented elsewhere in the collection) – some appear to have been created by professional clipping services – document Maurice Browne's parents, their early lives, public appearances, theater reviews, etc.

Printed Material – clippings, topical files

Realia – three breastplates and leather pouch worn by Paul Robeson in Othello, 1930 – puppet made of paper and bamboo – small plaster head (appears to have broken off something)

The Ellen Van Volkenburg and Maurice Browne Papers document their personal and professional lives together. The papers are also an important source for American and British theater history.

Correspondence – Extensively documents the personal and professional activities of MB and EVV – Letters to their families, to each other, correspondence to/from other people connected with the theatre – Major correspondents include: Mary Aldis, Dorothy Crawford, Cyril Edwards, Dorothy and Leonard Elmirst, Arthur Davison Ficke, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Alexander Greene, Harold Monro, John Cowper Powys, R.C. Stewart, Charles Erskine Scott Wood – Also correspondence about Henry Morley, related to MB's attempted revision of Morley's A First Sketch of English Literature

Writings – Typescripts, annotations, notes, galleys, etc. – MB's autobiography, Too Late to Lament; his plays, including multiple drafts of titles such as The King of the Jews, The Mother of Gregory, and Wings over Europe; prose, including Recollections of Rupert Brooke; and poetry – EVV plays, including Ameriga Vespucci, The American, The Queen's Keys; her prose – Works by others

Theatrical Work – Companies and associations such as Chicago Little Theatre, Cornish School, Maurice Browne Ltd. - contracts, correspondence, financial records, meeting minutes, programs, scripts – Playbills - productions associated with Maurice Browne and Ellen Van Volkenburg, divided into United States and Great Britain; other productions – Printing plates of images and text used for Chicago Little Theatre materials such as playbills, etc. – Promptbooks for many of their plays, including published versions of the plays marked with cuts and edited versions EVV used in readings she gave – Puppets - small amount of material related to puppet productions

Samurai Press – Maurice Browne's project with Harold Monro – Correspondence, business records, several manuscripts, scrapbook, clippings, etc.

Personal and Family – Personal materials related to Maurice Browne and Ellen Van Volkenburg, including correspondence about their engagement, divorce, etc. – EVV's 39 journals covering 1910-1966 – Papers of other family members - Frances Anna Browne, F.H. Browne (MB's father - his papers, dismissal as headmaster, suicide), Edward Stanley Browne, F.W. Mercer (manuscripts he hand lettered and illuminated) – Family papers - Browne family, Neligan family, indentures on vellum

Photographs – Have been organized into groupings by subject – Family and Friends (roman numerals signify subject groupings - legacy from earlier cataloging) - Many photographs of EVV and MB, their families, travel photographs (MB went to India as a young man), Molly Underwood, John Cowper Powys, Arthur Davison Ficke, Mary Aldis, Marjorie Morris, other friends – London and New York I and II - organized by title of play - production/cast photographs (see both categories - not intermingled) - many from Journey's End production – Chicago Little Theatre, Cornish School, and Carmel - organized by title of play - many from Trojan Women – Associates - actors, guest artists, others associated with them

Artwork – Costume and stage designs for various productions (organized by last name of artist when known) - separate section for Othello – Miscellaneous art works - including portraits, woodcuts, watercolors, prints, sketches (organized by last name of artist when known)

Scrapbooks – contain photographs, clippings, programs (some not represented elsewhere in the collection) – some appear to have been created by professional clipping services – document Maurice Browne's parents, their early lives, public appearances, theater reviews, etc.

Printed Material – clippings, topical files

Realia – three breastplates and leather pouch worn by Paul Robeson in Othello, 1930 – puppet made of paper and bamboo – small plaster head (appears to have broken off something)