Collection Summary
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
Rehan, Ada, 1857-1916, and Daly,
Augustin, 1838-1899
Ada Rehan and Augustin Daly
Collection
1884-1914
2.5 document boxes, 2 oversize boxes (1.26 linear feet)
The Ada Rehan and Augustin Daly
Collection, 1884-1914, consists of promptbooks and actor's sides, photographs,
clippings, correspondence, costume designs and other artworks, a scrapbook, and a
souvenir playbill that document the professional and personal activities of Ada
Rehan, American actress, and Augustin Daly, American theater manager and
playwright.
English
Performing Arts Collection
PA-00111
Acquisition:
Purchase, 1983 (R10087)
Access:
Open for research. Portrait of Ada Rehan on ivory is restricted due to its fragile
condition and will not be paged. A digital reproduction is available.
Processed by:
Ancelyn Krivak, 2015
Biographical Sketch
Ada Rehan (1857-1916) was one of the most popular and
acclaimed American actresses of the late nineteenth century. Born Delia Crehan in
Limerick, Ireland, in 1857, Rehan immigrated to the United States with her family in
1865, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She began acting on stage at sixteen, first
appearing in plays with her sister, Kate Crehan and brother-in-law, Oliver Doud
Byron, then acting in Mrs. John Drew's company in Philadelphia (where she was
incorrectly billed as Ada C. Rehan, thereafter her professional name) and a variety
of other repertory companies in Louisville, Kentucky, Albany, New York, and New York
City. In 1879, she was engaged by theatrical manager Augustin Daly to appear in his
arrangement of Émile Zola's L'Assommoir at the Olympic
Theatre in New York, and from then on appeared as one of the leading actresses in
Daly's company until his death in 1899. Rehan was most acclaimed for her comedic
performances, particularly as the lead in Daly's arrangements of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth
Night, As You Like It, and Much Ado About Nothing, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan's
School for Scandal. After Daly's death, Rehan
continued to act, mainly in repertory versions of her most famous roles, until her
final performance in a tribute to Polish actress Helena Modjeska at the Metropolitan
Opera House in 1905. Following her retirement, she lived in New York City until her
death in 1916 of arterial disease.
Augustin Daly (1838-1899) was an American theatre manager,
stage director, playwright and adapter, and drama critic. Born in Plymouth, North
Carolina, to an Irish-born sea captain and the Jamaican-born daughter of an Irish
soldier, Daly was raised in Norfolk, Virginia and New York City, where as a teenager
he developed an interest in attending plays and directing amateur theatrical
performances. After attending public school and night school, Daly worked as an
office clerk and as a general writer on the staff of New York's Sunday Courier newspaper. In 1859, Daly became the
theatrical critic for the Courier, and for the next ten
years he wrote reviews for various New York newspapers and composed several plays
and adaptations. His most well-known play, Under the
Gaslight (1867), was a sensational melodrama that originated the
much-imitated plot device of a character tied to a railroad track and rescued just
as the train reached the spot. In 1869, Daly became the manager of the Fifth Avenue
Theatre. Within a year, Daly had built a successful business based on lavish
productions of light comedies, sensational dramas, adaptations of novels by Charles
Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Wilkie Collins, and Mark Twain, and Daly's heavily
redacted arrangements of Shakespeare and 18th-century comedies of manners. Daly's
company of actors and actresses included many of the Broadway stage's most popular
performers such as Fanny Davenport, James Lewis, Mrs. G. H. Gilbert, John Drew, Jr.,
Maurice Barrymore, and, from 1879, Ada Rehan. Although the 1870s were a turbulent
decade for Daly, as he opened and closed theaters, and struggled to maintain his
financial backing during the period of the Long
Depression, by the 1880s he had consolidated his position as one of the
leading theatrical managers of his era, with a company based at Daly's Theatre at
1221 Broadway, and frequent tours of the United States and Europe. A second Daly's
Theatre opened in London in 1893. He continued to mount adaptations of classics as
well as original plays, including one of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's last works, The Foresters, or Robin Hood and Maid Marian (1892). Daly
died of illness in 1899, attended by his wife, Mary, and Ada Rehan. His brother,
Joseph Francis Daly, a New York City judge, retained his brother's personal papers
after his death and composed a biography published in 1917.
Sources:
In addition to materials within the collection, the following sources were used:
Daly, [John] Augustin. Bordman, Gerald and Hischak,
John. The Oxford Companion to the American Theatre. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Daly, Joseph Francis. The Life of Augustin Daly. New
York: The Macmillan Company, 1917.
Herringshaw, Thomas William, ed. Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of
American Biography of the Nineteenth Century. Chicago: American
Publishers' Association, 1901.
Izard, Forrest. Heroines of the Modern Stage. New York:
Sturgis & Walton Company, 1915.
Rehan, Ada Delia. Plotnicki, Rita M. Notable Women in the American Theatre: A Biographical
Dictionary. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.
Scope and Contents
The Ada Rehan and Augustin Daly Collection, 1884-1914, consists of promptbooks and
actor's sides, photographs, clippings, correspondence, costume designs and other
artworks, a scrapbook, and a souvenir playbill that document the professional and
personal activities of Ada Rehan and Augustin Daly. The collection is divided into
two series: Series I. Promptbooks and Sides, 1884-1899, and Series II. Performance
and Personal Materials, 1888-1914.
The promptbooks and actor’s sides in Series I. make up the bulk of the collection and
provide extensive documentation of how plays were staged by Augustin Daly's company.
They are arranged alphabetically by play title, with the play's first date of
production noted in parentheses after the play’s title and author. The plays of
William Shakespeare are well represented. Most of the promptbooks are bound in
leather with Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms on the front cover, although some of
the promptbooks that bear Ada Rehan’s name contain annotations that may indicate
that they were originally used by the chief prompter or another crew member rather
than the actress. Additionally, a majority of the promptbooks consist of the
privately printed "Daly edition" of the play's text bound with interleaves that
contain annotations, ground plans, and sketches. A few of the sides used by Ada
Rehan consist of typescript or manuscript leaves instead of the printed "Daly
edition" of the play. Annotations made inside the promptbooks range from dialogue
cuts, additions, and alterations to notations for scenery changes, cues for lighting
and sound effects, plans of the stage, scene sketches, choreography for dances, and
lyrics for songs. Promptbooks for The Country Girl,
The Hunchback, The School for
Scandal, Taming of the Shrew, and Twelfth Night are particularly rich in annotations.
Series II. contains a variety of materials related to the performance history and
personal activities of Augustin Daly and Ada Rehan. Notable items in this series
include Augustin Daly's personal photograph album of cartes-de-visite photographs of
American and European theatrical and literary personalities, some with inscriptions
to Daly, most identified by name in Daly's hand; correspondence from Alfred, Lord
Tennyson to Ada Rehan; cabinet card photographs of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and
William Tecumseh Sherman inscribed to Rehan; and costume designs for Daly's Theatre
productions, some with annotations in Daly's hand.
The Ransom Center holdings include numerous other materials related to Augustin Daly
and Ada Rehan, including correspondence from Augustin Daly in the uncataloged
portion of Theatre Arts Manuscripts and in the cataloged and uncataloged portions of
the Little Alphabet, photographs of Rehan and Daly in the Theater Biography
Collection, silk souvenir playbills from Daly's Theatre and numerous bound volumes
of programs from Daly's Theatre and Daly's Fifth Avenue Theatre in the Playbills and
Programs Collections, and an acting edition of Daly's play Under the Gaslight in the Playscripts and Promptbooks Collection.
Index Terms
People
Daly, Augustin, 1838-1899.
Rehan, Ada, 1857-1916.
Subjects
Actresses--United States.
Daly's Theatre (New York, N.Y.:30th
Street).
Theater--United States--19th
century.
Theatrical managers.
Theatrical producers and
directors--United States.
Document Types
Albums.
Clippings.
Correspondence.
Costume design drawings.
Photographs.
Playbills.
Prompt books.
Scrapbooks.
Container List
Series I. Promptbooks and Actor's Sides, 1884-1899
1.1
Countess Gucki, by Franz von Schönthan, translator unknown
(1896), typescript side for Ada Rehan as Countess Hermance Trachau, with
title and Ada Rehan’s name and coat of arms gilt on cover, no
annotations, undated
The Country Girl, altered and adapted from William Wycherley's
The Country Wife by David Garrick, and arranged by Augustin Daly
(1884)
1.2
Daly edition with title and Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms
gilt on cover and annotations, 1884, bound with Daly edition, no
annotations, 1898
1.3
Daly edition with Daly's name gilt on cover and annotations,
1898
1.4
Daly edition with title and Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms
gilt on cover and annotations, 1898
1.5
The Great Ruby, by Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton (1899),
typescript side for Ada Rehan as Lady Garnett, with character name and
Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms gilt on cover and annotations,
undated
1.6
The Hunchback, by James Sheridan Knowles (1893), Daly edition
with title and Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms gilt on cover and
annotations, 1893
1.7
The Last Word, by Franz von Schönthan, translator unknown (1891),
manuscript side for Ada Rehan as Vera, with title and Ada Rehan's name
and coat of arms gilt on cover and annotations, undated
1.8
Madame Sans-Gêne, by Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau,
translator unknown (1899), typescript side for Ada Rehan as Catherine,
with character name and Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms gilt on cover
and annotations, undated
1.9
Much Ado about Nothing, by William Shakespeare, as arranged by
Augustin Daly (1896), Daly edition with title and Ada Rehan's name and
coat of arms gilt on cover and annotations, 1897
2.1
The Railroad of Love, by Franz von Schönthan and Gustav
Kadelburg, translator unknown (1887), manuscript side for Ada Rehan as
Valentine Osprey, with title and Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms gilt
on cover and annotations, undated
The School for Scandal, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, as arranged
by Augustin Daly (1891)
2.2
Daly edition with title and Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms
gilt on cover and annotations, 1890
2.3
Daly edition with title and Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms
gilt on cover and annotations, 1891
The Subtleties of Jealousy (also known as Coming Events), by Édouard Pailleron,
adapted by Sidney Rosenfeld (1898)
2.4
Typescript promptbook with title and Ada Rehan's name and
coat of arms gilt on cover and annotations, undated
2.5
Typescript side for Ada Rehan as Nell, with title (Coming Events) and Ada Rehan's name
and coat of arms gilt on cover, no annotations, undated
Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, as arranged by
Augustin Daly (1887)
2.6
Daly edition with title and Ada Rehan's name and coat of arms
gilt on cover and annotations; typescript list of properties pasted
in back, 1887
2.7
Daly edition with Daly's name gilt on cover and annotations;
programs pasted in front, 1887-1888, undated
2.8
Twelfth Night; or, What You Will, by William Shakespeare, as
arranged by Augustin Daly (1893), Daly edition with title and Ada
Rehan's name and coat of arms gilt on cover and annotations,
1893
3.1
The Wonder!: A Woman Keeps a Secret, by Susanna Centlivre, as
arranged by Augustin Daly (1897), Daly edition with title and Ada
Rehan's name and coat of arms gilt on cover and annotations,
1897
Series II. Performance and Personal Materials, 1888-1914
4
Augustin Daly's photograph album of cabinet card and
carte-de-visite portraits of American and European theatrical and
literary personalities, most identified by name in Daly's hand,
undated
3.2
Review clippings of Daly's Theatre productions of The Last Word
and A Midsummer Night's Dream, circa 1888-1891
3.3
Correspondence, including letter from Alfred, Lord Tennyson to
Ada Rehan and letters from Rehan to unidentified correspondents,
1892-1914, undated
3.4
Costume designs for unidentified Daly's Theatre productions, some
with annotations in Augustin Daly's hand, undated
3.5
Photographs, including cabinet card portrait of Daly's Theatre
troupe inscribed by Augustin Daly, cabinet card portraits of Samuel
Clemens (Mark Twain) and William Tecumseh Sherman inscribed to Ada
Rehan, and photograph of Ada Rehan and John Drew, Jr. in unidentified
production, 1888-1889, undated
5
Portrait of Ada Rehan as Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal
painted on ivory, undated [RESTRICTED–DO NOT PAGE]
3.6
Scrapbook of review clippings of Daly's Theatre London
engagement, 1896, with earlier reviews of A Midsummer Night's Dream and
Taming of the Shrew, and Augustin Daly obituary, 1888-1899
3.7
Souvenir playbill printed on silk for The Edwin Adams Testimonial
at Leland Opera House, Albany, NY, featuring Ada Rehan in Our Oddities,
undated
4-5
Oversize materials