Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1930-1972 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
2 m of textual records.
ca. 1500 photographs.
1 audio cassette
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Betty Mitchell, 1896-1976, was born in Ohio, USA, and moved to Oyen, Alberta with her family in 1912. She graduated in botany from the University of Alberta in 1924 and accepted a teaching position in Calgary. While teaching at Central High School in 1929, she and E. Julius Thorlakson founded the Green Room Club to foster the dramatic arts. The group produced several plays at the Side Door Play House, and sponsored the first Alberta Drama Festival in 1930.
In 1934 she began teaching at Western Canada High School and in 1936 became director of WCHS's Department of Drama. She received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1942, to study various aspects of drama in the USA. She received her MA in theatre from the State University of Iowa in 1944. The same year she founded Workshop 14 in Calgary, a group which took awards in many regional and national drama festivals. In 1958 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta for her outstanding work in the field of drama. She retired from teaching in 1961, but remained active in Alberta drama.
For more details see Betty Mitchell / Kenneth Dyba. - Calgary : Detselig Enterprises, 1986.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gifts of Betty Mitchell, her estate and Gordon Gibbs, 1971-1992.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The fonds consists of personal correspondence, newsclippings and recorded interview about her career, and miscellaneous personal papers; and programs, set and costume sketches, newsclippings, press releases, photographs, award certificates and scrapbooks pertaining to theatre groups and drama festivals in which she was involved.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
No restrictions on access.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
The material is in English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Digital content is available
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents of records.
Note
There are 21 photoprints in PC 129 and ca300 in Accession 92.009. The rest are found in ca25 scrapbooks and albums in M 851.
Note
There may be a PA number assigned to the photos in the future.
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Wednesday, September 13, 2017