Shakespeare Society History:�Mary Barnett Gilson�Wellesley College Class of 1899

Shakespeare Society member, Economist, and Theatre Enthusiast

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Dr. Christiana Molldrem Harkulich- Wellesley Class of 06, Sonnet 128

Today we’ll focus on one particular Alumna: Mary Barnett Gilson, Class of ‘99

• During her time at Wellesley she was there for the infamous Chicago Tribune coverage of the play (which we’ll read) and the founding of the Shakespeare Society House.
• She went on to have a very influential life in labor organizing and within FDR’s government. She wrote one of the first treatises on unemployment insurance
• Her papers are collected in the Wellesley Archives

"Women can do the work. I give them the chance"

- Henry Fowle Durant, founder of Wellesley College and the Shakespeare Society

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Early days in the Society

• Founded by Henry Durant in 1877 (either on the 18^th or 23^rd of April) with a membership of 12.
• Leadership quickly fell to faculty member and quickly taken over by Louise Manning Hodgkins (an English professor whose early students includes Florence Converse, Katherine Lee Bates, and Sophie Jewett).
• She had the students putting on theatricals prior to the earliest production of 1885 but that was the year she got permission from Durant to stage large shows for the public (the first was staged in front of the chapel

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Before the House’s stage was built in the early 1900’s, performances happened outside

On the left: Love’s Labours Lost (1897)

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Performances occurred first in Open Meetings

Then full performances began for the public in the mid 1800s in various places outside (in front of the chapel, in front of the lake, and then in the Rhododendron glen or in front of Longfellow Pond where the performances stayed til the house’s stage was ready)

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Mary Gilson’s first performance was as Costard and the reviews at the time highlighted her performance particularly “The greatest admiration and applause, however, was won by Costard, the clown, and Moth, the page. Miss Mary Gilson too the part of the first in a wood brown frock and cap, and her clever pranks and grotesque mimicry won deserved praise.

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1893 Production of Midsummer Night’s Dream

1902

Midsummer Night’s Dream

Photos from the

Wellesley College Archives,

Shakespeare Society Papers

Pyramus and Thisbe

Midsummer Night’s Dream

1893

Pyramus and Thisbe

Midsummer Night’s Dream

1902

Photos from the

Wellesley College Archives,

Shakespeare Society Papers

Full Cast 1899 As You Like It;

Wellesley College Archives, Shakespeare Society Papers.

Founding of our House

• Mary Writes the following about our house in her letter home to Pittsburgh in 1898.

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• By 1899 the house was built. Performances of that 1898 Midsummer were part of the fundraiser to build the house (I have found no evidence of spoon sales!)

Photos from an Article in the New England Home Journal featuring the 1899 As You Like It with the House in the background.

Mary’s Life after Wellesley

• Worked as a Librarian in the Carnegie Libraries in the Pittsburgh Steel District from 1899-1909 and found herself immersed in Workers concerns.
• She also worked for a Textile Factory in the Cleveland Area from 1912-1924 and helped to found the Cleveland Playhouse during her tenure there.
• In the 1930s, she worked for the FDR White House in the study of Unemployment practices and authored two of the first studies on Unemployment Insurance that would later shape policy in response to the Great Depression

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• She received her MA in Economics from Columbia in 1925, and would eventually teach Economics at the University of Chicago although she was discriminated against by the other professors because of her gender (her letters to the president at the time of her retirement are online and you can read how little things have changed).
• She wrote an autobiography about her life titled “Whats Past is Prologue” that is focuses on women’s role in labor

Mary B Gilson (1877-1959)

• In her book, she talked lovingly of her time in the Shakespeare Society (where members were then selected by “chance and not by merit”) and their time making the costumes, presenting scenes at meetings throughout the year, and their June Production.
• In her retirement she moved to Chapel Hill, NC (where many of her papers are collected) and stayed in touch with many of her friends from her Wellesley Days.