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Winter Closure

Multiple Danforth campus libraries will be closed and inaccessible to patrons from December 21 until January 2. Read on for more details. 

Carlotta and Eugene O'Neill dressed in a dress with pearls and suit, respectively, at a party in Le Plessis, France.
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John M. Olin Library, Level 1, Thomas Gallery

The Assembled Playwright: Harley Hammerman’s Eugene O’Neill Collection

The Assembled Playwright exhibition presents highlights from the Harley Hammerman Collection on Eugene O’Neill. The exhibition includes manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, playbills, posters, inscribed books, and other unique and rare materials by and pertinent to the Nobel Prize-winning playwright.

Playwright Eugene O'Neill is laying on the ground in a field with his Dalmatian, Blemie.
Eugene O’Neill with his Dalmatian, Blemie, in Long Island, NY, circa 1931. The photographer is unknown.

By placing his impressive collection at Washington University, alumni Harley Hammerman has made the Julian Edison Department of Special Collections an important center for O’Neill studies.

This exhibition was organized by Modern Literature Collection and Manuscripts Curator Joel Minor.

The WashU Libraries honored Hammerman and celebrated the collection with a Eugene O’Neill symposium on October 6, 2023. This symposium constituted the first day of the 2023 Conference for Irish Studies Midwest Regional Conference (ACIS) and included an exhibition tour presented by Hammerman and Minor. On December 10, 2023, Hammerman and Minor led another exhibition tour, which was video recorded:

The Assembled Playwright Exhibition Tour is available as a seven-part series on the Modern Literature Collection at WashU Libraries YouTube Channel.

The exhibition catalog is available online as a PDF; please contact Joel Minor if you would like a printed version mailed to you.

Header Image Credit: Carlotta and Eugene O’Neill in Le Plessis, France, 1930. The photographer is unknown.