Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Grassle, Karen, 1942-
- Abstract:
- This collection comprises the papers of Karen Grassle (1942-). Materials range from 1955 to 2024 and include correspondence, photographs, clippings, scripts, manuscripts, and audiovisual items. Much of the material is related to Grassle's role as Caroline Ingalls in the NBC television show Little House on the Prairie (1974-1982).
- Extent:
- 6.38 Linear Feet (12 document boxes, 1 half document box, 1 flat box, plus videocassettes, audiocassettes and DVDs)
- Language:
- English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], Karen Grassle papers, FMST Mss 15. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Karen Grassle papers contain a lifetime of professional dramatic work, tracing the professional career of film, television and theater actress Karen Grassle (1942-) from 1955 through 2024.
Early materials ("pre-LHOTP") include poetry composed during her years at Ventura High School, English papers written at UC Berkeley, and theater scripts along with clippings, scrapbooks, playbills, reviews, publicity photographs and correspondence from Grassle's time in theater at UC Berkeley, the Stanford Summer Theater, summer theater in the UK (1959-1965), and from professional performances in New York City (1965-1973).
A considerable amount of the material relates to Grassle's role as Caroline Ingalls in the NBC television series Little House on the Prairie (1974-1982), including headshots and publicity stills, scrapbooks, "on-set" snapshots, correspondence, creative proposals, promotional and public relations items, magazine and newspaper clippings, fan-related material and material from the 40th and 50th anniversaries of the series. Interspersed among these files are materials documenting Grassle's activities in support of the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) in the late 1970s through the early 1980s, as well campaigns against domestic abuse. These include photographs, clippings, and letters.
Other material covers Grassle's theater, film, and television work after Little House on the Prairie ("post-LHOTP"), including her performances with the Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, the Resource Theatre Company in Santa Fe, New Mexico (where she was artistic director), the San Francisco Playhouse in San Francisco, and many others locations across North America from 1986 to 2019.
The collection includes a file with material related to Grassle's public speaking engagements over the years, and manuscript drafts of Grassle's original theater and film scripts, as well as multiple mansucript drafts of her memoir Bright Lights Prairie Dust: Reflections Life, Loss, and Love from Little House's Ma (She Writes Press, 2021).
The audiovisual portion of the collection consists of visual and a smaller number of audio items, and includes interviews, theater performances, and speeches.
- Biographical / historical:
-
American actress Karen Grassle was born in Northern California in 1942 and moved to Ventura, California with her family at the age of five. Grassle graduated from Ventura High School in 1959, attended Tulane University (Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, 1959-1960) and the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her BA degree in English and Dramatic Art (1965) with a Fullbright Fellowship at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in England. Grassle's non-professional acting engagements included summer peformances with the Stanford Contemporary Workshop and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Her first professional engagements included performances on Broadway in New York City and at the Front Street Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee, along with appearances on television soap operas and PBS.
Best known for her role as Caroline Ingalls (Ma Ingalls) in the long-running NBC television series Little House on the Prairie (1974-1982), Grassle took on many other roles in television and film, with performances in the film Harry's War (1981), as well as the television movies Crisis in MidAir, Between the Darkness and the Dawn, and Cocaine: One Man's War, among many others. Grassle co-wrote and starred in the 1978 television movie Battered. During this time, she took part in events supporting the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) and federal funding for shelters for battered women.
In 1990 Grassle relocated to New Mexico, where she co-founded the the Resource Theatre Company in Santa Fe and served as its artistic director. She then moved on to Kentucky, where she performed with the Actors Theatre of Louisville, ultimately settling in the Bay Area of California in the 2000s. Grassle starred in the 2021 film Not to Forget along with Tatum O'Neal, Cloris Leachman, Louis Gossett Jr., George Chakiris and Olympia Dukakis. In the same year, she published her memoir, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love by House's Ma (She Writes Press, 2021), recounting her experiences on Little House on the Prairie.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Karen Grassle, 2025.
- Processing information:
-
These papers retain their original intellectual and physical arrangement. The acronym LHOTP (Little House on the Prairie) is used in the description of these materials, following the naming convention of their creator. The series designations "Pre-LHOTP" and "Post-LHOTP" represent these original groupings.
- Arrangement:
-
This collection has been divided into the following series: High School, University and Early Career (Pre-LHOTP), Little House on the Prairie (LHOTP), Theater, Film and Television (Post-HOTP), Writing, and Audiovisual.
- Physical location:
- Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and are retained by the creator and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.
All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or their assigns for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], Karen Grassle papers, FMST Mss 15. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Location of this collection:
-
UC Santa Barbara LibrarySanta Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
- Contact:
- (805) 893-3062