The artificial collection comprises primary and secondary source materials on Helena Modjeska, a nineteenth-century Polish stage actress who had a successful career in the United States. Most items pertain to her stage career, while others provide insight into Modjeska's life at her Santiago Canyon ranch, Arden, in Orange County, California. Primary sources include original and photocopied Modjeska correspondence, ephemera, programs and playbills, photographs, scrapbooks, and artifacts, including a hand-written book of fairy tales. Secondary sources include biographical information on Modjeska in newspaper clippings, manuscripts typescripts, and published journal articles written by a number of authors.

Helena Modjeska was born Helena Opid on October 12, 1840 in Krakow, Poland. Her interest in acting began at a young age, and she left school early to train with a local actor. Under the management of Gustave Sinnmayer Modrzejewski, she made her theatrical debut as Helena Modrzejewska in Bochnia, Poland in 1861. Although she had two children by Modrzejewski, they never married, and after the death of her three-year old daughter in 1865, she left him and returned to Krakow with her young son Ralph.

3.1 Linear Feet (5 boxes and 5 oversize folders) and 0.2 unprocessed linear feet

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