Collection inventory

Summary
Creator:	Marshall, Mary, 1903-2000.
Title:	Mary Marshall Papers
Dates:	1883-1974
Size:	4 boxes (2 linear feet)
Abstract:	The Mary Marshall Papers contains materials relating to Marshall's work as a professor of English at Syracuse University.
Language:	English
Repository:	University Archives, Special Collections Research Center Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Ave., Suite 600 Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center/university-archives

Biography

Mary Hatch Marshall (1903-2000) was an American scholar and educator, and the first woman to hold a full-time professorship in English at Syracuse University.

Marshall was born in Scarborough-on-the-Hudson, New York, on May 21, 1903, to Laura Hatch Marshall and Benjamin Tinker Marshall. She received her bachelor’s degree from Vassar College in 1924, her master’s degree from Yale University in 1928, and her doctorate in English from Yale in 1932. She was selected as a Guggenheim Fellow for post-doctoral research in medieval drama from 1945 to 1947.

Marshall first taught at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, from 1924 until 1926. She also taught at Montana State College, Rockford College, and Colby College. Later in her career she held visiting professorships at Bowling Green State University, Connecticut College and Barnard College.

In 1948, Marshall became the first woman to hold a full-time professorship in English at Syracuse University, and she was named the Jesse T. Peck Professor of English Literature in 1952. She was an expert in Middle Ages and Renaissance drama as well as English drama. Courses taught by Marshall covered topics such as Elizabethan drama, Shakespeare, and 16th-century non-dramatic literature.

Marshall’s career extended beyond the campus of Syracuse University to include membership on the supervising committee of the English Institute and posts as evaluator of medieval studies for the Guggenheim Foundation and as a consultant on medieval drama for Speculum and Publications of the Modern Language Association (PMLA).

Marshall received the Post Standard Library Award in 1957 for ‘outstanding service to the Syracuse University library’ as part of the dedication services for the Arents Rare Book Room at Carnegie Memorial Library. She was the chair of the University Senate’s Library Committee and a founder and member of the board of Library Associates. Marshall was also a founder and the first director of the Honors Program for the College of Liberal Arts.

Marshall formally retired in 1970 but continued to teach as the Jesse T. Peck Professor Emeritus of English Literature. In 1975 she was honored as the Post Standard’s Woman of Achievement in Cultural Development, and she began teaching adult education classes at the Humanistic Studies Center of University College.

In 1978 an anonymous donation of $100,000 was made to the University to renovate a lecture room in the Hall of Languages and name the room in Marshall's honor. Mary Marshall died on September 25, 2000. A memorial service was held in her honor at Hendricks Chapel.

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Scope and Content Note

The Mary Marshall Papers contains a letter to Marshall from H.W. Herrington, three published articles written by Marshall, and many published works by William Shakespeare used by Marshall in her classes. The Yale Shakespeare set and the collection of Shakespeare edited by William J. Rolfe make up a large part of the collection. Also included are three other stand-alone volumes. Some of the books have quotes from the play written on their inside cover and margin notes written by either Marshall or Professor H.W. Herrington, whose name appears on the inside cover of most volumes. Many of the books hold newspaper clippings tucked within their pages.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Please note that the collection is housed off-site, and advance notice is required to allow time to have the materials brought to the Reading Room on campus.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from University Archives,
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Related Material

In addition to these papers, the Syracuse University Archives holds a clippings file and a portrait file on Mary Marshall.

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Selected Search Terms

Names

Subjects

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Mary Marshall Papers,
University Archives,
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mary Marshall, 1984.

Processing Information

The materials have been rehoused in acid-free boxes.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: Cara Howe and Steffi Chappell
Date: 2014
Revision history:

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Inventory

	Papers
Box 1		Articles 1950
Box 1		Correspondence to Mary Marshall from H.W. Herrington 1974
		The Yale Shakespeare Set
Box 1			All’s Well That Ends Well 1926
Box 1			Antony and Cleopatra 1921
Box 1			As You Like It 1919
Box 1			The Comedy of Errors 1926
Box 1			The Tragedy of Coriolanus 1924
Box 1			The Tragedy of Cymbeline 1924
Box 1			The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 1917
Box 1			The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 1947
Box 1			The Tragedy of Julius Caesar 1919
Box 1			The First Part of King Henry the Fourth 1917
Box 1			The First Part of King Henry IV 1947
Box 1			The Second Part of King Henry IV 1921
Box 1			The First Part of King Henry the Sixth 1918
Box 1			The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth 1923
Box 1			The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth 1923
Box 1			The Life of King Henry the Eighth 1925
Box 1			The Life and Death of King John 1927
Box 2			The Chronicle History of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters 1917
Box 2			The Tragedy of King Lear 1947
Box 2			The Tragedy of King Richard the Second 1921
Box 2			King Richard the Third 1927
Box 2			Love’s Labours Lost 1925
Box 2			The Tragedy of Macbeth 1918
Box 2			Measure for Measure 1926
Box 2			The Merchant of Venice 1923
Box 2			The Merry Wives of Windsor 1922
Box 2			A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1918
Box 2			Much Ado about Nothing 1917
Box 2			The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice 1918
Box 2			The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice 1947
Box 2			Pericles, Prince of Tyre 1925
Box 2			Shakespeare’s Poems 1927
Box 2			The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet 1917
Box 2			Shakespeare’s Sonnets 1923
Box 2			The Taming of the Shrew 1921
Box 3			The Tempest 1918
Box 3			Timon of Athens 1919
Box 3			The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus 1926
Box 3			The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida 1927
Box 3			Twelfth Night or What You Will 1922
Box 3			The Two Gentlemen of Verona 1924
Box 3			The Winter’s Tale 1918
Box 3		The New Hudson Shakespeare - The Tragedy of Hamlet 1909
Box 3		Shakespearian Synopses: Outlines or Arguments of the Plays of Shakespeare 1902
Box 3		The Tudor Shakespeare - The Tempest 1913
		Shakespeare Set Edited by William J. Rolfe
Box 3			All’s Well that Ends Well 1898
Box 3			Antony and Cleopatra 1898
Box 3			The Comedy of Errors 1895
Box 3			The Tragedy of Hamlet 1898
Box 3			Julius Caesar 1898
Box 3			King Henry the IV: Part I 1897
Box 3			King Henry the IV: Part I 1908
Box 4			King Henry the IV: Part II 1898
Box 4			King Henry the Fifth 1898
Box 4			King Henry the Fifth 1905
Box 4			The Tragedy of King Lear 1908
Box 4			King Richard the Second 1898
Box 4			King Richard the Third 1883
Box 4			The Tragedy of Macbeth 1905
Box 4			The Tragedy of Othello 1888
Box 4			Romeo and Juliet 1892
Box 4			The Taming of the Shrew 1896
Box 4			Twelfth Night 1921
Box 4			The Winter’s Tale 1896

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