Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Edith Russell Papers, #3821, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, July 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

Updated by: Laura Hart, January 2022

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Children's Civic Theater (Atlanta, Ga.)
• Children's plays, American--Georgia--20th century.
• Costume--United States--History--20th century.
• Florida--Commerce--History--20th century.
• Georgia--Civilization--20th century.
• Harrington, Herschel R.
• Harrington-Russell Studios (Asheville, N.C.)
• North Carolina--Civilization--20th century.
• Pageants--Southern States.
• Russell, Edith, 1898-1967.
• Theater, Open-air--Southern States.
• Van Horn and Son, Inc. (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Edith Russell Harrington was a writer, producer, and director of civic pageants across the South, who, professionally, used the name, Edith Russell. With her husband, Herschel R. Harrington, she founded Harrington-Russell Studios, Complete Pageant Service, in Asheville, N.C., in 1930, and operated the business for about fifteen years. Herschel Harrington did technical work, including lighting and set design, for the pageants his wife wrote and directed.

The collection includes correspondence, plans, outlines, notes, and other papers of Edith Russell, primarily from the 1930s, relating to outdoor dramas, pageants, and festivals produced by Harrington-Russell Studios throughout the South; material relating to Van Horn's, a Philadelphia costume supplier for which Harrington-Russell acted as agent in Florida in the 1930s; and scripts Russell wrote for the Children's Civic Theater in Atlanta, Ga., in the 1960s and early 1970s.

• Oversize volumes (SV-3821/1-4)
• Audiocassettes (C-3821/1-2)
• Audio discs (D-3821/1-2)