Size	14.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2700 items)
Abstract	Professor of dramatic literature at the University of North Dakota and University of North Carolina; founder and director of the Carolina Playmakers. Correspondence, writings, photographs, and other material documenting the life of Frederick Henry Koch from his years as an undergraduate at Ohio Wesleyan University until his death. The bulk of the collection, particularly the correspondence, deals with his personal and family life. Especially notable is a series of long letters, circa 1897- 1917, to Koch from his father, August Wilhelm Koch, concerning family matters and life in Peoria, Ill. Correspondence after 1944 is chiefly addressed to Koch's niece, Adeline Denham McCall, and documents the lives of Koch's wife, Jean Hanigan Koch, and four sons after his death. Also included are personal and professional correspondence with literary agents, publishers, other dramatists, and University of North Carolina faculty and officers; newspaper articles and pamphlets Koch wrote about the theater; notes about play production; some information about Koch's involvement with the American Pageant Association; class-records from the University of North Carolina; and diaries from Koch's student years. The activities of the Carolina Playmakers are primarily represented by photographs and copies of prompt books for plays written by students.
Creator	Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.
Language	English

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Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

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 Frederick H. Koch Papers #4124, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Thomas B. Koch of Burnsville, North Carolina, in March 1977, the Department of Dramatic Arts, UNC-CH, in May 1979, and the estate of Adeline Denham McCall in July 1989.

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.

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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.

• American Pageant Association.
• American drama--North Carolina--20th century.
• Carolina Playmakers.
• College and school drama, American--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• College teachers--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• College theater--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Dramatists, American--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Fathers and sons.
• Folk drama, American--North Carolina--20th century.
• Koch, August Wilhelm.
• Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.
• Koch, Jean Hanigan.
• McCall, Adeline, 1900-
• Ohio Wesleyan University--Students--History.
• Pageants--United States--History--20th century.
• Peoria (Ill.)--Social life and customs.
• Theater--Production and direction--North Carolina.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--Photographs.

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• Dramatic Art Department Records, University Archives; Frederick Henry Koch Collection Accession 50-1, Archives and Special Collections, Otto G. Richter Library, University of Miami

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[This note is from the sketch of Koch written by Samuel Selden for the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography (vol. 3, p. 381). A family chart produced by the compilers of this inventory follows.]

"Frederick Henry Koch, 12 September 1877-16 August 1944, was born in Covington, Kentucky, in a family of nine boys and one girl. His father, August William Koch, was of German ancestry; his mother, Rebecca Cornelia Julian Koch, came from French stock. August, an accountant and cashier in the Etna Life Insurance Company, was a freehand artist and inventor. His imaginative bent showed up in his children: three of his sons became architects, the daughter a singer. From his father, Frederick obtained creative talents, from his mother a playful disposition."

"Koch grew up in Illinois. He attended Peoria High School and Caterals Methodist College, then Ohio Wesleyan, from which he was graduated with the A.B. degree in 1900. Wishing passionately to become an actor, he spent some time at the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston, but when his family frowned on his histrionic ambition, Koch enrolled at Harvard to study English literature. Unable to stifle completely his thespian urge, however, he traveled around the countryside giving readings of Shakespeare. He was awarded the M.A. degree in 1909."

"At Harvard Koch fell under the dramatic influence of George Pierce Baker who was, at the time, stirring a group of young men and women to write plays on native American subjects. After graduation, Koch took an extended trip to Greece, North Africa, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine. At Athens he met an Irish-American girl, Loretta Jean Hanigan, whom he married in 1910. They had four sons: Frederick, George, Robert, and William. From 1905 to 1918 Koch taught English at the University of North Dakota where, besides conducting courses in literature, he founded the Dakota Playmakers. The Playmakers produced one-act plays on the life of the state, written by students. The plays were trouped around North Dakota and presented to schools and communities, some of which had never before seen a dramatic performance."

"Informed of the singularly productive work being done by Professor Koch in the Midwest, President Edward Kidder Graham of The University of North Carolina wished to develop similar creative activity at his institution. In 1918 he wrote to Koch and persuaded him to come to the Southeast. In Chapel Hill, Koch taught dramatic literature and playwriting for twenty-six years. Young men and women from every section of the state came to work with him, and they were soon joined by students from other states, then from abroad; Canada, England, Germany, Egypt, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Mexico, Chile, and elsewhere. Among the dramatists, novelists, and short-story writers (authors, who were inspired and guided in one way or another by the lively theater man from the Midwest) were Thomas Wolfe, Paul Green, Betty Smith, Jonathan Daniels, Noel Houston, Joseph Mitchell, Frances Gray Patton, Bernice Kelly Harris, Le Gette Blythe, Howard Richardson, and Josefina Niggli."

"To provide a means for his authors to see their work in performances, Koch organized a producing group, the Carolina Playmakers, modeled on the Playmakers of North Dakota. Many of the actors, directors, dancers, and designers who received instruction at The University of North Carolina later entered the professional world of the stage, motion pictures, and television. The university group--again following the example of the Dakota students--trouped their plays all over North Carolina, and extended their tours to such far-off places as New York, Boston, Dallas, and St. Louis."

"With the help of the University Extension Department and its associates, Koch established a Bureau of Community Drama, with a field secretary, which developed dramatic centers in other parts of the state. The productions of high school, college, and community groups were brought yearly to the university in Chapel Hill where they were staged in a spring Festival. Thirty years after Koch's death, the yearly Festival was still being held."

"Selected student-written plays were published by Koch in five volumes: Carolina Folk Plays (in four series) and American Folk Plays. He sponsored single authors' works in Alabama Folk Plays, by Kate Porter Lewis; Folk Plays of Eastern Carolina, by Bernice Kelly Harris; and Mexican Folk Plays, by Josefina Niggli. Some of Miss Niggli's short stories were combined and produced as a motion picture, Sombrero. Outdoor historical plays, inspired by Koch and written by Paul Green and Kermit Hunter, were produced and published."

"Koch used the term 'folk play' in the sense of the German 'volk' (common people), thus describing his employment of the word: The term 'folk,' as we use it, has nothing to do with the folk play of medieval times. But rather is it concerned with folk subject matter: with the legends, superstitions, customs, environmental differences, and the vernacular of the common people. For the most part they are realistic and human; sometimes they are imaginative and poetic." The early plays of Eugene O'Neill and Paul Green, Koch regarded as folk plays; the dramas of such writers as Bernard Shaw and John Von Druten were not.

"A man of remarkable energy and enthusiasm, Koch remained active until the time of his death. He was buried in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery."

HANIGAN AND KOCH FAMILIES

Frank Hanigan - ?(b. 5/3/1849- d. 2/?/1910)

William J. (d. 1911) + Nell ?

Edna + W. R. ("Roy") Thompson

Bradley (b. circa 1900)

Leo + Bertha ?

Benneth (b. 1913)

Tom (b. 1915)

Helene + (1) Denham ?

Adeline + Fred McCall

+ (2) George S. McKay

Loretta Jean + Frederick Henry Koch

Frederick H., Jr. + Edna ?

Frederick K., III "Ricky" + Valerie ?

Thomas ("Tommy") + Sue ?

Thommy

Billy

Chris

George Julian (b. circa 1913) + Betty ?

Barbara + Terry ?

Robert (b. 1920)

William + Dorothy ("Dot") ?

Jean

Tricia + Bob Margolis

Michelle

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This collection documents the adult life of Frederick Henry Koch from his years as an undergraduate at Ohio Wesleyan University until his death in 1944. The bulk of the collection, particularly the correspondence, deals with his personal and family life.

Koch's professional life is documented through newspaper articles and copies of published versions of pamphlets he wrote about the theater. Some information is included on his involvement with the American Pageant Association and his contacts with publishers. The activities of the Carolina Playmakers are primarily represented by photographs and copies of prompt books for plays written by students.

The correspondence after 1944 is chiefly addressed to Koch's niece Adeline Denham McCall and documents the lives of Koch's wife and four sons after his death.

See the series descriptions for further details on contents and folder listings.

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• P-4121/1-591
• PA-4124/1-4
• OP-4124/1
• S-4124/47

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