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Virginia Girvin collection

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Collection Data

Description
Virginia Girvin was an actor, print ad-model, real estate agent, and community activist. As an actor, Girvin worked in multiple mediums such as stage, film, and radio. Her roles were mainly as a domestic, nurse, chorus member, or crowd member. A lifetime member of the Negro Actors Guild, the high point of Girvin's involvement with the organization was in 1970 when she served as its Vice President. Between acting roles and after she could no longer secure that type of work, Girvin was employed as a secretary and a real estate agent. She worked with Donbar Enterprises-Sundale, a real estate development corporation based in Westbury, Long Island, that developed a number of integrated communities throughout the Northeast in the 1960s. The Virginia Girvin papers are comprised of biographical information, drafts of her memoirs, letters primarily acknowledging her volunteer efforts, and one letter from Orson Welles offering his advice on her acting career. There are also playbills (1930s-1950s) from productions in which Girvin appeared; Negro Actors Guild yearbooks and souvenir journals; reviews; book jackets and magazine articles, including Native Son by Richard Wright; romance magazines, for which she modeled (1942-1953); and a file on Donbar Enterprises (1961).
Names
Girvin, Virginia (Creator)
Girvin, Virginia
Dates / Origin
Date Created: 1891 - 1975
Library locations
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Shelf locator: Sc MG 639
Topics
Welles, Orson, 1915-1985
Negro Actors Guild of America
African American actresses
African American models
Community development, Urban -- New York (State) -- New York
Women in community organization -- New York (State) -- New York
Women volunteers in social service -- United States
Notes
Biographical/historical: Virginia Girvin was an actor, print ad-model, real estate agent, and community activist. As an actor, Girvin worked in multiple mediums such as stage, film, and radio. Her roles were mainly as a domestic, nurse, chorus member, or crowd member. A lifetime member of the Negro Actors Guild, the high point of Girvin's involvement with the organization was in 1970 when she served as its Vice President. Between acting roles and after she could no longer secure that type of work, Girvin was employed as a secretary and a real estate agent. She worked with Donbar Enterprises-Sundale, a real estate development corporation based in Westbury, Long Island, that developed a number of integrated communities throughout the Northeast in the 1960s.
Physical Description
Extent: 1 box 0.42 linear feet
Type of Resource
Text
Still image
Identifiers
NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b15621002
MSS Unit ID: 21013
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 29bf14a0-75ff-0139-5ad0-0242ac110005
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