Exhibit Curator
Dates: January, 2020 – March, 2020 (shortened due to COVID-19 pandemic)
Venue: Harry Ransom Center

When The Glass Menagerie opened on Broadway on March 25, 1945, it launched the professional career of Tennessee Williams. The production was immediately recognized by critics as a watershed moment in the development of American drama. It remains one of the most produced plays ever written.

Much of Williams’s writing was inspired by his life experiences. In perhaps his most autobiographical play, The Glass Menagerie tells the story of Amanda Wingfield, a former Southern debutante who lives in a run-down apartment in St. Louis with her son Tom and emotionally fragile daughter Laura. Tom works for a shoe company to support his family but dreams of running away to pursue a career as a writer. He feels unable to leave, though, until he knows his sister Laura is taken care of. Amanda convinces Tom to invite a coworker for dinner with the hopes Laura might marry, but instead, Laura retreats to her collection of miniature glass animals.

Tennessee Williams donated a large collection of his early manuscripts, letters, paintings, photographs, and private journals to the Harry Ransom Center between 1960 and 1968. Over the years, additional major archives relating to Williams and The Glass Menagerie have come to the Ransom Center including the papers of Williams’s mother Edwina, his long-time agent Audrey Wood, actress Laurette Taylor who originated the role of Amanda in the premiere of The Glass Menagerie, and writer/composer Paul Bowles who composed the music for the original production.