Mona Jimenez and Gina Murtagh Papers for a Documentary about the Vagabond Puppeteers
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Abstract
The Vagabond Puppeteers were a traveling puppet theater who were inspired by leftist campaigns in rural Mexico to educate the people of Mexico in the post-revolutionary era. Members included Harriet Holtzman, Jerry Oberwager, Pete Seeger, and Mary Walton. The troupe toured New York State in the summer of 1939, with the goal of supporting the labor organizing of the Dairy Farmers Union, who at the time were on strike and agitating for higher prices. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Mona Jimenez and Gina Murtagh planned, researched, and recorded footage for an unfinished documentary about the Vagabond Puppeteers. The Mona Jimenez and Gina Murtagh Papers from a Documentary about the Vagabond Puppeteers (dated 1989-1997) consists of materials created and collected by Jimenez and Murtagh while researching and creating an unfinished documentary about the Vagabond Puppeteers. Materials include research and planning documents, including correspondence, release forms, research files, and tape logs. The majority of the collection consists of video recordings on Hi8 and U-Matic videocassette. The recordings include interviews with the four members of the Vagabond Puppeteers, during which they describe their experiences in the performance troupe as well as the political environment they were engaged with. Other recordings document a reunion of the Puppeteers at Oberwager's home in 1991. The collection also includes recordings of Jimenez and Murtagh's efforts to locate people active with the Dairy Farmers Union, dairy farming in the 1930s, farming in the 1980s and early 1990s more generally, or who may have recalled attending a Puppeteers performance during the summer tour of 1939. The collection documents not only the Vagabond Puppeteers and their approach to political art in the 1930s, but also the connections between labor organizing and radical art.
Historical Note on the Vagabond Puppeteers
The Vagabond Puppeteers were a traveling puppet theater who were inspired by leftists campaigns in rural Mexico to educate the people of Mexico in the post-revolutionary era. Members included Harriet Holtzman (later Harriet Holtzman Lanksy), Jerry Oberwager, Pete Seeger, and Mary Walton (later Mary Walton Jimenez). The troupe toured New York State in the summer of 1939, with the goal of supporting the labor organizing of the Dairy Farmers Union, who at the time were on strike and agitating for higher prices. The Vagabond Puppeteers and their brand of political theater had influences on more contemporary activist theater like Bread and Roses and Theatre of the Oppressed.
Biographical Note on Mona Jimenez
Mona Jimenez is an artist who worked in experimental, documentary and community-based video in the 1970s-1980s. Beginning in the late 1980s, she began advocating for the preservation of independent media and media art, and developed numerous programs and practices for video preservation and community archiving. She was Associate Director and Associate Arts Professor at the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program at New York University from 2003-2017. She is also the daughter of Mary Walton Jimenez, one of the members of the Vagabond Puppeteers. With Gina Murtagh, she planned, researched, and created the materials for the unfinished documentary about the Vagabond Puppeteers.
Biographical Note on Gina Murtagh
Gina Murtagh (born 1952, New York City) is a multidisciplinary artist with an MFA from Syracuse University in Photography and Media Arts. With Mona Jimenez, she developed community-based arts programs in visual arts, video, and photography in the 1970s-1980s. Subsequently she worked extensively as an arts educator, freelance curator, and arts administrator in New York State and nationally. From 1986-1992 she was Associate Director of Lightwork, a photographic arts center in Syracuse, NY, and from 1995-2002 was Director of Sculpture Space, an artist residency program for sculptors, in Utica, NY.
Arrangement
This collection has not been arranged by an archivist. The materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor.
Scope and Contents
The Mona Jimenez and Gina Murtagh Papers from a Documentary about the Vagabond Puppeteers (dated 1989-1997) consists of materials created and collected by Jimenez and Murtagh while researching and creating an unfinished documentary about the Vagabond Puppeteers. Materials include research and planning documents, including correspondence, release forms, research files, and tape logs. The majority of the collection consists of video recordings on Hi8 and U-Matic videocassette. The recordings include interviews with the four members of the Vagabond Puppeteers: Harriet Holtzman; Jerry Oberwager; Pete Seeger; and Mary Walton, during which they describe their experiences in the performance troupe as well as the political environment they were engaged with. Other recordings document a reunion of the Puppeteers at Oberwager's home in 1991. The collection also includes recordings of Jimenez and Murtagh's efforts to locate people active with the Dairy Farmers' Union, dairy farming in the 1930s, farming in the 1980s and early 1990s more generally, or who may have recalled attending a Puppeteers performance during the summer tour of 1939. The collection documents not only the Vagabond Puppeteers and their approach to political art in the 1930s, but also the connections between labor organizing and radical art.
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People
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Mona Jimenez and Gina Murtagh Papers for a Documentary about the Vagabond Puppeteers; TAM 839; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Mona Jimenez in June 2024; the accession number associated with this gift is 2024.043.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Access to some audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room.
Audiovisual materials that have not been preserved may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Other Finding Aids
Detailed descriptions of audiovisual items are available through the collection file by request.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning, materials were rehoused in archival boxes, maintaining original order and original folders. Audiovisual items were inventoried on an item-level, modifying descriptive information provided by the donor that was created by students in the Moving Image and Preservation program. An inventory with a crosswalk of the original and new item identifiers is stored in the collection file.
In February 2025, the archival description in the Abstract, Biographical/Historical Notes, and Scope and Contents note were edited to correct typos, contextualize the work of the collection creators, and clarify the maiden and married names of Harriet Holtzman Lansky and Mary Walton Jimenez. The women are referred to by their maiden names in the Abstract and Scope and Contents note to reflect their names at the time at the troupe's activities; their married names are presented in parentheses in the Historical Note. Updated biographical notes for Jimenez and Murtagh were supplied by Mona Jimenez.
