|| OUR TOWN OBJECTS ||
Video: Our Town book jacket resembles the mountains near the MacDowell Colony
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Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer-prize winning play Our Town is inextricably linked to Peterborough, New Hampshire, which was a model for the play’s fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. One of the most performed plays of the twentieth century, Our Town was made into a movie in 1940, and in 2006, an operatic Our Town premiered with a libretto by J. D. McClatchy and music by Ned Rorem.
Peterborough, New Hampshire, 1886.
L. R. Burleigh. Troy, New York: L.R. Burleigh, 1886.
Map. Geography and Map Division,
Library of Congress (30)
Digital ID # pm004900
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough, New Hampshire was a small mill town with a population of around 2,500 when the MacDowells discovered it in the 1890s. The abandoned farm that they purchased there in 1896 would become The MacDowell Colony, and is located beyond the eastern edge of this bird’s-eye-view map. Rising in the background is Mount Monadnock. Known as "the mountain that stands alone," Mount Monadnock is a distinctive landmark in southwestern New Hampshire.
Thornton Wilder and Marian MacDowell
Bernice Perry. Thornton Wilder and Marian MacDowell, 1952.
Photograph. Prints and Photographs Division
(13) Digital ID #mc0013
Courtesy of The MacDowell Colony
Thornton Wilder and Marian MacDowell
Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) was devoted to Marian MacDowell and considered himself one of her “loyalest and most indebted boys.” He read aloud selections from Our Town at the festivities on Marian MacDowell Day, August 15, 1952, when this photo was taken. Nearly six hundred people gathered on the lawn of Hillcrest, the MacDowell’s home, to honor the Colony’s founder and celebrate her approaching ninety-fifth birthday.
Our Town, a Play in Three Acts
Thornton Wilder.
New York: Coward McCann, Inc., 1938. First edition.
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (31) Digital ID # mc0031
By permission of Tappan Wilder. All rights reserved.
Our Town
Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer-prize winning play Our Town was one of the most performed plays of the twentieth century. Set in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, Our Town was inspired in part by Peterborough, New Hampshire—home of The MacDowell Colony. Wilder worked nine seasons at the Colony, including a residency in 1937, while he was writing Our Town. Although he avoided identifying Grover’s Corners with any real place, its similarity to Peterborough is unmistakable.
Our Town. Autograph short score, 2004.
Ned Rorem. Ned Rorem Collection,
Music Division, Library of Congress.
© Copyright Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. (79)
Digital ID #mc0079
Our Town, the Opera
Many composers wanted to turn Our Town into an opera, but Thornton Wilder refused them all—including Aaron Copland, who wrote the film score for the 1940 movie version. In 2001, Wilder’s nephew and literary executor, Tappan Wilder, granted permission for the first operatic rendition of Our Town. Premiered in 2006 by the Indiana University Opera Theater, Our Town, the opera, features a libretto by J. D. McClatchy and a score by Ned Rorem—both MacDowell Colony Fellows.
Final dress rehearsal for the world premiere of Our Town
Ric Cradick. by the Indiana University Opera Theater, February 24, 2006.
Photograph. Ned Rorem Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress. Digital ID #mc0082 (82)
Courtesy of Indiana University Opera Theater