The collection is open and available for use.
Copyright has been transferred to the archives.
Zella Z. Sweitzer Dodge collection (PA 60), Performing Arts Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.
Donated by Craig Wright, on behalf of the Minnesota Historical Society, November 1999.
Zella Zee Sweitzer Dodge was born on January 4, 1874 in Port Washington, Ohio. In the early 1880s, her family moved to Minneapolis. She began to perform dramatic readings, pantomimes and acting in the mid 1890s. She met her future husband, actor Sanford Dodge in 1895 and Zella became the leading lady in his acting company. They were married in 1900 and Zella continued to perform until the birth of her daughter. In 1910, after a separation from her husband, the Sweitzer family moved to Los Angeles. She died in 1964
The collection contains plays, scripts, notebooks, photo albums of Zella and her husband, playbills and programs of performances, clippings and scrapbooks.
An unpublished finding aid with detailed contents is available in the Manuscripts Division.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.