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SCPA collection on Jim Henson

 Collection 0462-SCPA-SCPAHENSON

Jim Henson (1936-1990) was an American artist, puppeteer, innovator, and filmmaker. He is known for his work as a designer, director, and performer for various movies, commercials, and television programs, most famously Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. This artificial collection was created by former SCPA curator Vincent J. Novara and contains clippings, ephemera, video and audio recordings, digital files, publications involving Henson’s life and intellectual property, as well as materials pertaining to Henson’s legacy, including the Jim Henson Artist-in-Residence Program at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Dates

  • Creation: 1957-2024

Collection use and access

The collection is open for research use. Materials from this collection must be used in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library's Irving and Margery Morgan Lowens Special Collections Room during SCPA’s operating hours. Please contact the curator for an appointment or if you have questions related to digital access of the materials.

Duplication and copyright information

Copyright was not transferred to the University of Maryland with the gift of any copyrighted materials. All rights remain with the creators and rights holders. The University of Maryland Libraries is granted permission for the use in scholarly research by the Libraries’ patrons under fair use in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act.

To inquire about duplication of materials for research or for publication, please contact SCPA’s curator.

Extent

3.0 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Scope and Contents

This artificial collection contains clippings, ephemera, video and audio recordings, digital files, and publications involving Henson’s life and intellectual property. It also includes materials pertaining to Henson’s legacy, like the Jim Henson Artist-in-Residence Program at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Biographical note

Jim Henson was born on September 24, 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi. He was raised in Leland, Mississippi, and Hyattsville, Maryland as a Christian Scientist, and although he later left the church, his membership was reflected by frequent coverage in The Christian Science Monitor. A lifelong fan of television, Henson began working in the industry at the CBS local affiliate WTOP while in high school, and continued with WRC, an NBC affiliate, during his college years.

He originally enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park seeking an art degree but shifted to Home Economics, a major focused more on commercial art, costume design, and other areas more interesting to Henson. While attending classes at the University of Maryland, he created sets and designed and printed posters for theater productions, eventually running a silkscreen printing business out of the student union building (now known as the Adele H. Stamp Student Union). He also began working on the local short-form television show Sam and Friends (1955-1961) in addition to a variety of local commercials, a schedule which kept him in and out of taking classes until he graduated in 1960. It was also in a University of Maryland puppetry class that he met Jane Nebel, his first long-running production partner. They married in 1959 and separated in 1986, although they never divorced.

He designed and performed for a number of television shows with WRC-TV throughout his college years. The Muppets eventually landed on The Tonight Show, which introduced the Muppets to a national audience and led Henson and his troupe to perform on The Today Show and The Jimmy Dean Show in New York. In 1968, Henson joined the production of Sesame Street, a still-ongoing educational children’s show which premiered in 1969 and has received numerous awards and accolades, including over 200 Emmy Awards. Following Sesame Street’s initial success, Henson was able to produce The Muppet Show (1976-1981), a vaudeville-style comedy television program, under British producer Sir Lew Grade of ITC Entertainment. The Muppet Show ran for five seasons and spawned a number of movies, including The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984).

The Muppets eventually grew to international fame, with The Muppet Show airing dubbed and subbed in over one hundred countries. This recognition sprouted into merchandise, books, records, and spin-off television and live theater shows, as well as a second major production hub in London eventually named The Creature Shop, which focused more on research and technology for productions. It was here that Henson, wishing to reach beyond children’s entertainment, began work on The Dark Crystal (1982), the first of many projects requiring the development of unique technology and costuming. The company brought these techniques into later projects such as Labyrinth (1986), Fraggle Rock (1983–1987) and The Jim Henson Hour (1989–1993).

Henson’s creative work included innovations in puppetry and television, the first of which being the use of the eye of the camera as a stage, rather than filming puppets on a traditional puppet theater. This allowed for unusual entrances and exits, closeups, and other techniques normally reserved for live-action filming. Additionally, Henson and his performers watched live feeds on small screens behind the sets, allowing puppeteers to see their performances as the audience would. Large walkaround suits like Big Bird on Sesame Street evolved into more complicated technology for the Skeksis of The Dark Crystal, which required the suits to completely conceal the performers as well as the necessary cables and wires while incorporating remote controls to move the puppets’ faces.

Henson died suddenly of toxic shock syndrome on May 16th, 1990, in a hospital in Manhattan. Negotiations that were underway regarding the sale of his company to Walt Disney Studios fell through following his death, although Disney would ultimately acquire the Muppets in 2004. In 2006, Jane Henson established the Jim Henson Artist-in-Residence Program in his memory at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Arrangement

This collection is organized into six series:

  1. Clippings
  2. Exhibition and event materials
  3. Recordings
  4. Publications
  5. Realia
  6. Promotional materials

Custodial History

This artificial collection was created by former SCPA curator Vincent J. Novara, who gathered materials circa 2005-2019. The Muppet Meeting Films and description were donated by Daniel MacLean Wagner, who received them from Devron Young, a theater alumnus. Ongoing accruals to the collection by SCPA staff are expected.

Related Materials

In UMD's Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library:

• Jim Henson video collection, Special Collections in Performing Arts, University of Maryland Libraries. (finding aid)

• Edward L. Longley papers, Special Collections in Performing Arts, University of Maryland Libraries. (finding aid)

Sam and Friends scrapbook facsimile. Irving and Margery Morgan Lowens Room for Special Collections, Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library. (catalog record)

• Jones, Brian Jay. Jim Henson : The Biography. First ed., Ballantine Books, 2013. (catalog record)

• Shemin, Craig, and Frank Oz. Sam and Friends : The Story of Jim Henson’s First Television Show. Orlando, FL: BearManor Media, 2022. (catalog record)

In UMD's Hornbake Library:

• Arch Campbell papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries. (finding aid)

• Children's Television Workshop records, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries. (finding aid)

• Falk, Karen. Imagination Illustrated : The Jim Henson Journal. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2012. (catalog record)

Title
SCPA collection on Jim Henson
Status
Completed
Author
Molly Wulff
Date
March 2024
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Library Details

Part of the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library

Contact:
University of Maryland Libraries
8270 Alumni Drive
College Park MD 20742 United States