In a small collection at the American Heritage Center – apparently the only archival collection of her papers anywhere – actress Butterfly McQueen preserved a series of typescript works that made me wonder: of all her experiences, why did she choose to document these particular stories?Born Thelma McQueen in Tampa, Florida, in 1911, she picked up the nickname “Butterfly” while dancing in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most people remember her as Prissy, the chatty and easily flustered house servant in Gone with the Wind (1939). But the personal archives she chose to preserve tell a much richer story about her life beyond that famous role.A Voice Beyond HollywoodIn the 1970s, McQueen self-published the literary works found in her papers, pricing them at $2.00 (with a $1.50 student discount) and positioning them as serious contributions to the era’s social and cultural conversations. These materials, now available to researchers at the AHC, provide unique insights into both McQueen’s life an...
