Made possible by generous grants from the Edith Meiser Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, the ongoing Oral History Project chronicles and documents the contributions of significant theatre women in many fields. Interviews with such outstanding women as:

Jane Alexander; Phoebe Brand; Zoe Caldwell; Betty Comden; Betty Corwin; Jean Dalrymple; Ruby Dee; Zelda Fichandler; Nancy Ford; Uta Hagen; Kitty Carlisle Hart; Rosetta LeNoire; Judith Malina; Liska March; Elizabeth McCann; Julia Miles; Elaine Stritch; Frances Sternhagen; and a panel on Blacklisting with Madeline Gilford and Sondra Gorney, moderated by Lee Grant, have been videotaped and are housed in the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

EDITH MEISER'S career spans vaudeville, Broadway, radio, and motion pictures. Her accomplishments in the fields of acting, writing and producing were most prominent in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. In addition she was on many committees and boards supporting theaters and actors. Born on May 9, 1898 in Detroit, Michigan her father was a journalist for the Detroit Free Press and her mother was an avid socialite active in many committees. She was educated at the Liggett School, Detroit; Kox Schule in Dresden, Germany; Ecole de la Cour de St. Pierre, Geneva, Switzerland; and Vassar College which she attended from 1917 to 1921. At Vasser she was the head of the dramatic society, which began her career in the performing arts. From there she performed in the American Shakespeare Festival Co., Jessie Bonstelle's Summer Stock Co. (Detroit 1921), The Theatre Guild, and was the first women to work with Sock and Buskin. She was also one of the original actors in the Garrick Gaeities revue in 1925, 1926, and 1930. From 1927-1928 she performed in Edward Albee's Keith Orpheum vaudville circuit. It was during this time that she married Thomas McKnight in Chicago, the marriage ended in divorce. With Tom and another partner she did form the McKnight and Jordan Inc, during which time in the 1930s she produced her most notable work, the dramatization of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes for the radio. As radio drama enthusiasm waned Edith Meiser returned to the stage in the 1940s acting in a number of productions, including: Jupiter Laughs (1940); Let's Face it (1941); Mexican Hayride (1944); Round Trip (1945); The Rich Full Life (1945); Twilight Bar (1946); The Magnificent Heel (1946); The Stars Weep (1947); I Gotta Get Out (1947); Getting Married (1951); Sabrina Fair (1954); The Magic and the Loss (1954); The Carefree Heart (1955); American Shakespeare Festival productions (1956), King John and Measure for Measure; Janus (1956-57); Happy Hunting (1957); The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960); Murder in the Cathedral (1966); National Repertory Theatre, (1968),The Comedy of Errors; Blithe Spirit (1968-69); Pygmalion (1972); Philadelphia Drama Guild, (1972), Tartuffe; Hobson's Choice(1972); The Unsinkable Molly Brown, (1973) and A Little Night Music (1976). In motion pictures she appeared in Middle of the Night (1959), It Grows on Trees (1952), Go West, Young Lady (1941), and Glamour Boy (1940). Her television appearances include Queen for a Day (1951). She wrote a novel entitled Death Catches Up with Mr. Kluck as well as authored a Sherlock Holmes comic strip published by ACG Comics in the 1950s. She was a member of the Board of Governors of the Actors Equity Association from 1954 until her death as well as chairwoman of the Equity Library Theater. Edith Meiser died Sept 26, 1993 at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC.