Percy Jewett Burrell (February 10, 1877 – March 22, 1964) was an American author and director of historical and civic pageants.

"[1] A native and lifelong resident of the greater Boston area, he was described by Time magazine as a "professional director of civic and patriotic shows.

[3] According to a printed program used at a service in his memory, "His mastery of the spoken and written word led him to be a well known public speaker with an enviable reputation as a teacher of oratory, and later as an author and director of national distinction.

He also wrote the lyrics to the song "Alma Mater" for the 1914 edition of the songbook, with music by fellow Alpha Chapter brother Charles H. Doersam.

[11] From approximately 1917 to 1945, Burrell was in high demand throughout the United States and, according to Mongiovi, "stood preeminent in his profession as a consultant, author, organizer and director of historical and patriotic pageants and community and religious drama" by the 1930s.

"[13] Walbert further described Burrell's pageants as productions that should "transform a 'city of strangers' into a 'community of neighbors' - a genteel alternative to the '100% Americanism' of the early 1920s that sparked divisiveness and xenophobia in the wake of the First World War.

Instead of warding off dangerous outsiders, historical pageants stressed unity and identification with community by building pride in common achievement.

The Pageant of Liberty: Commemorating Lancaster Pennsylvania in the American Revolution was produced in July 1926 on the one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Written and directed by Burrell in collaboration with Alice Kraft and Harry A. Sykes, the production featured over 3,000 participants and included drama, dance, and music.

[22] The pageant is described in detail in David Walbert's book Garden Spot: Lancaster County, the Old Order Amish, and the Settling of Rural America.

In 1929, Burrell served as general director of New York State's one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary Sullivan Expedition pageants.

In 1934, he adapted Matthew Page Andrews' Soul of Maryland:Pageant of the Founding for performance in Baltimore Stadium (Library of Congress Catalog).

[2] Towards the close of World War II, he produced Watchers of the World, which was described as "a dramatic ritual in honor of the living who serve and in tribute to the fallen in the cause of the United nations, a ceremonial for dedication of service flag, honor roll and for [M]emorial [D]ay" in 1944([Library of Congress Catalog]).

The extent of Burrell's involvement in Sinfonia between after the conclusion of his term as Supreme President in 1914 and 1948 is not clear, though periodically there appeared references to him in the annual publications.

Both he and 1922–1928 Supreme President Peter Dykema were associated with the organization Community Service so it is possible that their paths crossed in that context.

A photograph in a Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia magazine showed Burrell at the 1948 national fraternity convention assisting in the presentation of a commemorative gavel made of wood taken from the USS Constitution.

While the archives contain no official explanation of his intentions in presenting the picture, some believe that he did so as a reminder of the fraternity's early days, of which he was an integral part.

After locating his grave in 1999, a fund-raising effort was undertaken by the fraternity's national historian to provide a monument for Burrell's burial site.

(April 1, 1908) "Let us tune ourselves up to the highest key of brotherhood and so make a veritable Symphony Orchestra of the minds and hearts of America’s musicians and her lovers of music, and then shall we drown the old world’s sharps and flats.” (1909)