Harvard Theatre Collection
The holdings of the Harvard Theatre Collection document the history of the performing arts, especially theatre, dance, opera, musical theatre, and popular entertainments such as circuses, pantomime, puppetry, American minstrelsy, music, and fairs and pleasure gardens. In addition to books, manuscripts, and dramatic texts, the collection includes prompt-books, posters, playbills, programs, prints, sheet music, photographic collections, drawings and designs, portraits, set models, video and audio recordings, clipping files, and albums and extra-illustrated volumes. The collection can be accessed in the Reading Room of the Harvard Theatre Collection in the Pusey Library.
- E-mail the Harvard Theatre Collection staff.
- For a complete listing of staff see the Houghton Staff Directory.
Finding Materials in the Collection
- Most books and manuscripts are cataloged in HOLLIS.
- Some archives and special collections are cataloged in OASIS.
- Some visual material is cataloged in VIA.
Readers are cautioned that a search of computerized catalogs is not a substitute for a consultation with the curator or another member of the staff.
About the Collection
History
The Harvard Theatre Collection is the oldest major theatre collection in the world. Although the Harvard College Library has included dramatic texts and books about the performing arts for centuries, the first recorded acquisition of theatrical material other than books dates from 1901. In 1915, spacious rooms in the newly-constructed Widener Library were set aside for the Theatre Collection, at which time the first curator, Robert Gould Shaw, was appointed. In 1948, the Theatre Collection became a department of the Houghton Library, which had opened in 1942. In 1950, new exhibition rooms were created on the ground floor of Houghton Library, and offices, stacks, and a reading area were created in the basement of the newly constructed Lamont Library. Pusey Library opened in 1976, at which time the Theatre Collection moved to its present facilities.
Size
More than 5,000,000 programs and playbills
More than 1,000,000 photographs
More than 500,000 manuscripts and letters
More than 100,000 engravings and prints
More than 50,000 original art works and designs
More than 20,000 rare books
More than 10,000 modern and reference books
More than 10,000 posters
More than 1,000 flat file drawers of large engravings, posters, art work, and original designs
More than 200 file cabinet drawers of newpaper clippings
More than 400 named special collections (archives, personal papers, and separately housed integral collections)
Well over 20,000 linear feet total
Principal Subjects
American and British Theatre
European and Russian Theatre
Opera and Musical Theatre
Ballet and Dance
Popular Entertainment (including magic, circus, minstrelsy, festivals, fairgrounds, etc.)
Principal Formats in General Series
Theatre programs and playbills
Engravings and prints
Photographs
Manuscripts
Typescripts
Letters
Prompt Books and Annotated Play Texts
Original Costume and Scene Designs
Original Drawings, Paintings, and Caricatures
Posters
Sheet Music
Songsters and Song Books
Rare Books and Periodicals
Printed Acting Editions, Play Texts, and Libretti
Modern and Reference Books and Periodicals
Albums and Extra-Illustrated Books
Figurines
Objects (medals, souvenirs, tickets, postcards, stereo cards, etc.)
Newspaper and Magazine Clippings
Sound Recording
Films and Video Recordings
Archives and Special Collections
Among the archives in the Harvard Theatre Collection are papers of:
Playwrights, including Tennessee Williams, John Howard Payne, Edward Sheldon, Robert Anderson, Edward Knoblauch, Steele and Percy Mackaye, Thomas Babe, and Timothy Mayer
Designers, including Ernst Stern, Frederick Kiesler, Leo Kerz, Franco Colavecchia, Lee Simonsen, Lucinda Ballard, Baruch & Co., Joan Personette, Lewis Brown, and Robert Fletcher
Directors, including Max Reinhardt and Theodore Komisarjevsky
Choreographers and Dancers, including George Balanchine, Serge Grigoriev, Nicolai Sergeyev, E. Virginia Williams, Violette Verdy, Bruce Marks, Toni Lander, Angna Enters, Michel Fokine, Katherine Sergava, and Antonio Pallerini
Musicians, including Johnny Green and Eleanor Steber
Arts administrators, including A. Reginald Allen
Writers and Critics, including John Mason Brown, Brooks Atkinson, John S. Dwight, Elinor Hughes, and William Como
Scholars and Teachers, including George Pierce Baker, Justin Winsor, George Lyman Kittredge, Frederick C. Packard, Jr., and Arthur Friedman
Printers and Publishers, including Artcraft, Inc., Playbill, Inc., and Stagebill, Inc.
Photographers, including Angus McBean, Alix Jeffry, John Lindquist, George Hoyningen-Huene, George Platt Lynes, Thomas H. Evans, Will Rapport, Ark Smith, and Napoleon Sarony
Theaters and Producing Companies, including Boston Museum, Boston Theatre, Boston Bijou Theatre, Loeb Drama Center, Brattle Theatre, Poets' Theatre, Cambridge Drama Festival, American Repertory Theatre, International Ballet, and Boston Ballet
