Illustrated programme at the New York City Broadway Theatre 1892, an early artifact of the still-extant Actors’ Fund Benefit. The evening’s performance is thoroughly detailed... Read More
![[New Orleans, Octoroons, Interracial Relations, Slavery:] L’Article 47, or Breaking the Ban. Adolphe Belot, Henry L. Williams.](/images/noimage-req.png)
“The octoroon despised, spurned, penned up in scornful coolness, liable to public sale and scourge—the colored woman you see yonder, kept a white man for... Read More
![[1842–1917 Combination Bound Volume of Masonic, Musical, and Theatrical Programs and Scrapbook kept by Musician Albert Ritter of Reading, Pennsylvania]. Albert Ritter, c.1838–1915.](/pictures/thumb/3727221_1.jpg?v=1534362500)
For Christmas 1873, musician Albert Ritter of Reading, Pennsylvania was given a scrapbook. He immediately began to fill it with ephemera from the various fraternal... Read More
![Robert Benchley [and] The Marvelous Child [within:] Harvard Club of Boston ... 1912 ... Programme. R. C. Benchley, 1889–1989.](/pictures/thumb/3725651_1.jpg?v=1534362314)
Robert Charles Benchley (1889–1989) honed and developed his skills as a humorist and actor while at Harvard (Class of 1912). Benchley was an active, and... Read More
Minstrel stage history exploring the origins of black American minstrelsy; early minstrel shows, their prosperity and decline; their techniques. The concluding chapter is given to... Read More
![Cornell Minstrels [...] Dec. 10, 1888. Base Ball Benefit. Cornell Minstrels.](/pictures/thumb/3726496_1.jpg?v=1534362395)
Founded in 1872, the Cornelian Minstrels was the first dramatic club organized at Cornell University. Performing in 1888 as “The Cornell Minstrels,” they joined with... Read More
![Beauty and the Beast [Manuscript prompt]. Julia Corner, 1798–1875.](/pictures/thumb/145838_1.jpg?v=1534362280)
Manuscript prompt, with American provenance, of a children’s drama based upon the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast as adapted by Julia Corner. Corner... Read More
![History of the Hanus Family’s Association with the Theater and Show Business 1878–1961 [cover title]. Edmund Hanus, Hanus Family.](/pictures/thumb/3726346_1.jpg?v=1534362356)
History of the Hanus theater operation and show business family of Antigo, Wisconsin. The history was compiled c.1979 by Edmund Hanus from contemporary newspaper, magazine... Read More
Edward Haas Robins, Actor In 1880, American stage and film actor Edward Haas Robins was born as Edward Haas in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. Around 1909, after... Read More
Unrecorded 1902 sewn pamphlet describing the function and purpose of the Edwin Forrest Home in Philadelphia located at 4849 Parkside avenue. The Home was established... Read More
Philadelphia minstrel show broadside for the “Black and White Revue” with racist, stereotype illustration. One-third of the broadside comprises an illustration of two men in... Read More
![The Stars Always Shine in Oh, Kay! The Smartest of Musical Comedies [opening lines of handbill]. George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Guy Bolton, P G. Wodehouse, 1898–1937, 1896–1983, 1884–1979, 1881–1975.](/pictures/thumb/3727735_1.jpg?v=1538000966)
Handbill for the Jazz Age musical comedy Oh, Kay! starring Gertrude Lawrence in the title role. With music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira... Read More
The Germania Theater in Philadelphia was founded in 1877 by Gottlob Hammer and Heinrich Oberkirsch. The theater served a thriving German-speaking community until 1895 — a remarkable... Read More
Exhaustive study of Daniel Decatur Emmett, banjoist, fiddler, singer, composer and lyricist, comedian and playwright. Nathan’s book combines musicology, biography, and history to situate Emmett’s... Read More
Very pleasing example of one of Dick & Fitzgerald’s 25¢ “Western Plays.” Crawford’s Claim is the tale of heroine Nugget Nell, a Western mining claim... Read More
Original unpublished manuscript for a one-act play by Philadelphia author and historian, Joseph F. A. Jackson. Written at the age of 19, Jackson’s farce satirizes... Read More
![Jennie Carroll’s Selected Company! ... The Poor Factory Girl, Or, All That Glitters Is Not Gold… [lines from illustrated broadside]. Jennie née Melville Carroll, 1843–?, 1803–1879, 1811–1891, Thomas Morton and John Maddison Morton.](/pictures/thumb/3727585_1.jpg?v=1536618658)
Rare, unrecorded c.1860s–1870s broadside for a Williamsport, Pennsylvania theater production of The Poor Factory Girl, written by playwrights Thomas Morton (1803–1879) and John Maddison Morton... Read More
Beautiful portrait of comic actress and light opera singer Pauline Hall (1860–1919), here photographed by New York celebrity photographer, José Maria Mora (1850–1926).¹ Hall is... Read More
![[M.I.T., Cross-Dressing:] Tech Show 1927 “West is East.”. Philip K. Bates, G. Elbern Hopkins.](/pictures/thumb/3727733_1.jpg?v=1538508662)
Theater program for West is East, a two-act musical comedy produced in 1927 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and featuring an all-male cast including... Read More
![[M.I.T., Cross-Dressing:] Tech Show 1926. Too Many Brothers. '26 R A. Rothschild, '26 J B. Goldberg, Richard A. Rothschild and Julius B. Goldberg.](/pictures/thumb/3727604_1.jpg?v=1536776991)
Theater program for Too Many Brothers, a two-act musical comedy produced in 1926 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and featuring an all-male cast including... Read More
![Sidewalks! Court Week Amusements! ...The Schuyler Dramatic Association ...The Idiot Witness…March 21, 1876… [opening lines of broadside]. Schuyler Dramatic Association.](/pictures/thumb/145871_1.jpg?v=1534362281)
Dating from the first decade of Nebraska statehood, this unrecorded 1876 theatrical broadside from Schuyler, Colfax County engages the reader right from the start: Sidewalks!... Read More
![[Archive of Photographs of the Todd Sisters, 1930s-era Show Girls.]. The Todd Sisters.](/pictures/thumb/3726587_1.jpg?v=1534362417)
This collection of sixty-four vernacular photographs is a visual record of the Todd Sisters, show girls. We find little about their career, but we do... Read More
![Union Vodvil 1920. [Vaudeville]. The Union Board, of The Union Memorial Building.](/pictures/thumb/3727556_1.jpg?v=1540246016)
1920 program for a “Vodvil” or vaudeville show produced at the University of Wisconsin–Madison to raise funds to build the campus’ Union Memorial Building. The... Read More
With a phenomenal trick dancer, a July 1931 program for Copenhagen, Denmark’s “Valencia” dance hall with half tone illustrations of the dancing and other vaudeville-style... Read More
Classical music and opera concerts and popular musical and singing performances were favorite leisure pursuits in Belle Époque Germany and Austria. These 61 almost all... Read More
