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
“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
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
Angelina W. Grimké (1880–1958), African-American female poet, reclusive celibate lesbian, born into the noted biracial Grimké family, with its strong social and community connections to..... Read More
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
Pulp fiction novel based on Charles E. Blaney’s play For His Brother’s Crime. The romantic melodrama concerns the travails of twin brothers, Victor and Ben..... Read More
Women’s pulp fiction novel based on Charles E. Blaney’s play Lottie, the Poor Sales-Lady; or, Death before Dishonor. The melodrama concerns a young single woman..... Read More
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
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 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
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
Women’s pulp fiction novel based on A.H. Wood’s play Nellie the Beautiful Cloak Model. A Thrilling Story. The melodrama concerns a young single woman’s struggle..... 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
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
Inscribed and signed by Paul Green and dated in the year of publication, 1927. Paul Green (17 March 1894–04 May 1981), playwright and champion of... Read More
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
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
1952 Segregation-era movie theater poster for Frank Sinatra’s film Meet Danny Wilson, co-starring Shelly Winters and Alex Nicol. A legend at the bottom of the..... Read More
![[New Orleans, Octoroons, Interracial Relations, Slavery:] L’Article 47, or Breaking the Ban. Adolphe Belot, Henry L. Williams.](/images/noimage-req.png)
![[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)
![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)
![For His Brother’s Crime. A Novel Founded Upon the Melodrama of the Same Name. [within:] Play Book Series. Charles E. Blaney, 1866–1944.](/pictures/thumb/3728228_1.jpg?v=1545247772)
![Lottie, the Poor Sales-Lady; or, Death before Dishonor. A Novel Founded Upon the Great Play of the Same Name. [within:] Play Book Series. Charles E. Blaney, 1866–1944.](/pictures/thumb/3728226_1.jpg?v=1545247772)
![Cornell Minstrels [...] Dec. 10, 1888. Base Ball Benefit. Cornell Minstrels.](/pictures/thumb/3726496_1.jpg?v=1534362395)
![Beauty and the Beast [Manuscript prompt]. Julia Corner, 1798–1875.](/pictures/thumb/145838_1.jpg?v=1534362280)
![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)
![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)
![Nellie the Beautiful Cloak Model. A Thrilling Story. Founded Upon the Play of the Same Name. [within:] Play Book Series. Grace Miller White, 1868–1957, 1870–1951, Albert H. Woods.](/pictures/thumb/3728225_1.jpg?v=1545247771)
![Jennie Carroll’s Selected Company! ... The Poor Factory Girl, Or, All That Glitters Is Not Gold… [lines from illustrated broadside]. Jennie née Melville Carroll, Thomas Morton, John Maddison Morton, 1843–?, 1803–1879, 1811–1891.](/pictures/thumb/3727585_1.jpg?v=1536618658)
![[M.I.T., Cross-Dressing:] Tech Show 1927 “West is East.”. Philip K. Bates, G. Elbern Hopkins.](/pictures/thumb/3727733_1.jpg?v=1538508662)
![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)
![[Segregation-era movie theater poster:] Shore Milford…Frank Sinatra in Meet Danny Wilson…Comfortable Balcony for Colored. Shore Theatre.](/pictures/thumb/3728398_1.jpg?v=1548871661)