Special Collections: Theater and Drama Resources: Archival Material

Archival material includes unpublished records such as letters, diaries, financial records, and photographs. Information about our archival collections may be found online in the Subject Guide to the Collections. You can also browse the A-Z list of archival collections (the link is below). Our finding aids are processed at different levels. Some include item-by-item level descriptions and others are processed at the folder or box level. 

• Papers of British actress Lena Ashwell (1872-1957)
• American actor Edwin Booth (1833-1893)
• The British playwright and theatrical producer Jocelyn Brandon (1865-1948)
• The British playwright and novelist Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie (1867-1906)
• British dramatist Henry Arthur Jones (1851-1929)
• English actor Charles John Kean(1811-1868)
• London theater owner and producer John Highfield Leigh(1859-1934)
• British playwright William Thomas Moncrieff (1794-1857)
• American actress Cornelia Otis Skinner (1899-1979)
• The British acting family of Terry-Lewis-Gielgud
• Records of the 1965 American tour by the British company Theatre Group 20
• The London playwright and drama critic William Moy Thomas (1828-1910)
• British actress Dame Irene Vanbrugh (1872-1949)
• There are also about 300 individual items in the Theater Manuscripts Collection

RBSCP is home to a number of collections relating to theater and drama, primarily in the United States and Great Britain.  Included is a vast collection of theater programs and playbills dating from the 19th century to the present, with productions in Rochester, New York City, London, and elsewhere. 

RBSCP holds manuscript material relating to drama and theater in the United States and Great Britain.  A small selection is featured below but is not limited to these examples.