This web page was compiled to accompany a library research workshop for Theater Studies 369 - African American Theater (Krasner).

Sarah Prown
Librarian for Film Studies and Theater Studies,
Research Services & Collections, Sterling Memorial Library
September 8, 1998

Table of Contents:

1. The Research Workstation and Subject Guides
2. Locating Secondary Sources (catalogs, bibliographies, indexes and other reference sources)
3. Locating Plays and Primary Source Material
4. People and Places to know about in the Yale Library
5. Web sites about African American theater

Yale University Library Research Workstation

The Yale University Library Research Workstation is the primary gateway to all of the Library's electronic resources, as well as information about the rich print and manuscript collections. Connect to Orbis (Yale's online catalog), as well as many databases, subject guides and online library services.

Yale University Library Subject Guides

Use these guides, created by Yale Library Subject Specialists, to learn about collections, research tools, and internet sites useful for academic research.  For research in African-American theater, the following guides will be particularly useful:

• Theater Studies
• African-American Studies
• English Literature
• American History

2. Locating Secondary Sources (catalogs, bibliographies, indexes, and other reference sources)

Catalogs

• Orbis/Yale Library Catalogs
  Together, Orbis, Morris (the Law Library catalog) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) catalog constitute the Yale University Library online catalog.
  Use these catalogs to determine what materials (books, journals, archival collections, etc.) are held by Yale, and where these items are located.
  • Materials published prior to 1977 that do not appear in Orbis (OPAC) can be located using the "union" card catalog in Sterling Memorial Library. More than half of the Library collection is represented ONLY in the card catalog.
  • There are also numerous Special Library Catalogs that provide unique access to the Yale Library collections. For example, Government Documents and Maps are NOT represented in Orbis or the SML card catalog.
  • The Law Library maintains a separate online catalog called Morris.
  • Additional materials purchased cooperatively are available through Interlibrary Loan from the Center for Research Libraries (CRL).

• Eureka
  EUREKA offers easy-to-use online access to the Research Libraries Group's RLIN bibliographic database of more than 22 million titles. Use EUREKA to uncover a wealth of resources in almost any area of study, or to locate items in specific libraries and research collections. EUREKA provides catalog records for books, journals, maps, sound recordings, musical scores, films, archives, and computer files held in research, corporate, and public libraries, as well as museums, archives and historical societies. All searches may be easily printed, downloaded or e-mailed directly to you. Use Eureka to locate materials outside of Yale.

• Libraries, Archives and Special Collections in Theater
  This list includes connections to Yale Library online catalogs, information about card catalogs, connections to library catalogs from around the world, and guides to important Theater and Drama archives and libraries.
  • New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
  • Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture
  • Detroit Public Library.  Catalog of the E. Azalia Hackley memorial collection of Negro music, dance, and drama. (Boston : G.K. Hall, 1979.)
    Music, Reference. Ref ML136 D483 E1++
  • New York Public Library. Catalog of the Theatre and Drama Collections. (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1975-)
    SML, Reference. Z6935 +N48 (LC)
    This is the most comprehensive printed catalog of theater and drama collections.  The catalog is divided into three sections: Author Listing; Listing by Cultural Origin; and Books on the Theater (or subject listing).  
    

Bibliographies
In the course of your research, keep an eye out for Bibliographies. They are a terrific asset to research, because they provide a survey of what has been written already on a given subject.

• How to find bibliographies
  • In Orbis, search: K=[subject] and bibliography
    k=federal theatre project and bibliography
  • Notice the Library of Congress Subject Heading
    s=afro american theater-- bibliography OR k=afro american theater and bibliography
  • Search the Subject heading in Eureka
    

Periodical and Newspaper Indexes
Use these indexes to locate scholarly and critical articles, performance reviews, dissertations, and other published information.

• America: History and Life (Santa Monica: ABC-Clio, 1955- )
  SML, Reference Z1236 +A43 (LC)
  SML CD-ROM Reference Center
  The primary index to the literature of American and Canadian History, covering over 2,000 journals in 45 languages. Also, includes dissertations and selected book, film and video reviews. Quarterly with annual cumulations. The print volumes are issued in four parts: Part A. Article abstracts and citations; Part B. Index to book reviews; Part C. American History bibliography, books, articles and dissertations; Part D. Annual Index; and Volume 0 covers the years 1954-1963. The CD-ROM covers 1964 to the present.

• Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Philadelphia: Institute for Scientific Information, 1975- .)
  An international interdisciplinary index to the literature of the arts and humanities, indexing the contents of about 6,100 journals, covering about 1,000 fully and about 5,100 selectively. Those selectively covered are titles in the sciences and social sciences indexed by Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index, from which articles of possible interest in the arts and humanities are drawn. The database covers 1978 to the present, and the print volumes go back to 1975.
  Published in three parts: Citation Index (through which you can find what later articles have cited earlier books or articles); Source Index (an author index); and Permuterm Subject Index (which offers keyword access to the titles of articles)
  

• Black Newspaper Index and Index to Black Newspapers
  SML, Reference, Index Case. AI3 +I45 (LC)
  This index covers eleven african-american newspapers, for the years 1977 to the present.   See also, Blacks in selected newspapers, censuses and other sources : an index to names and subjects / compiled by James de T. Abajian.  (SML, Reference. Z1361 N39 +A28 (LC)) and Ethnic Newswatch, on CD-ROM in the Newspaper and Microtext Room.

  
  

• Dramatic Index, 1909-1949. (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1909-1949)
  SML, Stacks, LC Class. AI3 M343 (LC)
  Beginning with 1909 each volume is in two parts, each part having separate title page and paging: Pt. I. Annual magazine subject-index, a subject index to selected list of American and English periodical and society publications. Pt. II. The Dramatic index covering articles and illustrations concerning the stage ... in the periodicals of America and England, to which is added a record of books on the drama   and of texts of plays. The Dramatic index for 1912-16, 1919-49 accompanied by an   appendix: The Dramatic books and plays in English (title varies slightly). This bibliography was incorporated into the main list in 1917-18. The Dramatic index contains the cumulation of the dramatic   index published in the quarterly numbers of the Bulletin of bibliography.

• Humanities Abstracts(H.W. Wilson, 1920- )
  SML, Reference, Index Case. AI1 S63 (LC)
  Humanities Abstracts, produced by The H. W. Wilson Company, is a bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts articles from 400 English-language periodicals in the fields of archaeology and classical studies, art, dance, drama, and film, folklore, gender studies, history, journalism and communications, language and literature, literary and political criticism, music and performing arts, philosophy, and religion and theology. Periodical coverage includes some of the best-known scholarly journals and numerous lesser-known but important specialized magazines.
  Continues: Humanities Index: 1974-present; Social Sciences and Humanities Index: 1965-1974; International Index: 1955-1965; and International Index to Periodicals: 1920-1955

• International Bibliography of Theatre. ([Brooklyn, N.Y.] : Theatre Research Data Center, Brooklyn College, City University of New York ; New York, NY: 1986- .)
  SML, Reference. Z6935 +I53 (LC)
  Annual bibliography and index that covers "any aspect of theatre significant to research."  This subject-classified bibliography includes books, articles, dissertations, essays, etc. published in any language from 1982 to the present on all aspects of theater, performance and dance.  Volumes are indexed by author, subject and country.

• MLA Bibliography (New York: Modern Language Association of American, 1921- )
  SML, Reference, Index Case. Z7006 M63 (LC)
  The MLA Bibliography indexes critical materials on literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore.The database (online and CD-ROM) provides access to citations from over 4,000 journals and series published worldwide, as well as books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies. The print volumes go back to 1921 and the database covers from 1963 to the present. The   MLA Bibliography continues the Modern Language Association Annual Bibliography.

• The New York Times Theater Reviews. (New York, New York Times, 1870- )
  SML Reference. PN2266 +N48
  This is a comprehensive index to all theater reviews which have appeared in the New York Times since 1870.  There is a cumulative index for the years 1870-1970, followed by indexes in each subsequent yearly volume.

• Periodicals Contents Index (PCI)
  PCI Web is an electronic index to the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to 1990/1991. Every article is indexed. The scope is international, including journals in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages. PCI Web currently indexes over six million articles in 1,595 journals. Every year, it adds records for more than two million more articles. It will grow to encompass 3,500 journals and fifteen million individual articles.

• Salem, James M. A Guide to Critical Reviews. (New York, Scarecrow Press, 1966-71.)
  SML, Reference. Z5781 S25 (LC)
  Salem's bibliogrpahy lists reviews of plays produced in New York.  Volume 3 covers  over 1,300 British & continental drama from Ibsen to Pinter.  

Other Reference Sources
Use these reference sources to locate facts such as biographical information, production information, historical essays, and chronologies.

• Arata, Esther Spring. Black American playwrights, 1800 to the present : a bibliography. (Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1976.)
  More Black American playwrights : a bibliography. ( Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1978.)
  SML, Stacks. Z1229 N39 A7 (LC)
  SML, Stacks. Z1229 N39 A73 (LC)
  

• McNeil, Barbara. Performing arts biography master index. (Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Company, 1981.)
  SML, Reference. PN1583 +M37 1981
  A consolidated index to over 270,000 biographical sketches of persons living and dead, as they appear in over 100 of the principal biographical dictionaries devoted to the performing arts

• Mapp, Edward. Directory of Blacks in the performing arts.  2nd ed. (Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1990.)
  SML, Reference. PN1590 B53 M3 1990
  Biographical information about over 1,100  well-known and lesser known performers, a bibliography, and an index by occupation.

• Peterson, Bernard L. A century of musicals in black and white : an encyclopedia of musical stage works by, about, or involving African Americans. (Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1993.)
  Music. ML102 M977 P4

• Peterson, Bernard L. Contemporary Black American playwrights and their plays : a biographical directory and dramatic index. (New York : Greenwood Press, 1988)
  SML, Reference. PS153 N5 P49 1988

• Potter, Vilma Raskin. A reference guide to Afro-American publications and editors, 1827-1946 (Ames : State University of Iowa Press, 1993.)
  SML, Reference. Z6944 N39 P63X 1993 (LC)

• Sampson, Henry T. The ghost walks : a chronological history of Blacks in show business, 1865-1910. (Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1988.)
  SML, Stacks. PN2270 A35 S25 1988

• Woll, Allen L. Dictionary of the Black Theatre: Broadway, Off-Broadway, and selected Harlem Theater (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983.)
  CCL, Stacks. PN2270 A35 W64 1983

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3. Locating Primary Source Material

A primary source is firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation.  For Theater Studies, primary source materical includes play scripts, performance reviews, prompt books, production information, and other related artifacts (costumes, playbills, props, etc.).  For more information, consult the Yale Library Primary Sources Research Tutorial.

• American Theatre Periodicals of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries [microform]. (Reading, Berkshire, England ; Woodbridge, CT : Research   Publications ; Washington, DC : Library of Congress, 1989.)
  SML, Microtext. Film B16608
  SML, Microtext Desk.  PN2000 A3 +A43 1989  (Guide to Collection
  Features the most complete runs available of selected periodicals dating from 1805 to 1929, and issued from Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. A detailed listing of volumes included at the beginning of each reel.
  • The Thespian mirror; The Boston weekly magazine, then Weekly magazine ; The Theatrical budget, or, Actor's regalio; The   Dramatic mirror; Figaro! or, Corbyn's chronicle of amusements (reel 1)
  • The Prompter's whistle; The Prompter;   The Stage (Philadelphia); The New York clipper almanac/annual (reel 2)
  • The New York clipper almanac/annual; The Play bill (reel 3)
  • The Oriole tidings (reel 4)
  • The Stage (Philadelphia) (reel 5)
  • Le Chat noir; The Dramatic quarterly; Mahatma (reel 6)
  • The Burr Mackintosh monthly (reels 7 thru 10)
  • The Stage (New York); Conjurer's monthly magazine (reel 11)
  • St. Louis dramatic news (reel 12)
  • New York star; The Drama : a quarterly review (reel 13)
  • The Drama : a quarterly review (reels 14 and 15)
  • The Drama : a monthly review (reel 16)
  • The Drama : a monthly review, then The Drama : in combination with the Little theatre monthly and the Little   theatre news (reel 17)
  • The Drama : in combination with theLittle theatre monthly and the Little theatre news (reel 18)
  • The Theatrical weekly record; Gus Hill's national theatrical directory, then Julius Cahn-Gus theatrical guide and moving picture directory (reel 19).

• ArchivesUSA
  ArchivesUSA integrates three resources: The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMUC), The Directory of Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the US (DARMUS), and The National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS). Researchers can search descriptions of manuscript collections in the United States, link to information about the repositories, and locate the finding aids in NIDS, a microfiche collection in the Microtext Center of SML.

• Database of African-American Poetry
  The Database of African-American Poetry, 1760-1900, includes the poems of such well-known figures as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Phillis Wheatley and the verse of many lesser-known poets whose works may only be found in anthologies or private libraries. Most of the poets in the database were not acknowledged during their lifetimes, but only granted recognition posthumously. Covering a wide range of topics from slavery and abolition to love and death, this collection provides a unique portrait of early America through the reflections of African-American poets during the 18th and 19th centuries. It contains a rich variety of poetic styles and types including elegies, odes, ditties, hymns, and sonnets.
  NOTE: The printed volume: Afro-American Poetry and Drama, 1760-1975, by W. P. French et al. (SML, Reference. Z1229 N39 A37 (LC)) serves as an index to this database.  There is a separate section in this volume for drama.

• Eureka
  EUREKA offers easy-to-use online access to the Research Libraries Group's RLIN bibliographic database of more than 22 million titles. Use EUREKA to uncover a wealth of resources in almost any area of study, or to locate items in specific libraries and research collections. EUREKA provides catalog records for books, journals, maps, sound recordings, musical scores, films, archives, and computer files held in research, corporate, and public libraries, as well as museums, archives and historical societies. All searches may be easily printed, downloaded or e-mailed directly to you. Use Eureka to locate materials outside of Yale.
  *USE LIMIT Command to locate Videos and Archival collections in Eureka

• The Federal Theatre Project : a catalog-calendar of productions. (New York, N.Y. : Greenwood Press, 1986.)
  SML, Stacks. PN2270 F43 F44 1986

• Federal Theatre Project.  A List of Negro plays. (New York City : National Service Bureau, Federal Theatre Project, Works Progress Administration, 1938.)
  Beinecke. JWJ Za F317 +938L
  Notes: "National Service Bureau publication, no 24-L." At head of title: National Service Bureau, Federal Theatre Project, Works Progress Administration. Reproduced from type-written copy. "Special bibliography": l. 53.

• Hatch, James Vernon. Black playwrights, 1823-1977 : an annotated bibliography of plays. (New York : Bowker, 1977.)
  SML, Reference. Z1231 D7 H37 (LC)
  Information about over 2,700 plays  by 900 playwrights.  Includes production information, bibliographies, and a list of oral history interviews in the Hatch-Billops Archive in New York City.

• Library of Congress. Copyright Office. Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States 1870 to 1916. 2 vol. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1918.
  SML Z5781 U55 (LC)
  SML Microform (temporary) PBT2840
  Includes over 60,000 titles of dramatic works registered from 1870 to the end of 1916. Cross references from alternate and translated titles. Arranged by title of play. Index to authors, translators, composers, editors, at end of vol. 2.

4. People and Places to know about in the Yale Library

• Reference Questions - Research Services & Collections
• Yale University Library Research Guide in Theater Studies
• Drama Library
• Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  • James Weldon Johnson Collection
• Yale Library: Manuscripts and Archives Department
  • Guide to Primary Sources in the Arts
• Newspaper and Microtext Room
• InterLibrary Loan

5. Web sites about African-American Theater

• American Variety Stage (Library of Congress)
• National Conference on African American Theatre
• Women of Color, Women of Words (Rutgers)