In-depth research will often take one to special materials at Yale. It is
important to know how and where to find out information about these materials
and resources.
The links below will descibe the main special resources and archives at Yale:
See also:
Sterling Memorial Library has over 1200 sets of microfilms and microfiches
concerning theater or drama. The following are some of the larger ones:
American theatre periodicals of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
19 microfilm reels.
SML Microform Room, Film B16608 (Guide: PN2000 A3
+A43 1989)
The most complete runs available of selected periodicals
dating from 1805 to 1929. For a fuller description click
here.
Drama on the world stage: prompt books and performance records.
Series 1. 55 microfilm reels.
SML Microform Room, Film B18215 (Guide: Z881 W324
D73 1989)
A collection of non-Shakespearean promptbooks from the 17th century through the 19th century, including plays by Middleton, Shirley, Congreve, Otway, Boucicault and Ibsen. There are promptbooks from well-known figures such as Samuel Phelps, W.C. Macready, and Charles Kean.
Drury Lane under Sheridan, 1776-1812: manuscript plays and managerial
correspondence from the British Library, London. 16 microfilm reels.
SML Microform Room, Film B18323
This publication offers 130 plays submitted to Richard
Brisley Sheridan during his years of proprietorship at the Theatre Royal,
Drury Lane, from 1776-1812. The papers and correspondence derive from both
the Additional Manuscripts (35118 and 4270-42723) and the Egerton Series (1975-1976).
Many of the alterations and directions were made by Sheridan himself. The
collection incorporates several volumes of correspondence, chiefly of Thomas
Sheridan, actor, theater-manager and father of R.B. Sheridan, as well as material
of R.B. Sheridan himself. Additionally, there are prologues and epilogues
to plays and fragments of dramatic pieces.
Loseley manuscripts, 1509-1625. 24 microfilm reels.
SML Microform Room, Film MISC 1367
Manuscripts and other rare documents, illustrative
of some of the more minute particulars of English history, biography, and manners,
from the reign of Henry VIII. to that of James I., preserved in the muniment
room of James More Molyneux, esq. at Loseley house, in Surrey.
New York Theater, 1919-1961. 877 microfiches.
SML Microform Room, Fiche B4177
The entire set contains 26,000 photographs from the
Vandamm Collection in The New York Public Library and Museum of the Performing
Arts. Yale has the following sections: Great American Drama (74 productions
- 87 microfiche); Modern European Drama (166 productions - 176 microfiche);
and Expressionist Theater (15 productions - 16 microfiche).
Nineteenth century theatre periodicals. 54 microfilm reels in 3
parts.
SML Microform Room, Film B16606 (Guide: PN2001 A1
+N55 1984)
Among the subjects covered in these periodicals are:
reviews of new plays and news of forthcoming production; criticism of individual
performances; illustration of popular scenes; biographies, pen portraits and
cartoons of theatrical personalities; and "Green Room" topics of
the day.
The papers of David Garrick.
SML Microform Room, Film B18355
This series provides a complete edition of the Garrick
correspondence from the John Forster Collection at the National Art Library.
The 2,000 letters include not only those to the members of his own company
(Charles Macklin, Mrs Cibber and Spranger Barry), but also to influential
dramatists such as George Colman, R.B. Sheridan and Charles Dibdin. Among
his many non-theatrical correspondents were statesmen, writers, artists, military
leaders and churchmen, including Hannah More, Chippendale, Sir Isaac Newton,
Thomas Gainsborough, Hogarth, William Cowper, Edmund Burke and Voltaire.
The papers of Henry Irving and Ellen Terry: from the Bram Stoker Collection,
the Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon. 30 microfilm reels
in 2 parts.
SML Microform Room, Film B18324
The material here includes many playtexts in various
stages of revision and alteration. Among the annotated versions are copies
of Cymbeline, Coriolanus and the prompt books for his acclaimed
Hamlet. Both Lyceum productions and the company's tours of America
are comprehensively documented. Part One covers the main sequence of playtexts
and adaptations, magazine articles, playbills and programs, tour records,
letters, pictures and reviews, filmed in chronological order by category.
Part Two includes the "portfolio" material of letters, drawings
and programs, and the press-cutting volumes covering the years 1883-98.
Public entertainments: a collection of pamphlets. 1 microfilm reel.
SML Microform Room, Film B4737
The Sadler's Wells archives from Finsbury Central Library, London.
SML Microform Room, Film B18322
The collection documents the rise of Grimaldi, the
heyday of popular classical theatre under Samuel Phelps in the 1840s, and
Sadler's Wells' evolution as a major venue for opera and dance. Included are
the manuscripts of 19th-century plays and pantomimes, the sheet music or lyrics
of songs performed by Grimaldi and others, performers' biographical materials,
press notices and reviews and programs for the period 1880-1912.
Theatre playbills
SML Microform Room, Fiche B4581(Guide: PN2093 .K3 1977)
Theatre playbills from North American nonprofit repertory theatres, 1947-1976, in the collection of the Theatre Communications Group, New York. Includes Yale Repertory Theatre and Long Wharf Theatre.
Twentieth century British theatre periodicals.
SML Microform Room, Film B16607 (Guide: PN2001 A1
+T85 1987)
Contains the complete runs of The playgoer,
1901-1904, and Play pictorial, 1902-1939. 11 microfilm reels.
The theater and drama-related archives are the Crawford
Theater Collection, the Records of the Dean of the Yale School of Drama
(including Robert Brustein, Howard Stein, and Lloyd Richards),
and the papers of George Pierce Baker, Edward C. Cole, Walter
Prichard Eaton, Harvey Fierstein, John Gassner, Frank Alonzo McMullan, and
Thomas Wilfred.
Some collections and archives of interest:
Philip Barry
Some scripts and photos.
Frank Bevan
Witold Gombrowicz
Hutchins Hapgood
Robert Edmond Jones
Eugene O'Neill
Includes scripts and photos for major play productions, correspondence, other documentation. There are also several related collections; inquire with Beinecke staff.
Phoenix Theatre
Lloyd Richards papers, ca. 1979-1991.
Theatre Guild
Photographs and promptbooks for many productions, as
well as correspondence and financial documents.
Thornton Wilder
Includes scripts and photos for major play productions, biographical materials, other documentation.
The YCBA has its own
library.
Materials include items in the following collections:
- Prints & Drawings collection (mainly of Shakespearean scenes and
actors)
- The Boydell collection of Shakespeare prints
- The Nathan collection on London landmarks (including theaters)
- Paul Mellon collection
- Works by Hogarth
- plus rare books, toy theaters, fabric samples, pop-up books, and other
collections.
The YCBA ia also often referred to as the British Art Center (BAC).
Please contact the YCBA librarians at ycba.reference@yale.edu
(203.432.2818), for further information and resources and services.
At the School of Drama
Allardyce Nicoll's "Rockefeller" collection on European theater
Design collections: Donald Oenslager, Joe Greenhoe, Robert Edmund Jones,
costume collection
Doolittle Japanese drama collection
Some Greek and Roman artifacts, Asain materials (including prints on Japanese
theater), Edwin Austin Abbey's Shakespearean paintings, Gavarni's carnival lithographs,
and other materials.
There are numerous theater-related images throughout the VRC in a variety
of formats (paper, slides, digital images). A particularly large group of
slides, the Robin Thurlow Lacy slides (primarily copystand photos), is currently
housed at the Mudd Library, but can be viewed at the VRC by special arrangement.
Yale University Library Research Guide in Theater Studies