William and Jean Eckart theater design archives
Overview
Professional and personal papers of American theatrical designers, William and Jean Eckart.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1922-2000
Creator
- Eckart, Jean (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
Except for audiovisual media for which there is no surrogate, there are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
Restricted: surrogate required; consult curatorial staff (Recordings: Audiocassettes).
The bulk of this collection is shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
77 linear feet (143 boxes, 9 drawers)The collection includes some material on the Eckarts' early lives but chiefly documents their professional work. Included are: scripts and production notebooks; ground and architectural plans; models; designs; slides; recordings; personal papers; and clippings.
Biographical / Historical
Jean Eckart (née Levy, 1921-1993) and William Eckart (1920-2000), theatrical designers, met in 1943 while students in New Orleans, attending the Yale School of Drama together; they moved in 1971 to Dallas to teach at Southern Methodist University. Their design work was primarily for sets and theater architecture but included costumes and lighting, mostly for theatrical musicals and occasionally for television.
Arrangement
Collection was originally arranged in 18 series by material type: A. scripts; B. miscellaneous books and notebooks; C. Playbills; D. ground plans; E. architectural plans; F, F*. designs; G, L. source material; H. models and model pieces; J. production papers; K. framed material; M. slides; N. production notebooks; R. recordings; S. printed and edited typescript scripts; T. personal papers; and U. clippings. These series have been retained but reordered in this finding aid.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Other Finding Aids
See the binder on this collection (filed by call number, MS Thr 2058) for partial itemization of series.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2006MT-280. Purchased, 2007 July.
Processing Information
Processed by Melanie Wisner, March 2020.
Creator
- Eckart, Jean (Person)
- Eckart, William (Person)
- Title
- Eckart, William. William and Jean Eckart theater design archives, circa 1922-2000 (MS Thr 2058): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2020 March 20
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03331
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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