Rogers Memorial Collection: Musical and theatrical programs
Overview
Programs for musical and theatrical performances, many of them from Boston (Mass.), collected by Henry Munroe Rogers and Clara Kathleen Rogers.
Dates
- 1794-1937
- Majority of material found within 1845-1937
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
This series is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
2 linear feet (7 boxes, 1 portfolio folder)This collection consists primarily of programs from plays and concerts in the Boston (Mass.) area, with substantial numbers also from New York (N.Y.) and London (England). Many of these programs feature friends of Henry Munroe Rogers from the theatrical world such as Julia Marlowe, E.H. (Edward Hugh) Sothern, and Edward Smith Willard. Some also feature his wife Clara Kathleen Rogers as composer or singer.
Biographical / Historical
Henry Munroe Rogers (1839-1937) was a Boston lawyer and a patron of local theater. Born in Boston, he was one of six children of John Hicks Rogers and Lucy Catherine Smith. He attended Harvard College (A.B. 1862; L.L.B. 1867) and served as a paymaster in the United States Navy during the Civil War. He became a successful Boston lawyer and a charter member in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. After his marriage in 1878 to the English opera singer Clara Kathleen Barnett (daughter of the English composer John Barnett), the couple entertained many theatrical, literary and musical luminaries in their home.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by venue.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Provenance :
Most of the programs appear to be from performances which Henry Munroe Rogers actually attended, from childhood through his late nineties, but some were gathered by Rogers as a collector, including several London programs dated 1794 to 1838 which he received from Arthur H. Brown after 1914. See list in the Rogers Memorial Room Records, MS Thr 470 (1533) - (1545), item (1538).
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Gift of Clara Kathleen Rogers and Henry Munroe Rogers; received: 1930.
The core of the collection arrived in 1930, but Henry Munroe Rogers continued to add material informally through 1937.
Separated Materials
The Rogers Memorial Collection, of which this is Series V, contains literary, musical and historical material from Boston circa 1870-1930, and memorabilia of the English composer John Barnett (1802-1890). A master list of the Rogers Memorial Collection series can be found in HOLLIS 10104119.
Bibliography
Processing Information
Processed by: Rick Stattler
- Title
- Rogers, Henry Munroe, 1839-1937, collector. Rogers Memorial Collection: Musical and theatrical programs 1794-1937: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou01906
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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