Overview
Primarily playbills and programs from American vaudeville shows.
Dates
- Creation: 1862-1905 and undated
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
.5 linear feet (1 portfolio box)Includes playbills, programs, and an autograph manuscript of an article Old time variety shows in the '60s, by H. B. White. Items are from various locales in the United States, especially from Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, and New York City.
Many playbills are in fragile condition, some torn and in pieces.
Biographical / Historical
Vaudeville was a type of variety theatrical entertainment in the United States and Canada from the late19th through the early 20th centuries. It was similar to modern musical comedy or the music-hall variety show. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, female and male impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by title or author.
Physical Location
pf
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Various sources, various dates.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
- Title
- American vaudeville collection, 1862-1905: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02120
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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