Overview
Printed materials from productions of outdoor drama in the United States.
Dates
- Creation: 1909-1993
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
The majority of this collection 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
6 linear feet (12 boxes, 2 folders)Includes materials primarily relating to outdoor symphonic drama, but also includes a few historical pageants. Includes programs, fliers, photographs of productions, photographic postcards, color slides, clippings, press kits, press releases, ticket stubs, window card, bumper stickers, correspondence, transparencies, songbooks, and printed script (documents). Collection has materials for a great many productions written by Paul Green, some by Kermit Hunter, a small Joseph Lindon Smith collection, as well as many others.
Biographical / Historical
Outdoor drama is a type of historical play, set outdoors, often on the very site depicted in the account. It usually combines music, dance, and drama in a unique way to tell the story. It is most like historical pageantry performed in Europe in the Middle Ages and the best known example being the Passionplay at Oberammergau, Germany. Many big, spectacular stage events called pageants became popular in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. These pageants showed a series of scenes in which historical events followed one another. The Lost Colony, by American playwright Paul Green, was produced in 1937 and is considered the oldest outdoor historical symphonic drama in the United States.
Arrangement
Organized alphabetically by name of state, then by producer or title. General and oversized items are at end.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Sources unknown, dates unknown.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
- Title
- American outdoor drama and pageant collection, 1909-1993: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02369
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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