Uncle Tom's Cabin playbills and other material
Overview
Playbills and advertisements and other material for various dramatic performances of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Dates
- 1852-1953 and undated
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.
Extent
.5 linear feet (2 boxes and 8 folders)Collection includes original printed playbills, programs, posters, and advertisements for dramatic productions of Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. Also includes: carte-de-visite (card photograph); obituaries; and booking letters. Playbills are for theaters in Boston, London and other cities in England, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, San Francisco, among others, as well as for theaters in many unidentified cities.
Biographical / Historical
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The text was initially released in serial format in the National Era, a weekly newspaper, from June 5, 1851-April 1, 1852, and then published in 1852 as a two volume book. It became the best-selling novel of the 19th-century, translated into dozens of languages. Stage plays based on the novel called "Tom shows" began to appear while the novel was still being serialized, however Stowe refused to actually authorize any dramatization of her work.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Playbills, by date
- II. Playbills, undated
- III. Posters
Physical Location
b, pf, ppf
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Various sources, various dates.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
- Title
- Uncle Tom's Cabin playbills and other material, 1852-1953: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02447
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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