Harvard Theatre Collection of theatrical portrait photographs

Includes portrait photographs, mainly black and white, of theatrical performers, as well as a few portraits of film actors, playwrights, theatrical and film directors, and designers. The portraits range from approximately 1860 through the 1970s, with the bulk of the oversize photographs dating from about 1880-1930, and include multiple photographic processes. A few have been hand-colored or otherwise physically altered. Many include annotations on the back describing the productions, or inscriptions and autographs on the front. A few are accompanied by written or typed biographies or reviews of performances or productions. Most of the performers appear to have been in productions in the United States, primarily in New York and Boston. A considerable number of portraits of Julia Arthur, an actress working around the turn of the twentieth century, are included, as are actors from a number of productions from the Tremont and Hollis Street Theatres in Boston in the 1920s.

The oversize materials have been processed, while additional boxed materials (which include further performers and figures from theatrical and film history) have not been processed, and are not included in the existing list of contents.