Harvard Theatre Collection playbills, programs, advertisements, and other material related to theatrical production
Scope and Contents
Playbills, programs, advertisements, and other material announcing or publicizing theatrical productions. This collection is an assembled collection. Other than format, the contents are not related.
Dates
- Creation: 1647-2018
Language of Materials
English, French, German, Dutch, Italian
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research; access restrictions are noted with the item where they exist.
Extent
4.4 linear feet (3 boxes and 94 folders)Arrangement
Arranged in accession number order, as received in the repository, then by place and theater name. Oversized materials may lack accession numbers, and are arranged by place and theater name, or production title, as available.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquisition information is given with the item, if known.
Processing Information
Processed by: Melanie Wisner and other Houghton Library staff.
Processing Information
This finding aid was reviewed in 2024 to address outdated and harmful descriptive language.There were three instances of the terms, two of which were included in playbills for productions written and/or produced by Black Americans in the first half of the twentieth century, while one was the title of a Blackface minstrelsy show. Contextual notes were provided for each case, but the term was not removed in any case due to inclusion in a group name, description written by Black Americans advertising performances, and a formal title. If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Houghton Library. For more information on reparative archival description at Harvard, see Harvard Library’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
- Title
- Harvard Theatre Collection playbills, programs, advertisements, and other material related to theatrical production (HTC 1): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou02493
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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