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A collection of letters, manuscripts, and documents of prominent actors, actresses, and theatrical managers. Many of these are single, unrelated items. The largest body of correspondence is from the American actress, Charlotte Cushman (14 letters). Another figure of major interest is William Charles Macready, partly because of Miss Cushman's relationship to him (she toured with him for several years) and also as there are several of his letters. Sir Henry Irving, Edwin Forrest and James Mowatt are each represented by a few letters. A group of 8 unsigned letters may have been written by the famous singer, actress, and manager, Eliza Vestris. One box contains manuscripts of Samuel Coit, Charlotte Cushman, Clyde Fitch, Wallace Gould, Henry von Heiseler, E.H. Sothern, and Lester Wallack. Six boxes contain Augustin Daly's check stubs and bank books for Daly's Theatre, New York, for 1872-1899. (For additional Augustin Daly business records, see description sheets for Daly's Theatre Collection, X810.128/D15& the Dramatic Library Collection shelf list).

A collection of prints, photographs, pamphlets, clippings, playbills, and programs dealing with the theater, chiefly American and English, in all its aspects including drama, opera, dance, movies, puppets, and spectacles. The majority of the material documents the 19th century.

Office files consisting of correspondence, reports, memoranda, and other documents relating to the operation of the Museum. Included are numerous biographical and topical folders on the theatrical subjects such as David Belasco, Costumes, French stage models, Helen Hayes, etc. Masks and Puppets account for 29 folders.

Correspondence, scripts, slides, scores, set designs, prompt books, scrapbooks, costume designs, programs, playbills, broadsides, clippings, fliers, photographs, announcements of forthcoming productions, clippings, and related materials. Columbia University theatrical groups include The Columbia Laboratory Players, The Columbia College Dramatic Group, The Wigs and Cues, The Summer Session Classes in Play Production, The Morningside Players, and the Columbia Theatre Associates which superseded all the preceding groups. There is an extensive file on the Columbia Laboratory Players; including production files that document the various stages involved in putting together a dramatic production. In addition there are typewritten scripts representing the spectrum of plays that were produced over the Lab's active years. There are photographs of only a few specific plays. Non Lab materials relate to Rehersal Course productions, a Columbia English Department course that was closely affiliated with the Lab players

Correspondence, manuscripts, notecards, tabulation sheets, microfilms, photographs, and photostats. The bulk of the collection is made up of his Columbia University doctoral dissertation, THE OLD STOCK COMPANY SCHOOL OF ACTING; A STUDY OF THE BOSTON MUSEUM, and related research materials. The dissertation, published in 1945, uses the Bostom Museum Stock Company to exemplify the nature of American dramatic arts in the nineteenth century vis-a-vis professional theater organizations and their dual purpose of producing shows and training actors. The research materials appear in a variety of formats: chronological lists on notecards recording the actors that performed in particular plays; tabulation sheets that fulfill many purposes, such as recording each actor's experience, the roles the actors played, and the years that they were active with the company. Photographs include those taken of theater sets, actors in costume, and pictures of the Museum building. Photostats and microfilms are almost entirely reproductions of advertisements and flyers

This collection includes nine letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson as well as letters of Louis Agassiz, Amos Bronson Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, John Lothrop Motley, Charles Sumner, and John Greenleaf Whittier. In addition, there are two incomplete manuscripts by Emerson and one document from the Liverpool Custom-house signed by Nathaniel Hawthorne as Consul for the United States. The collection also includes the corrected typescript, index, and page and galley proofs for Thomas Franklin Currier, A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (New York, 1953) which was edited by Professor Tilton. Also, some early correspondence and photographs of the Tilton family and friends. There are letters from the actors Annie Louise Ames, Richard J. Dillon, and Hans L. Meery to Tilton's grandfather, Bernard Paul Verne, as well as photographs, tintypes, and daguerreotypes of the Verne family and friends.

Correspondence, manuscripts, papers, essays, etc. relating to Berlioz, and 19th century arts and literature. The correspondence includes original Berlioz letters and over 200 copies of letters relating to Berlioz and the romantic era, written by musicians, critics, historians, and literateurs of the past century. There are many photostats of letters and manuscripts obtained from the principal libraries of the world which hold original Berlioz material. The collection includes much printed material in the form of music scores, published letters, essays, clippings, biographies, music and book catalogues, program notes, and playbills.

Correspondence and inscribed photographs sent to Paul Palmer. Mr. Palmer has collected portraits of film and theater notables and other celebrities since the 1920s. Many of the photographs are inscribed to him and there is some correspondence as well as lobby display cards. Among the cataloged names are: Katharine Cornell, Lillian & Dorothy Gish, Rudyard Kipling, Gertrude Lawrence, Sir Compton Mackenzie, Mary Pickford, Constance & Norma Talmadge, Dame Sybil Thorndike, and H. G. Wells