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Correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, commonplace books, drawings, photographs, and printed materials. The collection is a comprehensive documentation of the dramatist's career and includes manuscripts, typescripts, notes, and costume and scenic design for more than seventy of his plays and related writings; 31 diaries, commonplace books, and scrapbooks containing manuscript and typescript notes, travel sketches, original drawings, and photographs; and correspondence files including letters from Harley Granville-Barker, Sir Herbert Beerbohm-Tree, John Galsworthy, Booth Tarkington, and Thornton Wilder. Austin Strong's mother, Isobel Field, was the step-daughter of Robert Louis Stevenson. Consequently, the collection contains much Stevensoniana, including photographs and Isobel Field's letters from Western Samoa, where she was known as "Teuila." Also, correspondence and photographs relating to Cornwall Park, Auckland, New Zealand, which was designed by Austin Strong.

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).

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.

A collection of letters, engravings, prints, portraits, caricatures, other illustrations, and printed materials relating to Charles Dickens. Among the letters is an autograph letter by Dickens and copies of several Dickens letters to the publishers Lea & Blanchard. Many of the illustrations are portraits of Dickens while others are illustrations for his novels and stories, including numerous illustrations of scenes from dramatic versions of his works as well as some playbills for these productions.

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 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

Theatrical memorabilia such as programs, playbills, photographs, engravings, and prints. Although there are some playbills as early as 1770, most of the material is from the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to plays there is some material relating to concerts, operettas, musical comedies, musical revues, and movies. The majority of the collection centers around Shakespeare. Included with an unbound copy of each play (The Edinburgh Shakespeare Folio Edition) there are portraits, engravings, and photographs of actors in their roles; playbills; programs; cast lists; other types of illustrative material; reviews of various productions; and other printed material. Such well known names as George Arliss, Sarah Bernhardt, the Booths, John Drew, the Barrymores, and William Gillette are included in this collection.

Correspondence, manuscripts, playscripts, screenplays, diaries, documents, contracts, financial records, photographs, phonograph records, motion pictures, playbills, posters, sheet music, cartoons, art work, memorabilia, scrapbooks, and printed materials. . The collection consists chiefly of correspondence and production files relating to the creation, production, and performance of their works for stage, screen, radio, and television, such as Leave It To Me and Kiss Me Kate (with music by Cole Porter), Boy Meets Girl, and My Three Angels. Correspondence (with twentieth century authors, playwrights, musicians, political figures, and actors) includes: George Abbott, Jean Arthur, Bennett Cerf, Katharine Cornell, Jo Davidson, George and Ira Gershwin, Alec Guinness, W. Averell Harriman, Lilli Lehmann, Mary Martin, Laurence Olivier, Mary Pickford, Cole Porter, Regina Resnick, Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert E. Sherwood, Lincoln Steffens, Kurt Weill, Rebecca West, and Thornton Wilder. There is also correspondence concerning Bella Spewack's work with the New York Girls' Scholarship, UNRA, and the Sports Center of Israel. In addition to the production files, there are manuscripts and typescript drafts for novels, short stories, and articles by the Spewacks.