Isham Memorial Library
The Isham Library and Merritt Room house the Music Library's special collections. Request them through HOLLIS Special Request for use in the Houghton Library Reading Room.
Don't miss these collections:
- Eubie Blake papers: letters from Eubie Blake to William D. Smith and Peggy Smith, as well as sheet music, newspaper clippings, journal articles, concert programs. Also included: letters from Marion Blake, Eubie Blake's wife, and from Ivan Harold Browning, a singer and collaborator with Blake.
- Continuity scripts (link to HOLLIS search results): used in the editing process of filmed musical productions, including scripts for Fiddler on the Roof, On the Town, The Pajama Game, and others.
- George Gershwin (link to HOLLIS search results): Multiple early editions of the score to Porgy and Bess as well as programs and other ephemera surrounding the various premieres.
Houghton Library/Harvard Theatre Collection
The Houghton Library is Harvard's main rare book and manuscript library. Its music-related holdings include manuscript scores, early editions, correspondence, and composers' papers.
- See Houghton Library: A Student's Guide for tips about using the collection.
The Harvard Theatre Collection, a department of Houghton, is one of the largest performing arts collections in the world, and the oldest internationally-significant theater collection.
Its holdings include rare books and manuscripts, scripts and prompt books, letters, contracts and documents, musical scores, libretti, and sheet music, original scene and costume designs, and audio and visual recordings, together with vast collections of programs and playbills, posters, engravings and prints, photographs, and ephemera.
- See The Harvard Theatre Collection: A Guide for Researchers for more information about finding and using items from the collection.
Theater and Performance at Harvard
These are only a few of Harvard's archival materials devoted to performance at the university. Many are held by the Harvard University Archives, which documents the institutional, intellectual, and social life of the University and the Harvard community.
- American Repertory Theatre (Cambridge, Mass.) Prompt Books and Related Materials, 1961-2006 byCall Number: Theatre Collection: Harvard Depository MS Thr 529The collection largely consists of prompt books, but also includes scripts, technical notes, printed music, floppy disks, slides, annual reports, and press kits related to productions done by various Harvard University drama groups such as the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club and the Hasty Pudding Club, and by the American Repertory Theatre (ART).
- Records Relating to Dramatics 1965-1993 byCall Number: Harvard University Archives: Harvard Depository UAIII 5.95.35Includes memoranda, syllabi of drama courses, curriculum vitae of persons seeking teaching positions, reports, bulletins of the Harvard-Radcliffe Drama Society (HRDS), Minutes of the Standing Committee on Dramatics, statistics on student performances and course evaluations, correspondence and other records relating to the HRDS and the American Repertory Theatre, including the Institute for Advanced Theater Studies.
- Records of the Hasty Pudding Club, 1795- byCall Number: Harvard University Archives: HUD 3447.xx-.9xxContains Club Secretary's minutes, 1795-1929; correspondence; financial records; and committee records and reports including Alligator records, 1848-1916. Hasty Pudding Club Library material includes account books, bookplates, lists of members, catalogs, and registers. Theatre records contain account books, correspondence, memorabilia, and scrapbooks. In addition, there are clippings, leaflets, odes and orations, poems, catalogs of officers and members of the club, programs, original songs and music, menus, constitutions, and published histories of the club.
- Records of the Loeb Drama Center, 1960-1971 byCall Number: Harvard University Archives: UAV 531.470 hd and UAV 531.3 hdThe Loeb Drama Center was built in 1960 and houses two theatres plus class and rehearsal rooms, shops, and offices. Two related organizations share the facility: the student-run Harvard-Radcliffe Drama Club and the professional American Repertory Theatre. Consists of general correspondence files; and records about Charles Eames' lectures.
CURIOSity Digital Collections
Explore digitally-available collections of archival materials on topics in musical theater, curated by Harvard University librarians and archivists.
- In Black and White: This digital collection features dozens of images from Dutchman and Funnyhouse of a Negro taken during rehearsals and live performances in 1964, that were on view at Houghton Library from March-July 2022.
- Anna May Wong Abroad, 1928-1936: This collection documents the years that the Chinese American movie star Anna May Wong spent performing in Europe. After moving to Berlin in 1928, she took on leading roles in film and made her debut as a stage performer in the theater and opera.
Beyond Harvard: Continuing Your Research
Many other libraries and archives have significant collections of musical theater materials. Some of the major collections are listed below. While researchers must visit for full access to most collections, some inventories and digitized materials are available online.
Find links to other collections and websites in the research guide Online Resources for Music Scholars; try starting with the subject tag "musical theatre".
- The New York Public Library for the Performing ArtsThe music, dance, and theatre collections of the NYPL, one of the largest performing arts research libraries in the world. Their collections include the papers of Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Harold Prince, and many other influential figures in musical theater.
- Library of Congress: Performing Arts Resource GuideIn addition to large collections of sheet music and recordings, The Library of Congress Music Division holds the personal papers of Richard Rodgers, George and Ira Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and many others.
- Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston UniversitySignificant archival collections of music, theatre, and dance materials. Check the listing of collections by subject to quickly review their holdings.
- Research Guide: Finding Manuscript and Archival CollectionsFind the locations of manuscript and archival collections: where to look and how to search.
