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Collection Overview
Title: Theatrical Print collection, 1720-1927
Predominant Dates:1770-1893
ID: 02/Theatrical Prints
Primary Creator: Leavitt, Theodore
Other Creators: Hewitt, Barnard (1906-1987), Shattuck, Charles Harlen (1910-1992)
Extent: 9.0 Cubic Feet
Arrangement: Series 1 is alphabetical by actor's last name, except Box 22, which is by title of play.� Prints of theatres in Series 2 are arranged alphabetically by name of theatre.� Programs in Series 3 are arranged alphabetically by the name of the theatre. Photographs in Series 4 are arranged first by type (cabinet cards then photographs) and alphabetical by performer's last name thereunder.
Date Acquired: 01/10/1953
Subjects: Actors, Theater
Forms of Material: Broadsides, Photographs, Playbills, Printed ephemera, Prints, Theater programs
Languages: English
Scope and Contents of the Materials
Assembled by Theodore Leavitt. Prints (etchings, engravings, lithographs, mezzotints, wood engravings, aquatints, photogravures, photomechanical prints) of actors, scenes from plays and theatre exteriors. Also contains theatre programs/playbills, most of which are broadsides. The bulk of the prints are of actors, other performers and dramatists, and most of these represent the performer in costume for a particular role. There are some photographs, including cabinet cards, and original drawings as well. Filed along with the prints of actors are brief biographies written (ca. 1953) by students of professors Barnard Hewitt and Charles Shattuck.
Biographical Note
Theodore Leavitt was a print collector and the manager of the Bar Harbor, Maine, Playhouse. It is believed that he sold his collection of theatrical prints to A&B Booksellers in New York, and it is this collection that was later purchased by the University of Illinois in 1953.
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository:
Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Access Restrictions:
Open to researchers.
Use Restrictions:
The RBML reproductions policies can be found here:
http://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/ReproductionServices.htm
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials.
Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study scholarship or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would damage materials or involve violation of copyright law.
Acquisition Source:
A & B Booksellers, New York
Acquisition Method:
The University of Illinois Foundation paid for the collection in February 1953 and the Department of Speech paid for the postage, according to a ledger in the Special Collections Acquisition File, 1905-1996 (University Archives record group 35/1/19, Box 7).
Related Materials:
Barnard Hewitt Papers (University Archives Record Series Number: 12/11/20).� Charles H. Shattuck Papers (University Archives Record Series Number: 15/7/39). Theatre Program Collection (#37). Alyene Westall Prehn Theatre Program Collection (#36).
Processing Information:
https://wiki.cites.uiuc.edu/wiki/display/librare/Home
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Series:
[
Series 1: Prints: Portraits & Scenes],
[
Series 2: Prints: Theatres],
[Series 3: Theatre Programs (Broadsides)],
[
Series 4: Photographs],
[
All]
- Series 3: Theatre Programs (Broadsides)

- Theatre programs/playbills from the United States and the United Kingdom, containing dates of performances, venues, casts. Most are broadsides.
- Box 23

- Folder 57: Baldwin Theatre (San Francisco), 1891

- Folder 58: Covent Garden, 1807-1817

- Folder 59: Covent Garden, 1819-1822

- Folder 60: Covent Garden, 1823

- Folder 61: Covent Garden, 1823-1824

- Folder 62: Covent Garden, 1824

- Folder 63: Covent Garden, 1825

- Folder 64: Covent Garden, 1827

- Folder 65: Covent Garden, 1828

- Folder 66: Covent Garden, 1828

- Folder 67: Covent Garden, 1829-1836

- Folder 68: Drury Lane, 1790-1815

- Folder 69: Drury Lane, 1816-1817

- Folder 70: Drury Lane, 1818-1819

- Folder 71: Drury Lane, 1820-1839

- Folder 72: Ford's Theatre, 1862

- Folder 73: Haymarket, 1831-1835

- Folder 74: Howard Athenaeum, 1848

- Box-Folder 26/3,5: OVERSIZE Materials

Arrangement: Oversize print materials will be stored in either oversize print shelving in UL6 South or will be stored in map cases in LL6 North. Oversize manuscript materials will, by and large, be stored in oversize boxes in UL 6 North. Collections are arranged in oversize locations by collection ID number.
These materials are filed in print shelving and the map-cases, as indicated below.
- Folder 3

- Item 1: Howard Athenaeum, 1948

- Item 2: Howard Athenaeum, 1948

- Item 3: Howard Atheneaum, 1850

- Folder 5

- Item 3: New Adelphi, 1859

- Item 2: Haymarket, 1850

- Flat File Drawer 2/1, 2, 4, 5

- Folder 1: New York and Boston, 1860-1861

- Item 1: Academy of Music, 1861

- Item 2: Niblo's Garden, 1860

- Item 3: Bowery Theatre, 1860

- Folder 2: Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1857-1863

- Item 1: Edinburgh -Theatre Royal, 1857

- Item 2: Edinburgh -Theatre Royal, 1857

- Item 3: Edinburgh -Theatre Royal, 1857

- Item 4: Prince's Theatre (Glasgow), 1863

- Folder 4: Middlesbrough-Theatre Royal, 1873-1876

- Item 1: Middlesbrough-Theatre Royal, 1873

- Item 2: Middlesbrough-Theatre Royal, 1873

- Item 3: Middlesbrough-Theatre Royal, 1876

- Folder 5: London, 1850-1859

- Item 1: Haymarket, 1850

Browse by Series:
[
Series 1: Prints: Portraits & Scenes],
[
Series 2: Prints: Theatres],
[Series 3: Theatre Programs (Broadsides)],
[
Series 4: Photographs],
[
All]