LibGuides: Theatre: Primary & Historical Sources

Reed Special Collections & Archives

Reed’s Special Collections and Archives provides access to rare books, manuscripts, college archives, and other primary source materials with enduring historical value, including a variety of materials related to the performing arts. Select resources are available online via Reed Digital Collections.

Try adding any of the following terms to a keyword search in the library catalog:

personal narratives
diaries
letters
correspondence
memoirs
maps
pictorial works

Even adding the term "sources" to your search can help limit your results to primary sources.

Selected Online Primary Sources

Check out the News & Review s and Fashion & Design pages on this guide for additional resources.

Online Research Tools and Aids
Billy Rose Theatre Collection
Digital gallery for the Billy Rose theatre collection at New York Public Library.
The University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center
Access primary source materials held at UT Austin's Harry Ransom Center: letters and manuscripts by Oscar Wilde, early editions of Shakespeare, and more.
Yale's University's Beinecke Library
Access primary source materials held at Yale University's Beinecke Library: the Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Papers, the Eugene O'Neill Papers, and more.
The Comédie-Française Registers Project
Access box office receipts and other administrative documents for the Comédie-Française.
The Roundabout Theatre Company Archives
Online access to Company archival materials, including production photographs, set and costume sketches, scripts, cast recordings, and theatre reconstruction documentation.
Russian theatre designs from the Harvard Library collection
The entire collection of original Russian art work in the Harvard Theatre Collection, which comprises approximately 650 theatrical designs and portraits has been cataloged and digitized. Most of these are associated with productions of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
Unfinished histories
Interviews and related archival material documenting the history of alternative theatre, 1968-88.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
Selected catalogs for archival materials held in the Victoria and Albert Museum's Theatre and Performance Collection.
BAM Hamm Archives
Materials and documents, including images, text, video, and audio recordings, that chronicle the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s ongoing history, programs, and people.
Library of Congress Digital Theater Resources
Archive.org

Early English Books Online (EEBO) (1473 - 1700) This link opens in a new window
Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (1701 - 1800) This link opens in a new window
A full text, searchable, digital facsimile collection of over 180,000 titles. Includes books, pamphlets, broadsides, essays and more.

Other Relevant Research Guides

Primary Sources in History
Collections of primary sources in history, including newspapers, letters and diaries, and images
Primary Sources in English
Links to historical collections of English texts, including plays
Finding and Using Visual Resources