Francis Lister Collection

Scope and Content

The collection relating to the career of the actor Francis Lister was presented to the V&A by his son Francis S. Lister. The collection originally comprised of six ringbinder albums containing press cuttings, transcripts of reviews, programmes, photographs and other material relating to his career.

For conservation reasons, the material was removed from the ring binders and was re-housed into folders maintaining the original arrangement of the binders.

Administrative / Biographical History

Francis Lister, born 1899 and died 1955, was an actor appearing both on stage and film. He also featured on a number of radio programmes details of which can be found in the collection.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is available for consultation in the V&A Department of Theatre & Performance's Reading Room, which is located at Blythe House, 23 Blythe Road, Olympia, London, W14 0QX. The Reading Room is open Tuesday to Friday between 10.15 am and 4.30 pm. Access to it is by appointment only. To request an appointment please email tmenquiries@vam.ac.uk or telephone 020 7942 2698.

Access to some of these files may be restricted. These are identified at file level.

Conditions Governing Use

Archive material may not be photocopied. Arrangements can be made to photograph material in the search room using non-flash photography.

Custodial History

This collection contains material relating to the career of the actor Francis Lister including reviews, newspaper cuttings, programmes, photographs, etc.

This collection was given to the V&A's Enthoven Collection by his son, Francis S. Lister in 1952.

Originally comprising of six ringbinders, they were integrated into the core collections of the Theatre and Performance collection. In 2011 these were removed from the biographical section and are now documented as a separate archival collection. For conservation reasons, the material was removed from the ringbinders and transferred to archival quality housing materials. The original arrangement has been preserved.

Accruals

No accruals are expected.

Related Material

See also the core collections of the V&A Theatre and Performance Department. Material may be found in several collections, including the biographical, productions, company and photographs files.

Please ask for details.