Volume of playbills and programmes

Volume containing playbills, theatre, concert and opera programmes and associated printed material, mostly performed at London venues but also at venues in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Many of the programmes are undated. However, in the publication by Clement Scott, 'The Drama of Yesterday & Today' (London: Macmillan & Co, 1899) there is an appendix which comprises an alphabetical list of important plays produced in London between 1830 (the end of Genest's History) to the close of the century. This listing gives the date of the opening performance and the name of the theatre where the play was performed and so where identification has been possible, details of such dates have been incorporated in square brackets into the description.

The compiler of the volume is unknown.

There is no discernible order to the way the material has been bound. Each item has been catalogued at item level.

Access to all registered researchers

Purchased from S. Crowe, May 1964.

Please see the full catalogue for further details.

Some playbills are printed on crepe paper (see MS110/98 and MS110/99). Some items appear to have been cut out of this volume (between MS110/111 and MS110/112).

Papers initially described during 2002. Additional work completed by Mark Eccleston, December 2010.

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director of Special Collections (email: special-collections@contacts.bham.ac.uk ). Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

This volume was accessioned as University Library book no. 566862 and its contents were formerly numbered 6022-6336 and incorporated into a collection called the Theatre Collection. The volume has now been identified as an acquisition unconnected with the Theatre Collection and its contents have now been catalogued as a discrete collection.

Cadbury Research Library holds other personal and artificial collections of theatre playbills, programmes, newscuttings and associated materials. The largest collection is the Theatre Collection, MS38 . Smaller collections include the Heron-Allen album of playbills, MS107 ; Colyer-Fergusson albums, MS108 ; the Williams Theatre collection, MS109 ; an album of programmes, MS111 ; the Louis Cohen Collection, MS112 ; the Kemp album, MS113 ; a volume of Shakespearian souvenirs and programmes, MS114 ; and an album of presscuttings, photographs and theatre programmes, MS808