Finding aids for nine newly cataloged collections, and a preliminary box list for four recent acquisitions, have been added to the OASIS database this month, including a rare collection of tinsel prints, portraits of actors in character, decorated with bright metal foil costume pieces.

Late in 1891 Steele MacKaye embarked on one of the most outlandish enterprises in theatrical history. Without as much as a prop or a single penny, he had wooed the president of the World’s Columbian Exposition into adopting his proposal to erect the largest theatre ever built and to reenact on its colossal stage Columbus’ Read More

Eleanor M. Garvey, retired Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library, passed away February 11, 2013, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her many friends and acquaintances will miss her warmth, vivacity, generosity of spirit, and gift for friendship. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Elli Garvey attended local schools, graduated from Wellesley College, Class of 1940, and earned Read More

Graphology is not necessarily a part of my job description. But, as the curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room, I’ve had occasion to grow curious about the convergence of an author’s handwriting with the audio recordings in our collection. Sound archives offer a particularly compelling constellation of human tools and technology. In the case of Read More

Long before Nintendo or choose you own adventure books the toy theatre was a beloved pastime in 19th-century England. Though its beginning is somewhat unclear, the origins of the toy theatre, also referred to broadly as juvenile drama, can be traced to the early 1800s. Publishers J. K. (John Kilby) Green, William West and R. Read More