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Drama Resources at Yale Library: Orientation Resources

A guide to online resources available through the Yale University Library for drama, theater, and the performing arts.

Collection Materials Used During Visit to Beinecke Library on August 25, 2022

Crawford Theater Collection

Album of newspaper clippings, etchings, and photographs documenting theater buildings in New York City, circa 1850-1870. MS 1387, Series IV, Box 436.

Album of newspaper clippings relating to Haverly's Mastodon Minstrels, 1881. MS 1387, Series IV, Box 436.

Drama League Monthly (Mount Morris, Illinois). MS 1387, Series VI, Box 508.

  • Volume I, Number 3 (October 1916)
  • Volume I, Number 4 (November 1916)
  • Volume I, Number 6 (January 1917)
  • Volume I, Number 7 (February 1917)
  • Volume I, Number 8 (March 1917)
  • Volume II, Number 1 (April 1917)
  • Volume II, Number 7 (January 1918)
  • Volume III, Number 7 (March 1919)
  • Volume III, Number 8 (April 1919)

The Theatrical Observer and Daily Bills of Play (London, England). MS 1387, Series VI, Box 508.

  • Scattered issues, October 1830-February 1832.

Adella Fowler Larkin Correspondence

Letters from Almira (Myra) Mills Fowler McFarland to her sister Adella (Della) Fowler Larkin, 1868-1869. Myra Fowler McFarland was a teacher with the American Missionary Association who worked with African American freedmen in the South during and after the Civil War. GEN MSS 921, Series I, Box 2, Folder 12.

Bonnie and Semoura Clark Black Vaudeville Photographs and Ephemera

Photographs of Bonnie and Semoura Clark, circa 1900-1920. JWJ MSS 15, Box 1, Folder 6.

The English Bible

The English Bible : containing the Old Testament and the New translated out of the original tongues by special command of His Majesty King James the First ... Hammersmith, London, England: The Doves Press, 1903-1905. Z84 0150, Volume 1 of 5.

Elizabeth Hudson Papers

Photograph album/scrapbook kept by Hudson during her service in the American Red Cross Military Hospital No. 1 in Paris, circa 1918. Hudson, originally from Syracuse, New York, served as a volunteer nurse in Paris during World War I. MS 1464, Box 1, Folder 4.

Yale School of Drama Photographs and Posters

Photographs and related materials for four YSD productions. All in RU 397, Series I, Box 1 (individual folders indicated below).

  • Pueblo, photographs, circa 1930s (Folder 8).
  • Emperor Jones, photographs, 1930 (Folder 12).
  • The Winter's Tale, photographs, 1931 (Folder 19).
  • Members of the Abbey Players visiting the Yale School of Drama, 1937 (Folder 38).

Eugene O'Neill Papers

Long Day's Journey into Night, hand-written plot summary, June-July 1939. YCAL MSS 123, Series III, Box 58, Folder 1161.

Theatre Guild Archive

Photographs of staff, actors, and rehearsals for Theatre Guild on the Air live recording, circa 1940s. YCAL MSS 436, Series VII, Box 849, Folder 11354.

Donald Oenslager Papers

Set and costume designs done by Oenslager's students at Yale School of Drama. Oenslager taught set design at Yale from 1925-1970. MS 1416, Accession 2007-M-055, Box 7.

  • Dale Amlund, set design for The Simple Life, undated.
  • Boris Baranovic, costume designs for Papagena and Papageno from Die Zauberflöte, 1966.
  • William Bohnert, set design for Jerome Robbins, Ballets USA, on the Ed Sullivan Show, CBS-TV, 1959.
  • Virginia Dancy, set design for Verdi's Otello, undated.

William Sloane Coffin, Jr. Papers

"Hate mail" correspondence to Coffin, and some of his responses, following his participation in the Freedom Rides in 1961. Coffin was Yale's chaplain from 1957-1975. MS 1665, Series I, Box 13, Folder 266.

Harold I. Seeley, Jr. Collection on Cherry Grove

Nat Fowler's collection of Cherry Grove Arts Project playbills, 1960-1974. MS 1908, Box 2, Folder 10.

Yale Dramatic Association Records

Four Yale Dramat recruiting posters, circa 1979-1990. RU 300, Accession 1993-A-084, Box 3, Folder 9.

  • "Yale is Hell: Lesson 14: the 29 types of Yale Dramat members," 1990.
  • "I'm sorry, Brad--it was either you or the Dramat!," circa 1980s.
  • "The Yale University Dramatic Association," circa 1980s.
  • "Are you a Dramat member? If you have any of the warning signs of Dramat membership, act now!," 1979.

Caucasian Chalk Circle production book, November 1962. RU 300, Series II, Box 18, Folder 3.

Larry Kramer Papers

Rolodex belonging to Larry Kramer, and file of Rolodex and index cards and newspaper clippings with post-it note labeled "People who died!," circa 1980s. YCAL MSS 722, Box 137 and Box 220.

Joanne Pottlitzer and Theater of Latin America Archive

Denise Chávez, Sí, Hay Posada script, circa 1980. YCAL MSS 1228, Box 46.

Photographs of the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests in North Dakota

John Willis, photographer, three photographs. WA Photos Folio 186, Series I.

  • Circle prayer in support of grandmother and daughter wanting to do prayers in the Cannonball River, November 2016. Folder 5.
  • Grandmother and daughter entering the Cannonball River to pray, November 2016. Folder 7.
  • Lakota grandmother and daughter after prayers in the Cannonball River, November 2016. Folder 13.