Collecting Playbills
Playbills are often saved as treasured souvenirs by theatre-goers. Sometimes collectors look for permanent homes for their playbill collections where they can be appreciated and used for research. Performing arts libraries, archives and museums are often offered collections of playbills, but each institution has different policies for collecting. Often these institutions already have large playbill collections, and due to constraints of space, processing labor, and collecting focus, are unable to accept all offers that are made.
The following institutions have offered their collecting focus related to playbills. A larger list of performing arts libraries, archives, and museums can be found here. Collectors with large local/regional playbill collections might also consider reaching out to local libraries and historical societies.
Institutions wishing to submit their playbill collection policies can send them to TheatreLibraryAssociation@gmail.com.
Beinecke Library, Yale University: Actively collecting pre-1900 playbills, especially as they relate to Black American or minstrel performance. We are also collecting pre-1980 playbills relating to Black American performance, especially groups of playbills from regional African American theaters. We regret that neither Beinecke Library nor Haas Family Arts Library are able to consider collections of 20th century Broadway playbills. Contact melissa.barton@yale.edu.
Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: Selectively collecting programs, broadsides, and related theatre ephemera from New York City or about New York-based creators and performers, circa 1800 to the present, to fill gaps in our holdings. We have a special interest in Black, LGBTQ+, Yiddish, Latinx, Asian-American, experimental, and activist theatrical performance. Our collection of 20th- and 21st-century Broadway playbills is already complete. Please contact theatre@nypl.org regarding possible donations.
Bywaters Special Collections, Southern Methodist University: Actively collecting broadside playbills from the Southwest United States, particularly Texas and Dallas/Fort Worth area that fill gaps in current holdings. Contact egrubbs@mail.smu.edu.
Curtis Theatre Collection, University of Pittsburgh: Collecting pre-1950 programs and related performing arts ephemera from Pittsburgh, Western PA, and New York City that fill gaps in our holdings. Please contact us via our website regarding possible donations.
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin: Actively collecting pre-1900 broadside playbills from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland that fill gaps in current holdings. The Ransom Center is especially interested in collecting programs of African American, Asian American, and Latinx theatre companies in the United States. We continue to add to our collections of pre-1950 national and international performances of circus, magic, illusion, and spiritualism. Please contact performingarts@hrc.utexas.edu.
UCLA Library Special Collections: Selectively collects local theater playbills and programs from Los Angeles and Southern California, with particular interest in performance documentation of historically underrepresented and minoritized communities. Contact AskLSC@library.ucla.edu.