International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts

Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle

The Ohio State University Theatre Collection
A Working and Teaching Film Collection

by John H. McDowell

Les collections et leurs fichiers

International Section for Performing Arts Libraries and Museums of the InternationalFederation of Library Associations
Acts of the VIIth International Congress of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts

Section internationale des bibliothèques et musées des arts du spectacle de laFédération internationale des associationsde bibliothécaires
Actes du VIIème congrès international des bibliothèques-musées des arts du spectacle

Amsterdam, September 6-9, 1965

The Ohio State University Theatre Collection serves the theatrical scholar by bringing original documents an film, from all over the world, directly to the attention of theatrical researchers. The researcher may examine items an film from scores of libraries without extensive travel.

Documents in the OSU Theatre Collection are recorded principally an 35 mm microfilm. The Collection has developed procedures for handling, classifying, filing, and protecting film. These procedures may be labeled as 1. acquisition, 2. facility, and 3. research productivity.

1. acquisition: microfilm is acquired an a selective basis from libraries, museums, and private collections in the United States and in Europa.
2. facility: film is readily available to the researcher. Film in acetate jackets may be examined in a microfilm viewer and film in jackets is completely protected. Film is recorded an a Holding Card which is made out for all acquisitions and is duplicated by photography for crossfiling.
3. research productivity: the OSU Theatre Collection is part of an academic program in a large university in connection with classes, seminars, etc. which leads to master's and doctor's degrees. The Collection is associated with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (11 midwestern universities) which permits qualified students from these centers (and other competent researchers as well) to do research in the archives of the Collection. The Collection publishes an annual Bulletin which is distributed without charge.
   

Diversity of acquisition permits a wide variety of related documents to be applied to research. For example, to reconstruct the staging of 19th-century pantomime at Sadler's Wells the researcher selected prompt books, playbills, and clippings from the Finsbury Public Libraries, and juvenile drama materials from the Victoria and Albert Museum. An Ottoman festival book from the Topkai Sarayi Muzesi in Istanbul permitted a researcher to study an elaborate celebration in Istanbul in 1582.

Original maquettes from the Ambruster Studios in Columbus, Ohio have been filmed to permit researchers to study scenery and scenic devices of the early 20th-century American stage. These are typical of the microfilmed materials in the Theatre Collection.

Local researchers in many European cities have selected theatrical items which enrich the archives of the OSU Theatre Collection. Recent materials on film have been received from the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, tbe Bibliothèque de la Comédie-Française, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, and the Clara Ziegler Museum in Munich.

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