The Curtis Theatre Collection, located in the Special Collections Dept. of Hillman Library, is a veritable treasure for theatre scholars as well as theatre buffs. Here are letters from Llillie Langtry and Minnie Maddern Fisk, Edwin Booth and John Drew playbills, signed portraits of Mary Pickford and E.H. Sothern, an autograph album with Ellen Terry's signature as well as Grover Cleveland's, a single, prized scrapbook on Lillian Russell and a 142 volume scrapbook collection covering New York and Pittsburgh theatre from 1860, a Maude Adams L'Aglion souvenir program and a handwritten note from Sarah Bernhardt, the extensive papers of New York theatre producer Michael Ellis, issues of the Pittsburgh Drama League Review from the 1920's, and much, much more. Curtis is chiefly a collection of non-book material--of theatrical ephemera (consisting of playbills, posters, photos,etc.), and archival records. Collection emphasis is on Pittsburgh and New York theatre, from the Civil War.
The Collection was established for the University by Dr. and Mrs. Ford E. Curtis in 1960, after Dr. Curtis retired from a long career of teaching drama in Pitt's English Dept. Dr. Curtis served as the Collection's curator until 1974, and remained actively associated with it until his death in 1979. Initially, as the foundation on which to build, he utilized his personal file of programs and related clippings on the many plays he and Mrs. Curtis had seen. With the development of his institutional and personal contacts, however, he was able to expand the Collection in spectacular fashion. At present, CTC holds over 500,000 playbills, almost all acquired through gifts by the Collection's many friends. The New York programs file is probably the largest outside New York City and the Pittsburgh Collection, dating from 1853, is unsurpassed.
Theatre programs remain the largest category in Curtis, but other materials include nearly 20,000 photographs, 400 scrapbooks, posters, manuscripts, inventoried archival record groups of production companies and theatre people, and a collection of Acting Editions and Playscripts now numbering 5,500. Curtis also offers a small collection of theatre periodicals.
Although the Curtis Collection contains a broad array of material, in recent years the focus of the collection has sharpened somewhat, towards local theatre history and related archival records. Curtis is the repository for the records of the Pittsburgh Playhouse, the Pittsburgh Savoyards, and the Kenyon Family Papers (Elmer Kenyon was head of Carnegie-Mellon's Drama Dept. and Press Agent for the Theatre Guild; brother Thomas managed the Pitt Theatre for many years.) The Collection is also the repository for the records of the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, Lovelace Marionette Theatre, and City Theatre, among others. We are proud to be a primary source for documenting Pittsburgh's rich theatrical history, as well as it's future.
CTC's books and periodicals are indexed on PITTCat+. Acting Editions and Playscripts are controlled via the Collection's own inventory system, and more recent AEs can be found on PITTCat+. For information regarding the non-book material one should inquire in the Special Collections Reading Room, 363 Hillman.
