[William Henderson collection of playbills, etc.].
Created/published
[ca. 1750-1889, bulk 1801-1889]
Description
ca. 8,000 items.
Organization and arrangement
Organized into 4 topical series in 70 unbound volumes: Series 1: Music on the British stage (Mus 1-23); Series 2: Shakespeare (Sh 1-23); Series 3: Waverley (W 1-15); and Series 4: Scotch plays (Sc 1-9).
Materials assembled by the music printer and composer William Henderson and originally intended for publication. The bulk of the collection consists of 7,188 playbills. Also includes portraits and significant manuscript material: over 500 autograph letters of actors, authors, composers and artists, along with annotations, clipped signatures, and fragments of manuscript music. The materials concern the progress music on the British stage from the mid-18th through the 19th centuries, productions of Shakespeare's plays and 5 plays relating to Shakespeare, stage adaptations of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels, and Scottish plays (or plays containing Scottish characters).
Finding aid
For a fuller description of the manuscript content, see online finding aid. Typescript inventories of the playbills available upon request.
Provenance
Owned by Augustin Daly.
Source of acquisition
Purchased from the American Art Galleries, March 19, 1900 (lot 2652), as part of the sale of Augustin Daly's letters and papers.
