Index

Museums, Library Collections and Documentation Centres
  • Australia:
    • Michael R Booth Theatre Collection
      Department of Drama at the University of Newcastle
      The unique theatrical collection of Professor Michael Booth includes posters, playbills, paintings and costume designs spanning the history of British theatre from the 18th century to the Edwardian period.
    • National Gallery of Australia
      The Gallery has a significant collection of costumes from the Diaghilev's Ballet Russes (1909-1929). The Theatre Arts collection also contains costume and set designs on paper.
    • National Library of Australia, Pictorial and Photographic Collections
      A range of materials relating to the performing arts in Australia, including books, serials, programs, brochures, publicity information, photographs, oral histories and personal archives
    • Performing Arts Museum
      Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne
      There are over 200,000 items in the Performing Arts Museum’s collection, including costumes and costume designs, set models, props, puppets, photographs, posters, programmes and personal memorabilia.
      In June 1998, the museum received a donation of the Australian Ballet's memorabilia which includes costume and set designs, prints, drawings, engravings, scrapbooks, photograph albums, musical scores, posters, costumes, props amd signed pointe shoes. The bequest means that the rich history of the dance company and the activities of the museum further integrate Victoria's artistic resources and the museum's contemporary practice
    •  Queensland Performing Arts Trust
      Performing Arts Complex
      Queensland Cultural Centre, South Brisbane
      The Queensland Performing Arts Trust includes vaudeville scripts, programs and photographs, costumes, the Christophe Ellis collection of over 34,000 negatives of theatre, opera and dance productions during the 1980s; and over 7,000 theatre programs dating from 1880 to the present day.
    • State Library of Victoria - Theatre Programme Collection
      Although known as the Theatre Programme Collection, it also includes brochures, handbills and publicity material as well as programmes. The material covers professional and amateur productions in fields such as drama, music, dance and opera, as well as mime, puppetry, lectures and readings. Any event with an element of live performance is included, e.g. a cinema programme which includes a variety act or live music. The bulk of the collection dates from 1890, but also includes a number of earlier programmes. The Collection covers performances given in Victoria and especially in Melbourne, whether by Australian or overseas artists.
    • University of Western Australia - Theatre Collection
      The basis of the Theatre Collection was a donation by the Playhouse Theatre in 1982. This donation encompassed material from the mid 1950s to 1982. It included copies of plays (published and unpublished), typescript copies, prompt copies, programmes, playbills, posters, press releases and clippings, and reviews. Although it was primarily related to drama, there was also material dealing with opera, ballet and film. The collection is principally Western Australian in origin. This incorporates material produced by Western Australian companies, plus performances staged locally by interstate and overseas companies. It also includes some material from eastern states productions.
  • Austria:
    • Österreichisches Theatermuseum
      Vienna. Erstmals ermöglicht das Österreichische Theatermuseum mit einer großen Schausammlung seinen Besuchern Einblick in seine reichhaltigen Sammlungen: aus den über 1,6 Millionen Objekten aus den Bereichen der Kostüme, Bühnenbildmodelle, Fotografien, Plakate, Handzeichnungen, Requisiten und sonstigen Objekten aus der Welt des Theaters wurden die schönsten und interessantesten ausgewählt.
    • Österreichisches Filmarchiv
      ca. 5000 Bücher (Film, Theater, Musik), ca. 250000 Fotos (Film, Theater, Musik), zahlreiche Raritäten (Stummfilmporträts und Stills mit Autographen), zahlreiche nationale Filmzeitschriften (”Mein Film” komplett), zahlreiche internationale Filmzeitschriften (Europa, USA), Musikzeitschriften, Jugendmagazine, Theater- und Filmprogramme, Fotoalben, Synchronlisten, Plakatsammlung
  • Belgium:
    • Archives et Musée de la Littérature 
      Bruxelles. Fondés en 1958, les Archives et Musée de la Littérature assurent la conservation et la mise en valeur du patrimoine littéraire et théâtral de la Belgique francophone. Subsidiés par la Communauté française de Belgique , les AML sont installés à la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique et en gèrent, en dehors de leurs collections propres, les collections liées à leur objet. Les collections sont composées de manuscrits, de correspondances, d'ouvrages, de photos ou autres supports iconographiques, de documents audiovisuels ou de coupures de presse relatives aux auteurs belges de langue française. Une documentation de première importance sur la vie théâtrale en Belgique francophone donne lieu à la constitution d'une banque de données et à la réalisation de l'Annuaire du Spectacle de la Communauté française de Belgique.
    • Centre d'Information et Documentation Théâtre (CID) 
      Maison du Spectacle la Bellone, Bruxelles. Centre de ressources gérant tout type de supports documentaires: livres (écrits sur le théâtre, répertoire), revues spécialisées, articles de presse (revues de presse quotidienne), photos, vidéos, programmes des théâtres.
    • Contredanse
      Centre de Documentation sur la danse qui rassemble tout ce qui a trait à la danse comme art de spectacle, aussi bien dans la Belgique qu’à l’étranger
  • Brazil:
  • Czech Republic:
    • Èeský Krumlov Castle Theatre
      The Baroque Theatre of the Èeský Krumlov Castle represents a Baroque stage in its mature form. The original theatre fund is preserved in both actual objects such as the building, auditorium, orchestra pit, stage, stage technology, machinery, decorations, costumes, props, lighting technology, fire extinguishers and so on, as well as in rich archival documentation such as librettos, scripts, texts, partituras, sheet music, inventories, accounts, iconographic material, and other information on theatre life in the 17th to 19th century.
    • Library of the Czech Theatre Institute
      The Library contains around 50,000 texts for theatre (including duplicates) in different variants, editions, versions and translations, almost 25,000 volumes from home and abroad of both contemporary and historical specialist literature. Around 72 Czech and Slovak journal titles and around 64 foreign-language journal titles are acquired annually by the Library. Most of these form complete sets, and the Library's collection of contemporary and extinct magazines consists of approximately 6,000 bound volumes.
  • Canada:
  • Estonia:
  • Finland:
    • Teatterikorkeakoulu 
      Helsinki. The Theatre Academy is a university of performing art acting as an arts and research centre for theatre and dance.
    • Teatterimuseo 
      Helsinki. Site in Finnish only.
  • France: 
    • Bibliothèque-musée de la Comédie française 
      Paris. Constituée dès le XVIIIe siècle à partir des collections de sculptures, de peintures, et des textes du répertoire déposés à l'initiative des auteurs dramatiques et des archives des Comédiens français, la Bibliothèque-Musée s'est ouverte récemment aux recherches de spécialistes.
    • Département des arts du spectacle de la Bibliothèque nationale de France 
      Paris. Plusieurs grandes collections, qui forment par leur diversité et leur ampleur, un ensemble unique au monde avec 3 millions de documents, avec materiels concernants les travaux d'Edward Gordon Craig, Jacques Copeau, Louis Jouvet, Gaston Baty, Charles Dullin, Georges Pitoëff, l'exploitation de théâtres et de compagnies, Théâtre des Nations, Compagnie Renaud-Barrault, et des activités de Jacques Hébertot, André Barsacq, Sacha Guitry, René Clair, Abel Gance.
    • Bibliothèque Jean-Louis Barrault
      Les archives conservées à l'Odéon contiennent les éléments suivants : critiques et articles de presse, programmes des spectacles, photos des spectacles, dossiers de presse, dossiers de production, correspondances, archives vidéo (archives de spectacles, interview...), archives sonores (lectures, conférences, colloques, débats...). Dotée de 8.000 livres, revues et programmes sur le théâtre, la bibliothèque de l'Odéon-théâtre de l'Europe a été constituée symboliquement autour de la bibliothèque personnelle de Jean-Louis Barrault et Madeleine Renaud (4.000 ouvrages), acquise le 27 juin 1995.
    • Bibliothèque du conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique
      Bibliothèque Béatrix Dussane
      Le théâtre français et étranger de l'Antiquité à nos jours (textes dramatiques, études sur le théâtre, ses techniques, ses auteurs, ses metteurs en scène, ses acteurs et son histoire). Nature du fonds: Livres, périodiques et vidéocassettes.
    • Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal
      L'Arsenal contient un fonds de livres imprimés (1 000 000), encyclopédique à l'origine, des manuscrits (15 000), des estampes (100 000) et des cartes et plans (3 000) et des oeuvres musicales (1 000).
      Au cours du XIXe, la bibliothèque s'accrut essentiellement dans le domaine de l'histoire et de la littérature, avec une prédilection marquée pour le théâtre (dont elle reçut un exemplaire de dépôt légal de 1850 à 1975).
    • Centre National du Théâtre
      Documentation et information sur le paysage théâtral français, textes d'auteurs dramatiques contemporains (3400) édités en français ou traduits dont les textes du répertoire canadien en français et en anglais (non traduits) ; manuscrits des auteurs dramatiques ayant reçu l'aide à la création de la direction du théâtre et des spectacles du ministère de la culture et ceux ayant reçu le prix de Radio France Internationale ; traductions de la Maison Antoine Vitez (centre international de la traduction théâtrale). Ouvrages ou études sur le théâtre, revues spécialisées, guides, répertoires et annuaires.
    • Bibliothèque de la SACD - Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques
      La bibliothèque de la SACD spécialisée dans les arts du spectacle rassemble plus de 200.000 documents du 16è siècle à nos jours se rapportant au théâtre, à la musique, à la danse, à la radio, à la télévision, au cinéma. Textes de fiction, ouvrage de référence, ouvrages de documentation, mais aussi une très importante collection de périodiques (19è et 20è siècle), des manuscrits de pièces jouées mais non éditées (8.000), des autographes (15.000), des programmes (27.000), des affiches (3.000), des dossiers de presse, des coupures de presse, des partitions lyriques (2.000), des gravures (3.000), des photos (3.000) sont consultables sur place. On y trouve également des peintures, des sculptures, portraits de personnalités du monde du spectacle. Par ailleurs, la bibliothèque a en charge la gestion de fonds d'archives légués par des auteurs, des compositeurs ou des metteurs en scène. Parmi les fonds les plus importants citons pour le théâtre : les fonds Lugné-Poe, Georges Neveux, Jean Vauthier. Pour la musique : les archives Maurice Yvain. Pour la danse : les archives Witzman-Anaya ainsi que celles du ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. Pour le cinéma : les archives René-Jeanne, Raymond Bernard, Henri Jeanson. Autre source de documentation : les archives de la SACD informent sur plus e 200 ans d'histoire du spectacle en france et des combats menés par les auteurs.
  • Germany:
    • Film Museum Berlin - Deutsche Kinemathek
      The script collection contains approximately 20,000 screenplays, dialogue lists, outlines and treatments. Around 12,500 films, national and international productions from 1895 to the present, are stored in the film archive. The photo archive contains approximately two million photographs on films and film personalities. The poster archive documents the graphic form of film advertising with approximately 20,000 posters - from the time of the travelling cinema on up to current productions. The archive of the Filmmuseum Berlin currently has more than 380 estates, partial estates and deposita of persons or companies from the film industry at its disposal. In autumn 1993, the Land Berlin acquired the Marlene Dietrich estate, which had been brought together after Marlene Dietrich's death by Sotheby's in New York from five different warehouses in Europe and the USA. The Rolf Giesen Collection is the only collection associated with a regular film museum whose main focus is the history of visual effects, animation and computer-generated images in cinema, television and other media. The collection contains sketches, photos, posters, original props and artwork, including models, masks, matte paintings, animatronics and trickfilm cels. The sound and record collection contains sound cylinders, gramophone records, LPs, tapes, audio cassettes and CDs with sound documents on the film history.
    • Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Theatersammlung
      Gesammelt wurden und werden hauptsächlich: Bühnenbild- und Kostümentwürfe (Figurinen); Bühnenmodelle; Szenenfotos und deren Negative; Diapositive; Künstlerporträts; Besetzungszettel; Programmhefte und -bücher; Bühnenbaupläne; Plakate; Kritiken und Presseberichte über Theaterangelegenheiten; Bühnenjahrbücher und Theaterzeitschriften.Regie-, Rollen- und Soufflierbücher sind leider nur in wenigen Exemplaren vertreten. Sie sollten künftig, ebenso wie Ton- und Videoaufzeichnungen, in ein erweitertes Sammelkonzept einbezogen werden.
    • Museum für Puppentheater Lübeck
    • Puppentheater Museum Berlin
    • Reiss-Museum - Theatersammlung
      Einem besonders facettenreichen Aspekt der Stadtgeschichte ist die Theatersammlung des Reiss-Museums gewidmet. Mit Gemälden, Kostümen, Requisiten, Archivalien, Fotos, Modellen sowie Bühnenbild- und Kostümentwürfen wurden in dieser Spezialsammlung vor allem Dokumente zur Geschichte des Mannheimer Nationaltheaters zusammengetragen.
    • Staatliche Museen/Theatermuseum
      Munich. The collection contains c. 40.000 stage portraits and private portraits of performers, producers, etc. since the Renaissance, 50.000 stage designs and costume designs illustrating all the most important styles and movements, past and present with special regard to the history of Munich, Bavaria, and Germany. Theatre photography has a special importance in the collection. From the beginning of theatre photography – Nadar in Paris – onwards, the museum possesses more than 3 million negatives and positives, and this collection continues to be extended by the systematic purchase of 40.000 photographs each year.       The heart of the archive is the collection of some 70.000 manuscripts. These range from letters, autobiographical writings, and diaries (e.g. diaries of Max Reinhardt’s) to autograph manuscripts of plays, prompt books, cast-lists, and notes by choreographers (including Heinrich Kröller and Heinz Rosen), and are supplemented by nearly 300.000 programmes and theatre bills from German theatres and at least a million theatre reviews (post-war press cuttings), and approximately 11.000 sound recordings. New material is added continuously. The museum also possesses the biggest Richard Wagner collection outside Bayreuth, including not only original scenery and costume designs but also stage models from the Munich premieres of Wagner’s operas.
  • Great Britain: 
    • The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture
      The Centre contains both a public museum and an academic research centre, housing one of Britain's largest public collections of books, prints, artefacts and ephemera relating to the history and prehistory of cinema.
    • Cabaret Mechanical Theatre
      It's a kind of exhibition or museum, a collection of contemporary automata, a kind of mechanical sculptures. Nearly all of the work in the theatre is humourous.
    • Centre for Performance Research
      University of Aberystwyth. Extensive book and video collections, especially on contemporary theatre.
    • John Rylands Library
      University of Manchester. The Library houses the papers of several playwrights, theatrical directors and designers, impresarios and critics such as Basil Dean, Annie Horniman, Hugh Hunt, Stephen Joseph, A.N. Monkhouse, C.E. Montague, and Peter Slade. The Pit Prop Theatre Company archive illustrates the work of a radical, regional theatre which addressed social concerns such as unemployment, poverty and racism. Two collections are particularly relevant to film and media studies. The Basil Dean Archive contains material relating to Dean's directorship of Associated Talking Pictures (which later became the Ealing Studios) during the 1930s, while the recently-acquired archive of the stage and screen actor Robert Donat
    • National Museum of Photography, Film & Television
      situated in the city of Bradford and opened in 1983. The Museum explores the world of the media through a combination of permanent galleries, temporary exhibitions and our three cinemas. Between them you can explore the stories behind photography, film and television; the industries which use them and how the digital revolution is dramatically changing the way we use and live with media.
    • Pollock's Toy Theatres Museum
      Its heritage consists of 1,200 copper and zinc engraved plates; 60 lithograph stone blocks and a lithographic printing press; over 170,000 'penny plain' sheets of scenery and characters and 13,000 of theatrical portraits; and 15,000 playbooks.
    • The Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection
      The Collection has many paintings of a theatrical nature, as well as set and costume designs. At its heart are the fifteen hundred of so archive boxes containing playbills, posters, programmes, engravings, cuttings and photographs of the London and regional theatres, from the earliest days of Drury Lane and Covent Garden to London’s most recent productions. There are also files on every actor and actress of note in the British Theatre, sections on circus, dance, opera, music-hall, variety, dramatists, singers and composers, together with relevant engravings and pictures. The library of over 15,000 volumes is one of the most comprehensive of its kind in the country.
    • Renishaw Stables Museum and Art Gallery
      The corpus of this exhibition is from private collections including that of Alan Sievewright, the renowned impresario, television arts producer, lecturer and designer. The Performing Arts Gallery contains costumes and memorabilia of the stars of stage and screen.
    • Templeman Library Theatre Collections
      University of Kent at Canterbury. The collection consist of manuscripts, playbills, theatre music and memorabilia of various origin, mostly belonging to actors. The materials add to the knowledge of the English theatre of 18th and 19th century.
    • Theatre Museum 
      London. Britain's National Museum of the Performing Arts.The Theatre Museum collects a wide range of documents, artefacts and works of art which record the history of the performing arts in Britain from the sixteenth century to the present. Costumes, designs, manuscripts, books, video recordings, including the National Video Archive of Stage Performance , posters and paintings all play their part in helping to reconstruct the details of past performances and the lives of performers, past and contemporary. All the live performing arts are represented, including drama, dance, opera, musical theatre, circus, puppetry, music hall and live art.
    • Theatre Museum National Video Archive
      List of recordings in alphabetical orders
    • University of Bristol Theatre Collection 
      Archives (personal records; business records including architectural drawings, financial and administrative records; production records including cuttings and promptbooks) - including the       Women's Theatre Collection, archive and research collection dedicated to the preservation of a record of women's work in theatre - , printed works (reference books, periodicals, pamphlets, programmes, playbills), visual material (prints, drawings, paintings, photographs, slides, costume & set designs), artefacts (costumes, set models, props, wigs & other accessories).
    • Voltaire Foundation
      University of Oxford. Promotes studies and researches on Voltaire’s works.
  • Greece:
    • Hellenic Centre for Theatrical Research
      The archives of the Study Centre comprise about 50.000 theatrical programmes, around 20.000 photographs of theatrical performances, 1.100 videotaped and 400 radiotaped perfomances. The archives cover the period from 1880 until today. The archives of the Library include almost 20.000 volumes from the greek and universal theatre as well as many issues of theatre journals and filmographies.
  • Israel:
    • Israel Theatre Museum
      Founded 1973, the Museum focuses on Hebrew and Jewish theater around the world, in Diaspora communities. A special section of the Museum is devoted to theater during the Holocaust. Besides housing 40,000 photographs and pictures of performances, actors, tours and theatre-related celebrations, the Museum features a newspaper collection of reviews and critiques from 1918, as well as a library of 1,000 books of plays, discs and recordings, as well as hundreds of personal files of stage personalities.
  • Italy: 
    • Biblioteca e Museo Alfieriano
      Asti. About 4000 books and booklets, including some books belonging to Alfieri's personal library; more than 3 thousand manuscripts; scene and costume designs, prints and engravings, objects belonging to Vittorio Alfieri.
    • Biblioteca e Raccolta Teatrale del Burcardo 
      Rome. The theatre library owns about 45000 volumes, from XVIth century editions to contemporary publications; 400 periodicals; over 570000 reviews, which increases every year with thousands of articles taken from the Italian newspapers; about 1900 promptbooks; ca. 25000 letters and personal papers. The other theatre collections consist of about 21000 photos, over 30000 playbills and programmes, over 5000 prints and drawings, and a rich collection of paintings, costumes, marionnettes and sculptures. Online catalogues are available for most collections.
    • Biblioteca Luigi Chiarini
      Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, Rome.      32500 volumes, more than 600 periodicals, about 8000 screenplays.
    • Biblioteca Panizzi - Archivio dei Teatri
      Reggio Emilia. Performing arts library (      online catalogues available); "Agosti" record library devoted to Italian opera, video library (2750 videos of performances), tape library (3000 sound recordings of operas, concerts, theatre performances etc.), archives containing photos, playbills, programmes, press reviews.
    • Cineteca Nazionale
      Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, Rome.       A huge collection of about 28,000 films. The photo and poster archives contain about 500 thousand photographs and 50 thousand cinema posters.
    • Eurolab - Archivi del Piccolo Teatro di Milano
      The Archives contain all kind of materials about the company of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano and its performances: promtbooks, letters, programmes and playbills, musical scores, books, press cuttings and reviews.
    • Museo Biblioteca dell'Attore
      Genoa. Founded in 1966. A library of 34,000 volumes; archives containing documents about many important personalities of the Italian theatre; a large photographic collection. Online catalogues of Gastone Bosio photographic collection.
    • Museo Nazionale del Cinema
      Turin. One of the richest collections of cinema in the world: 7000 films, 9000 objects, 200 magic lanterns, paintings, photographs, cinema equipments, 125 thousand prints, 200 thousand posters. The silent movie collection contains 387 films. In 1959 the Museo acquired the Pastrone collection, including Cabiria, Il Fuoco, La caduta di Troia, Tigre Reale. The museum has also one of the richest libraries on cinema and photography.
    • Museo Teatrale alla Scala
      Milan, the museum and library of the world’s most celebrated opera-house. The pieces that made up the original Sambon collection acquired in 1910 were added to over the years through numerous donations and acquisitions, making today's Museum collection one of the richest in the world. The Museum also has an adjoining Library, which is today a busy hub of activity for study and research.
    • Museo Teatrale Carlo Schmidl
      Trieste. The museum contains a rich collection of documents about the musical life in Trieste and its theatres from 1801 to present days. All kinds of materials are included in its collections: posters and playbills, photos, prints and engravings, paintings, musical instruments, personal papers. It also includes a performing arts and music library.
    • Teatro di Roma - Archivi
      Rome. The archives contain materials about productions and projects of the Teatro di Roma.
    • Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria - Centro studi
      Perugia. Performing arts library and audiovisual archives, including the Trotta music collection and the Carancini collection of theatre and cinema.
    • Teatro Stabile di Torino - Centro studi
      Turin. Theatre library (online catalogue available), archives containing large collections of documents and materials about theatre in Italy, and the historical archives documenting all productions of the Teatro Stabile di Torino since 1955.
    • Vittoriale degli Italiani
      Gardone Riviera. Gabriele D'Annunzio's house is an unbelievable collection of valuable works of art and memories of the poet's life, and is situated in a most captivating maze of gardens and parks.
  • Japan:
    • Kushigata Shuzen Museum of Art (Kabuki Ukiyoe Woodblock Print)
      Kushigata-cho's Shunsen Art Museum, opened in January 1991, is presenting a collection of the works and documents of Shunsen Natori, a native artist known as the last postwar master of kabuki ukiyoe woodblock prints. This permanent exhibition introduces the works of Shusen, at the same time introducing the wonderful woodblock prints of other artists. Deeply connected with the theatrical world in his career, Natori produced many portraits of theatrical performers. His works capture every facet of the stage performers' charm and appeal, which, together with the tradition of the world of ukiyoe, continue to shine even today.
    • Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum
      Waseda University, Tokyo. The principal permanent exhibits are related to the Japanese stage arts. The space is utilized in presenting models of stages, portraits of actors, texts, properties, and musical instruments illustrating the development of the Japanese theatre arts.
  • Latvia:
    • Eduards Smilgis Theater Museum
      Opened in 1976, the Theater Museum houses a performance hall and the memorial study of the famous Daile Theater producer Eduards Smilgis (1886-1966). Exhibitions primarily document the development of professional theatre in Latvia. Of additional interest are exhibits of theater props, costumes, models, posters, programs, photographs and other keepsakes. Temporary exhibitions are held regularly.
    • Riga Museum of Cinematography
      The museum collects information and material culture relating to the history of cinema in Latvia. Begun in 1988, it now houses over 70,000 items including films, archives, unique video and audio material; some donated by professionals in the field. The museum also houses a vast library and information on cinema art. There are regular exhibitions in the museum
  • Lithuania:
    • Lithuanian Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema
      The museum contains collections of photographs of concerts, theatre productions and films. Among the exhibits are programs, posters, costumes, scenery sketches, models, puppets, stage sets, documents and musical instruments. The museum collections also include personal possessions of famous actors and actresses as well as of directors and musicians, their portraits and friendly jests, manuscripts and ex-libris. In the museum library apart from the books and periodicals there are copies of directorial productions, notes, and claviers. Impressive collection of playbills, posters of different periods of the 20th century. Photo Archives: about 33 000 negatives and slides are kept in the photo archives of the museum.
  • Netherlands:
    • Nederlands Filmmuseum
      The Filmmuseum originates from the Dutch Historical Film Archive, founded in 1946 to preserve the film heritage. The main focus is on early cinema, Dutch productions and international art cinema. The collections  amount to 52 million meters of film, 40.000 posters, 400.000 pictures and thousands of objects. Apart from films, photographs, posters, and paper archives the Filmmuseum collects other documents and objects that reflect Dutch cinema culture: publicity material, scripts, curiosities, equipment, soundtracks, and musical scores.
    • Poppenspeelmuseum
      Vorchten. The site is in Dutch only.
    • Theatre Institute Nederland
      The museum collections, located in a 17th century building, encompass 20,000 posters, 150,000 photo's and slides, thousands of programmes, prints, design sketches, letters, costumes, stage models, props, puppets, masks, paintings, backdrops and miscellaneous object. The library has over 100,000 books and plays in several languages, scores of music, subscriptions to international magazines, compact discs, and more than 6,000 videos.
  • Norway:
    • The Theatre Museum Of Oslo
      The Theatre Museum of Oslo, founded in 1939, presents the theatre history of the Norwegian capital through paintings, photographs, scenographic sketches and models, posters costumes etc.
  • Poland:
    • Theatre Museum
      Warsaw. Established by Arnold Szyfman in 1957.       The collection includes museum objects and documents. There are about 200,000 pieces all together, including paintings, sculptures, artistic prints, drawings, a large collection of photographs, designs of decorations, three-dimensional models, costumes, manuscripts, old prints, theatrical programmes and posters, theatrical memorabilia and a rare library of play scripts, notes and records.
  • Portugal:
    • Museu Nacional do Teatro
      Lisbon. A collection of about 300 thousand item, from 18th century to present days, including scene designs and models, costume designs, drawings, playbills and programmes, manuscripts, records and musical scores, a library of more than 30 thousand books and a photo archive of about 120 thousand images.
  • Russia:
    • A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum
      Moscow. The A. A. Bakhrushin. State Central Theatre Museum (the former Literary-Theatre Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences) keeps a unique collection of theatre relics of Russia. Almost 1 500 000 exhibits are kept in the reserves of the museum: those are archives of theatre personalities, portraits of eminent actors, singers, producers, dramatists, ballet-masters, dancers, composers, painters; costumes, personal belongings and properties; set designs and sketches made by great masters of scenery; posters and programmes, photographs of artists and performances, rare books devoted to theatre art, video- and cine-documents, articles of the theatre daily life - all that keeps the memory of the theatre performance.
    • House and Museum of K.S. Stanislavsky
      In Russian only.
    • House and Museum of A.P. Cechov
      In Russian only.
    • Museum "Preodolenie" named after N.A.Ostrovsky
      In Russian only.
  • Slovakia:
    • Theatre Institute, Bratislava
      Set designs represent the key component of the collections of the Theatre Institute. This collection contains approximately one thousand set designs, costume designs, drawings and sketches, ten thousand posters, sixty models, film negatives and slides of the work of individual visual artists, covering the work of the founders of Slovak set design as well as the work of more recent generations of artists. In the collections one can also find 3D exhibits, stage models, and real costumes. Other collections include visual art closely related to theatre, clippings and photographs mapping the production of set designers, costume designers, and playbill authors, private letters, manuscripts, pictures of staging, play scripts, director's books, prizes and awards, reviews, profiles, studies, and books. The library resources represent approximately thirty thousand library files.
  • Slovenia: 
    • Slovenian National Theatre Museum 
      The Iconotheque contains posters, costume designs, photographs, theatre programmes, sets, portraits and theatre plans. The Library collects, arranges and preserves materials relating to the history of Slovenian theatre and dramatic arts. It includes collections of books, of theatre scripts performed in Slovenia's professional theatres, of miscellaneous small publications and leaflets of the Library of the Drama Society.
  • Spain:
    • Museo Nacional del Teatro
      Madrid. An important collection of scene designs and models, drawings, paintings, playbills and programmes, personal papers and manuscripts. Photo archive (more than 30 thousand photographs) and music archive (more than 10 thousand musical scores).
  • Sweden:
    • August Strindberg - Strindbergsmuseet
      Stockholm. Strindberg’s reconstructed apartment, consisting of three rooms, and his library of some 3,000 works are today the core of the Strindberg Museum. Archives and library are used regularly by scholars. The museum also gives an extensive service to the general public.
    • Dans Museet, Stockholm
    • Drottningholms Teatermuseum 
      Stockholm. With its app. 70,000 volumes is one of the largest specialist libraries in Europe and contains books from 1499 to the present day. It covers art history and musicology, costume- and cultural history, dance, mime, pantomime, shadow plays, puppet theatre, circus, scenography, theatre machinery and architecture. The theatre history collections include almost 30,000 objects from the sixteenth century to the present day in the form of stage sets, stage models, costumes, properties, scenery and costume sketches, scenes and portraits (graphics, drawings, paintings and busts), puppet theatres, shadow play theatres, technical theatre items, and the court theatre itself, as well as the Manuscript Collections, the Archives of the Royal Theatres (KTA), the Photographic Archive, the Press Cuttings Archive.
    • Gripemuseet - The Swedish Toy Theatre Museum
      It is regarded as one of the largest private toy theatre collections in the world. Today it counts to more than 6 000 items: stages, sheets, cut decorations, figures and booklets with plays and instructions.
  • Taiwan:
    • Taiwan Theatre Museum
      The museum is dedicated to Taiwan's theatrical arts and to Taiwanese opera in particular. The second floor is devoted to temporary exhibits. The third floor is the museum's permanent exhibit area. Visitors find along the wall a collection of Taiwanese opera costumes and props. This exhibit area prominently displays a large replica of a traditional Taiwanese opera theatre. Further along the exhibit room are introductions to famous troupes and actors. Also provided here is an explanation of the eight basic movements in Taiwanese opera and their symbolic meanings. The museum periodically hosts live Taiwanese opera and puppet shows as well as other cultural activities.
  • United States:
    • Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry
      The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry began in 1987 as the Puppet Preservation Committee whose members recognized the unique treasures that resided at the University of Connecticut. These treasures, puppets built by students under the direction of Frank Ballard, a professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts, were designed for performance in main stage theatrical works at the University of Connecticut. The collections have grown exponentially through the donations of world-famous puppeteers and friends of Frank Ballard. The holdings of the Museum now include puppets of all types from hundreds of years past and from all corners of the world.
    • The Ballet Russe Scenery Collection
      The Butler Ballet in Indianapolis, IN, houses a very valuable collection of scenery and costumes coming from the famed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. This collection was accumulated over the span of several years during the mid-sixties through the diligence of the late George Verdak, himself a former dancer with the Ballet Russe, who for many years was a most influential member of the dance faculty at Butler University.
    • The Billy Rose Theatre Collection 
      The Billy Rose Theatre Collection of The New York Public Library is one of the largest and most comprehensive archives devoted to the theatrical arts. The Collection's holdings illuminate virtually every type of performance, from street corner to stage to studio, and include drama and musical theatre, film, television, radio, and popular entertainment (circus, magic, vaudeville, puppetry).
    • Circus and Allied Arts Collection at Milner Library, Illinois State University
      one of the largest and best special collections of its type in existence. This collection also includes related arts such as carnivals, carousels, conjuring, music halls, and vaudeville. Book holdings of over 6,000 volumes includes photographs, circus posters, programs, route books, correspondance, business records, band scores, videotapes, audiotapes, and realia.
    • Dance Art Museum of the Americas
      Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Dance Art Museum of the Americas’ mission is to establish and maintain a museum committed to the meaningful involvement of the public in artistic and historical dance arts. The museum offers hands-on stage experiences as well as exhibits, archival materials, and resource centers.
    • Dion Boucicault Theater Collection
      University of South Florida, Tampa. Dion Boucicault was a popular Irish-American 19th century playwright and actor who reached the zenith of his career during the period 1850-1870. This material includes printed plays, play scripts and scores which he authored covering the period 1843-87.
    • The Durkee Theatre Collection
      Maryland Historical Society. The collection consists mainly of programs published by the Durkee Enterprises, one of the oldest and largest movie circuits in Baltimore. The programs consist of information provided on a weekly basis of what was playing at the theatre and contains images of leading stars of the films being advertised. Several brochures are also included for openings of new theatres. Some miscellaneous material including newspapers and magazines can be found as well.
    • Empire State Theatre And Musical Instrument Museum
      The Empire State Theatre And Musical Instrument Museum is located in the Harriet May Mills Art & Home Center and belongs to a non-profit group. Established in 1966, is chartered by the New York Board Of Regents. The purposes of the organization are: to promote the understanding and appreciation of the theatre, musical instruments and their tradition through the establishment of a non-profit public museum and to cooperate closely with other museums, societies, and groups to promote cultural opportunities in the community.
    • Federal Theatre Project Materials
      Special Collections & Archives of George Mason University maintains a significant collection of materials and research guides for studying the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), including administrative records, audiotapes, billboard sheets, music, negatives, photographs, playbills, radioscripts, and videotape lectures. FTP related materials in SC&A include: periodicals, gifts (scrapbooks, notes, photographs, souvenirs, correspondence, etc.),oral histories (recordings and transcripts of interviews of over 350 former FTP personnel), Federal Theatre Project Photographs, playscripts, posters, broadsides, and billboard sheets, videotapes.
    • Folger Shakespeare Library
      A major center for scholarly research, the Folger houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, in addition to a magnificent collection of other rare Renaissance books and manuscripts on many disciplines. The collection consists of approximately 280,000 books and manuscripts; 27,000 paintings, drawings, engravings and prints; and musical instruments, costumes and films.
    • The Free Library of Philadelphia - Theatre Collection
      The Theatre Collection contains information on theatre, motion pictures, television, radio, variety shows, the circus and other forms of popular entertainment, with a major focus on Philadelphia's theatrical history. There are over one million books, magazines, playbills, photographs, posters, film and stage stills, reviews, clipping files and memorabilia. The earliest of thousands of local playbills is 1803. Selected past and current playbills and reviews from New York and other cities are available. The earliest of the collection's 50,000 film stills dates from 1907. The stills complement the motion picture trade journals and advertising copy which date mainly from 1930-1970.
    • Harvard Theatre Collection
      The holdings of the Harvard Theatre Collection, housed in the Nathan Marsh Pusey Library, document the history of the performing arts, especially theatre, dance, opera, musical theatre, and popular entertainments such as circuses, pantomime, puppetry, America minstrelsy, music, and fairs and pleasure gardens. In addition to books, manuscripts, and dramatic texts, the collection includes prompt-books, posters, playbills, programs, prints, sheet music, photographic collections, drawings and designs, portraits, set models, video and audio recordings, clipping files, and albums and extra-illustrated volumes.
    • International Theatre Design Archive: Project 2000
      a venture of the       United States Institute for Theatre Technology whose mission is to actively promote the advancement of knowledge and skills in all aspects of design and production in the performing arts. "The International Theatre Design Archive" has been initiated with "Project 2000" which intends to work toward providing links to two thousand scenic, costume, and lighting designs archived on the Internet by the year 2000.
    • Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute (Ohio State University)
      Several collections, including personal papers and special collections, producing organizations and theatre companies, design collections, photograph collections, scripts, French theatre collections, clippings, programs and ephemeral materials, microfilm, audio, video and oral history collections.
    • Library of Congress - Special Collections
      Photographic archive, about 500 items including photos, mainly views of theatres, song sheets, letters, books…
      The American Variety Stage, a multimedia anthology selected from various Library of Congress holdings. This collection illustrates the vibrant and diverse forms of popular entertainment, especially vaudeville, that thrived from 1870-1920. Included are 334 English- and Yiddish-language playscripts, 146 theater playbills and programs, 61 motion pictures, 10 sound recordings and 143 photographs and 29 memorabilia items documenting the life and career of Harry Houdini. Groups of theater posters and additional sound recordings will be added to this anthology in the future.
    • Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA)
      a multi-disciplinary center for visual, performing and media arts. More than a static display hall, MASS MoCA provides space, tools, and time for artists, cultural institutions and businesses working in sculpture, theater, dance, film, digital media and music. New work is created in partnership with high technology and new media companies.
    • Native American Women's Playwrights Archive
      Miami University. The Native American Women Playwrights Archive is a collection of original materials by Native women playwrights of the Americas. NAWPA hopes to identify playwrights, collect and preserve their work, try to make it widely known, and encourage performances and continued creativity. Plays in manuscript, disk, videotape, or other format are available.
    • The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
      the world's most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts - whether professional or amateur - the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters and photographs.
    • The Northern Illinois University/ Lyric Opera of Chicago Historical Scenic Collection
      The Northern Illinois University/ Lyric Opera of Chicago Historical Scenic Collection represents a comprehensive depository of primary scenic materials from the American Operatic theatre at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The contents include almost the entire repertoire of operas innovatively produced by Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera Company.
    • PALM San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum
      PALM preserves and makes accessible materials about the performing arts, particularly on the San Francisco Bay Area's performing arts heritage from the Gold Rush to the present. Its collection contains more than two millon items, including books, periodicals, photographs, programs, playbills, newspaper clippings, audio and video tapes, costume and set designs. PALM also houses the archives of many local performing arts organizations, such as the San Francisco Ballet, Opera, and Symphony, as well as the Stern Grove Festival, the Ethnic Dance Festival, Pickle Family Circus, and The Lamplighters.
    • Paris Music Hall Collection at the Hargrett Library
      The Paris Music Hall Collection comprises over 6,000 original renderings of costume designs and 1,000 original renderings of curtain designs for the music halls of Paris from 1920-1938. The Collection, acquired in 1968 by the Library, was originally the property of Max Weldy who provided the elaborate costumes and curtains to the Folies Bergere, Moulin Rouge and other popular cabarets and music halls. Weldy maintained a stable of young, extraordinarily imaginative.
    • Theater Arts Collection at the Ranson Center, University of Texas
      Austin. The Center has substantial holdings of original costume and stage designs, an estimated 200,000 playbills, 80,000 pieces of sheet music, and 20,000 news clippings, as well as posters, printed volumes, and more than 30,000 photographs from the Broadway stage. Collections include those of scenic designers, West End and Broadway producers, and noted actors. Dance is represented by 60,000 photographs and numerous files on choreographers and dancers. Popular entertainment holdings include collections on vaudeville, the circus, magic, puppetry, and Wild West and minstrel shows.  Other collections include the records of the London costuming firm B. J. Simmons & Company (29,000 designs dating from the 1880s to the 1960s), the impresario Sir Donald Albery’s (1914-1988) Theater Records with 92,000 documents, the innovative theatrical and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes (1893-1958) papers with the professional records, personal files, and library of this.
    • Yale Drama Library
      Holds more than 30,000 volumes, including plays, books on the history of theatre, theatre architecture, dramatic criticism, costume and stage design, stage lighting and production, theatre management, biographies and related reference books, as well as on the other performing arts: film, dance, radio, television, and opera. Periodicals collected range from scholarly theatre journals to weekly trade papers. Special items in the collection include files of scene designs, more than 80,000 theatrical prints and photographs, and bound copies of master's theses and doctoral dissertations from the Drama School.
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