The Joel E. Rubin Collection contains materials about the history of theatre, lighting design, and lighting equipment manufacturers compiled by Dr. Joel E. Rubin over the course of his academic and professional careers. These materials include photographs, lamps and lighting equipment, sales catalogs, brochures, microfilm on presentations and theses, calendars, and hand-painted scenery and "pose" lantern slides used in theatre lighting and set design. Some of these materials are in English; others are in German, Japanese, French, Dutch, Hungarian, or Russian.

In addition, the collection includes materials related to the history of Kliegl Brothers Lighting Equipment, such as sales catalogs, advertisements, and product brochures from 1898 to 1985, glass slides and photographs of Kliegl buildings and lighting apparatuses from the early 20th century, and hand-painted "pose" and scenery lantern slides from the late 19th century to early 20th century. Additional catalogs and advertisements from other U.S. and international companies are also included in the collection, as well as a complete set of calendars from the National Theatre of Japan from 1983-2008. Also included in the collection are microfilms of presentations and theses on lighting design from Dr. Rubin's time at the Yale School of Drama and Stanford University during the 1940s and 1950s.

The unprocessed additions include color sample books for stage lighting along with 250 postcards, souvenir programs, Yale School of Drama magazines, papers presented at the IES Theatre/Television Committee Meetings, internal television technical production publications for various American and Canadian broadcast networks, programs and paper synopses from conferences related to entertainment production and history, and papers and studies on concert hall design, acoustics, and scenography.