FEATURED COLLECTIONS
These featured collections have materials specifically related to race, gender and ethnicity in performance.
COLLECTION ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN THEATRE
Here African-American theatre refers to performances by and about African-Americans, and plays written by, for, and about African-American lives and experiences. The collection includes playbills, photographs, newspaper clippings, posters, and correspondence. These items date from circa 1930s to 1974, and also include advertising materials or other ephemera from African-American theatre companies, productions, or participants.
PERFORMING GENDER COLLECTION
Gender non-conformity performances in theater and opera include cross-gender acting as well as roles where cross-dressing and transgender characters are cast as part of the actual story-line or artistic performance. The Performing Gender Collection contains postcards, sheet music, and other ephemera on a variety of theater performances related to gender, such as cross-dressing, male and female impersonators, and pants roles. The collection is dated 1857-circa 1970s, circa 2000s-2019.
CARNIVAL EXHIBITION GROUP COLLECTION
The Carnival Exhibition Group Collection includes various publications (periodicals, academic, advertisements), video and audio recordings, and other realia relating to Carnival performance artists. Most materials focus on the annual Notting Hill Carnival in London, but there are also materials relating to various Carnivals throughout Europe and the Americas, and some Black British History publications.