Prints Collection:

An Inventory of the Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center [Part 1]

Scope and Contents

The Prints Collection, 1669-1906 (bulk 1775-1825), consists of ca. 8,000 prints, the great majority of which depict British and American theatrical performers in character or in personal portraits. The collection is organized in three series: I. Individuals, 1669-1906 (58.25 boxes), II. Theatrical Prints, 1720-1891 (1.75 boxes), and III. Works of Art and Miscellany, 1827-82 (1 box), each arranged alphabetically by name or subject.

The prints found in this collection were made by numerous processes and include lithographs, woodcuts, etchings, mezzotints, process prints, and line blocks; a small number of prints are hand-tinted. A number of the prints were cut out from books and periodicals such as The Illustrated London News, The Universal Magazine, La belle assemblée, Bell's British Theatre, and The Theatrical Inquisitor; others comprised sets of plates of dramatic figures such as those published by John Tallis and George Gebbie, or by the toy theater publishers Orlando Hodgson and William West.

Most of the collection, located in Series I. Individuals, dates from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and consists of prints of ca. 2,400 Britons and Americans, the majority of whom were associated with the theater. Portrayed in busts, half- to full-length portraits, scenes from plays, or caricatures are actors, playwrights and composers, dancers, theatrical managers, popular performers, and concert artists. The series also includes, to a lesser extent, poets and novelists, European royalty, members of the British peerage, statesmen, religious and military leaders, and medical doctors. Those persons represented by the greatest volume or variety of material are Frances Abington, Elizabeth Billington, Maria Theresa Bland, Thomas Potter Cooke, John Emery, David Garrick, Elizabeth Hartley, John Henderson, Joseph George Holman, Robert Keeley, Frances Maria Kelly, Thomas King, Edward Knight, John Liston, Charles Mathews, Isabella Mattocks, Anne Merry (née Brunton), John Palmer, William Parsons, John Quick, Rachel, Sarah Siddons, William Smith, Anna Thillon, Ellen Tree (Ellen Kean), James William Wallack (1795-1864), John Lester Wallack, James Pimbury Wilkinson, Henry Woodward, and Eliza Wrixon-Becher. Among the most frequently represented plays are The Beaux' Stratagem, The Double Dealer, The Duenna, The Heir at Law, The Hypocrite, Love in a Village, The Road to Ruin, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, The Suspicious Husband, Venice Preserved, The Way of the World, and various works of Shakespeare.

Series I is arranged alphabetically by the individual's name. Composite portraits and unidentified persons are located at the end of the alphabet; individuals in composites are cross-referenced. When known, the roles and works in which performers are depicted are also given in the folder list.

The Theatrical Prints series, 1720-1891, contains ca. 100 prints which do not depict a particular person but have a dramatic theme. About three quarters of these prints depict scenes from plays in which the actors are not identified; many are idealized representations of characters and settings. Works by Shakespeare are prevalent. The remainder of this series consists of a small number of prints that do not relate to any particular play but contain a theatrical element. The subject of these prints ranges from wax museums to religious processions, with more material pertaining to the commedia dell'arte than to any other topic; caricatures and stock characters are also present. The prints are arranged alphabetically by title of play or subject; for the plays, specific characters depicted are given in parentheses in the folder list when known.

Series III. Works of Art and Miscellany, 1827-82, consists of ca. 60 landscapes, romanticized or idealized scenes, and assorted images. Notable items are the invertible pictures of faces in which a second face can be seen when the print is viewed upside down. The series is arranged alphabetically by artist; untitled works by unidentified artists are followed by miscellaneous material.

Prints can also be found in the Theater Biography Collection, Theater Buildings Collection, and the Boydell Shakespeare Prints.

Restrictions

Access

Open for research

Administrative Information

Provenance

The Prints Collection was assembled by Theater Arts staff, primarily from the Messmore Kendall Collection which was acquired in 1958. Other sources were the Robert Downing and Albert Davis collections.

Processed by

Helen Baer and Antonio Alfau, 2000

Theater Arts Prints Collection--Folder List