What is a Primary Source?
A primary source is a first-hand record of an event or topic created by a participant in, or a witness to, that event or topic. A primary source can be an article, document, letter, diary, manuscript, article, book, recording, piece of art -- any object or information written or created at the time an event actually took place. Although primary sources can include first-hand accounts that were documented later, such as memoirs or oral histories, primary sources created or written closest to the time of the actual event are considered to be the most useful sources for research purposes.
In theatre, primary sources can also include: a play script, a performance, a recording of a performance, prompt books, wardrobe notes, programs, publicity material, annual reports, show reports, photographs, architectural plans, images, advertisements, reviews, costumes, and documentation of stage performance.
A secondary source is second-hand information written or created by people who were not at the original event. They may: summarize, interpret, review, or criticize existing events or works. They may be in many formats, including: books, articles, encyclopedias, textbooks, or a scholar’s interpretation of past events or conditions.
Reference Sources
A reference source, such as an encyclopedia or dictionary, is something one can quickly refer to for information. I've checked out two books for you to use for your assignment, and left them in the Lisanby Library, in the STAD office suite on the second floor of Forbes.
- The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting, 2015
- The International Dictionary of Theatre Volume 3: Actors, Directors, and Designers, 1992
Lists of Collections
Use archives in the SIBMAS list after you've exhausted the things in the list below called "Digital Collections in Libraries & Archives."
SIBMAS International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions
The SIBMAS International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions lists over 7000 international institutions with material relating to the performing arts (theatre, opera, music, ballet, film, circus, radio, television, cabaret, pantomime).
Digital Collections in Libraries & Archives
Digital Public Library of America
The DPLA makes millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a one-stop discovery experience. Includes the Library of Congress Digital Collections listed below.
Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections
The McCormick Library houses more than 235,000 of Northwestern University Library's most unusual and outstanding items and collections. The span of time and material types represented ranges from four-thousand year old Mesopotamian clay tablets to 19th century cobweb paintings to the most recent issues of feminist journals from around the world.
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Dr. Samuel Johnson.
Home to the world’s largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art, the Folger serves a wide audience of researchers, visitors, teachers, students, families, and theater- and concert-goers. The Folger is a world-renowned research center on Shakespeare and on the early modern age in the West. Its conservation lab is a leading innovator in the preservation of rare materials. Its well-known public programs include plays, concerts, literary readings, family activities, and exhibitions, as well as numerous K-12 and college programs for students and teachers. Advanced scholars participate in a variety of Folger Institute seminars and colloquia.
Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
The Harry Ransom Center advances the study of the arts and humanities by acquiring, preserving, and making accessible original cultural materials. With extensive collections of rare books, manuscripts, photography, film, art, and the performing arts, the Center supports research through symposia and fellowships and provides education and enrichment for scholars, students, and the public through exhibitions and programs.
McNay Art Museum - The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts
Founded by San Antonio collector and philanthropist Robert L. B. Tobin, the Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts is one of the finest of its kind in the United States and rivals collections worldwide. With over 10,000 objects, the collection encompasses theatre in Europe and America from 1600 to the present. Devotion to visual artists in the theatre distinguishes the collection. With individual productions represented in depth, changing installations of the collection often reveal the process through which designers and directors collaborate to give visual form to playwrights’ words or composers’ music.
Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies
Established in 1954, the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University is the largest separate Africana collection in existence. Its scope is as wide as the continent of Africa itself; its subject matter ranges from art, history, literature, music, and religion to communications, management, and cooking.
Museum of the City of New York Digital Collections
Explore New York’s past through over 250,000 objects from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
The New York Library for the Performing Arts
Houses one of the worlds most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. These materials are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. 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.
Ringling Collection: Images of 19th Century Actors and Actresses
The Ringling Collection is comprised of cabinet cards, postcards and photographs of American and British actors and actresses. Traces the history of stagecraft through Shakespearean prints, 18th, 19th and 20th century European and American handbills, posters and heralds, souvenir photographs and prints of the legendary performers of the past three centuries, numerous production and publicity stills of 20th century plays and films, and hundreds of individual photographs of the legendary and the now forgotten stars of minstrel, vaudeville and burlesque.
SIBMAS International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions
The SIBMAS International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions lists over 7000 international institutions with material relating to the performing arts (theatre, opera, music, ballet, film, circus, radio, television, cabaret, pantomime).
The Newberry, open to the public without charge, is an independent research library dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge, especially in the humanities. The Newberry acquires and preserves a broad array of special collections research materials relating to the civilizations of Europe and the Americas. It promotes and provides for their effective use, fostering research, teaching, publication, and life-long learning, as well as civic engagement. In service to its diverse community, the Newberry encourages intellectual pursuit in an atmosphere of free inquiry and sustains the highest standards of collection preservation, bibliographic access, and reader services.