Harvard Theatre Collection ephemera procedures

Owned by Adrien Hilton
Last updated: Jul 12, 2022 by Melanie Wisner
2 min read

HTC Series


Below is a list of the active and closed HTC catchall series. Only HTC 1, 2, and 3 are open for additions. When materials are acquired that don’t fit one of these, a new collection will be created by manuscript accessioning who will notify acquisitions, i.e. HTC 4 (for format not covered in HTC 1, 2, or 3).    



Call number

Title

Existing finding aid

HTC 1

Harvard Theatre Collection playbills, programs, advertisements, and other material related to theatrical production, 1866-2018

yes

HTC 2

Harvard Theatre Collection photographs, ca. 1866-2018

yes

HTC 3

Harvard Theatre Collection posters

yes

HTC Clippings 1

Clippings on dance - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 2

Clippings on film - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 3

Clippings on Shakespeare productions - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 4

Clippings on Shakespeare subjects - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 5

Clippings on theatrical organizations - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 6

Clippings on theatrical subjects - CLOSED

yes

HTC Clippings 7

Clippings on opera - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 8

Clippings on London theaters - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 9

Clippings on Boston theaters - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 10

Clippings on New York theaters - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 11

Clippings on theaters in the United States - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 12

Clippings on "foreign" theaters - CLOSED

 yes

HTC Clippings 13

Clippings on theatrical productions - CLOSED


HTC Clippings 14

Clippings on persons in the theater - CLOSED



Categories of theater ephemera and routing

  • Single printed ephemeral items are added to Manuscript catchalls (finding aids) – Matt notes this in MS accessioning form and items go through MS accessioning/processing
  • Single printed ephemeral items (of great value OR that don’t fit in catchalls) go through printed books – Matt routes this through books with Meg
  • Single manuscript items go through MS accessioning/processing
  • Collections of printed ephemeral items go through MS accessioning/processing

Workflow for accruals to HTC collections

  1. Curator purchases ephemeral material and fills out manuscript accession tracking form, making sure to include whether the material should be added to HTC 1, 2, or 3 or a new HTC created.

  2. Acquisitions links to Alma record or creates a stub record and passes information to manuscript accessioning

  3. Manuscript accessioning describes item according to regular catchall procedures, creating a finding aid if one does not exist.

Finding aids

As needed, new  "related collections" notes will be added to TCS and HTC records to direct researchers to related relevant material

e.g. in TCS 1-13: "See additional cabinet cards in the Harvard Theatre Collection collection identified as HTC 1"

For end-processing

For MS Thr, follow standard end-processing procedures.

For additions to catchalls identfied as HTC, manuscript accessioning assigns catchall item a box number and a folder number in the finding aid. If added to an existing finding aid, this will be the last folder of the last box. If new finding aid, this will be Box 1, Folder 1.