Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 902

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

12 boxes

Preferred Citation:

Learned supplementary collection on German-language theater, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1879-1912 (inclusive)

Creator:

Learned, Marion Dexter

Form:

Manuscripts, American -- 19th century, Manuscripts, German -- 19th century, Scrapbooks, Theater programs, Scores, librettos (documents for music), Prompt books, Playbills, and Scripts

Abstract:

Marion Dexter Learned was a professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania from 1895 to 1917, serving as the department's first chair.

Collection assembled by Learned on German-language theater performed in Philadelphia in the last quarter of the 19th century and first decade of the 20th century. Among the materials documenting twelve plays are annoted published texts, manuscript role books, playbills, and music, although not all forms of material exist for each title. Also included in the collection are scrapbooks of (1) newspaper clippings documenting the history of the German-language theater in Philadelphia, in particular the years 1870 to 1894, and (2) programs for the Arch Street Deutsches Theater Programm, 1901-1904, 1907-1908. The majority of the collection was originally the property of Theodor Bloch, a German immigrant who was active in German-language theater in Philadelphia from approximately the mid-1860s until at least 1895.