About

The Brooklyn Theater Playbills and Programs Collection is made up of approximately 800 items, representing motion pictures, musical concerts, high school commencement exercises, lectures, photoplays, vaudeville, and burlesque, as well as the more traditional offerings such as plays and operas, from the late 1880s to 1940s. During this period, the performing arts thrived in Brooklyn; 128 theaters are included in this collection. Please note that due to the scope and fragility of the collection, only a selection of covers from the collection have been digitized and are available online.

In order to provide improved access, a detailed finding aid (PDF) to the collection has been developed.

The collection is housed and managed by the Brooklyn Collection and is accessible by appointment for on-site consultation in the Central Library. For more information or to make an appointment please call 718.230.2762.

Related Brooklyn Resources

Among other collections, the Brooklyn Public Library provides online access to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Fulton Street Trade Card Collection and illustrated covers from the Brooklyn Sheet Music Collection.

  • Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online ™ (1841-1902): Brooklyn's daily newspaper ran for 114 years, from 1841 to 1955. Winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, the newspaper printed local, national and international news, keeping offices in Washington, London and Paris.
  • The Fulton Street Trade Card Collection consists of 245 late 19th and early 20th century illustrated trade cards, all emanating from businesses in Brooklyn's historic commercial thoroughfare.
  • Illustrated Covers from the Brooklyn Sheet Music Collection: the Brooklyn Sheet Music Collection consists of 102 pieces of sheet music all celebrating or emanating from the borough of Brooklyn. With the earliest pieces dating from the 1880s and the latest from about 1970, the music spans almost a century of social change.

Articles, trade cards and sheet music pieces may provide historic information on theaters, performers, composers, or others.

example of related digital resourcesView the related items in a split screen view.

Other Related Digital Resources

Some of Brooklyn Public Library's most distinctive collections are available online, including manuscripts, rare children's books, and more than 10,000 historic photographs of Brooklyn neighborhoods, residents, buildings, bridges, amusement parks, and more. Digital and print reproductions of historic photographs are available for purchase. View BPL's Digital Collections.

Advisory

Some historic materials may illustrate offensive stereotypes. Such materials should be viewed in the context of their relevant time periods.

The Illustrated Covers from the Brooklyn Sheet Music Collection and Theater Playbills and Programs Collection electronic access and digitization project was supported in part by funds from the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) through the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program.

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