Summary Information
Abstract
This collection contains puppets, masks, and set models from the collection of
the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum and Library.
At a Glance
| Bib ID: | 7818783 View CLIO record |
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| Creator(s): | Columbia University. Brander Matthews Dramatic
Museum. |
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| Title: | Dramatic Museum
Realia,
[18th
c.]-1966.
|
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| Language(s): | In English
|
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| Access: |
This collection is located on-site.
Some of the items are fragile and their use may be restricted. The larger items (models
and some puppets) can only be seen by appointment. These restrictions are included in
the descriptions of the individual items, below.
More information » |
|---|
Arrangement
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in three series
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Description
Scope and Content
This collection consists of the three-dimensional objects which once belonged to the
Columbia University Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum. Founded in 1911, the Brander
Matthews Dramatic Museum and Library contained books and manuscripts; prints, paintings
and photographs of theatre artists; posters, programs, and playbills, among other
artifacts. It was the museum’s extensive collection of models, masks, and puppets,
however, which was truly emblematic of Matthews’ distinctive vision of the theatre, a
vision centered not just in dramatic literature, but in the theatre experience as a
whole (Bell 2004). Gathered for documentary and pedagogical purposes, the objects range
in date from the 18th well into the 20th centuries, and are from countries all around
the globe. The collection is now organized by format: puppets; masks; and set models and
theater models (the first category includes dolls, figurines, and some miscellaneous
materials). This unique collection of artifacts is the legacy of a man who championed
the inclusion of such objects in any legitimate history of the theatre.
This collection contains 391 puppets, 128 masks, and 30 stage models.
Series I: Puppets
This collection now contains 391 objects; mostly puppets, including marionettes,
hand puppets, rod puppets, pantins, and shadow puppets, but also a number of
figurines, dolls and dioramas, and three textiles. It appears that non-puppet
three-dimensional objects were included in the puppet series before 1971. The
puppets were assigned identification numbers during a cataloging project in the
1960s. All puppet identification numbers higher than P69 were assigned in
2009.
The earliest acquisitions were gifts of Brander Matthews. The most recent
acquisitions, and also the collection’s newest items, are three beggar figurines
made by Russian émigrés living in Iran during WWII. They were the gift of Majorie
Windust Halper in 1989.
What began as a collection of English, French and Italian puppets gradually became
a collection of considerable breadth, with puppets from Burma, China, India, the
United States, Thailand, Turkey, Java, Japan, and Mexico, among other countries.
The oldest puppets are two 18th century French marionettes of Joseph and one of
the Magi. Highlights of the collection include two eight-foot tall puppets
designed by Robert Edmond Jones and constructed by American theatre pioneer Remo
Bufano for the Metropolitan Opera’s 1931 production of Stravinsky’s
Oedipus Rex.
Series II: Masks
This collection now contains 128 masks, mask molds, wigs, and plaster mask
reproductions. The oldest mask in the collection is an 18th century Javanese dance
mask. A gift from Prof. and Mrs. Samuel Eilenberg in 1963, the mask is also the
most recent acquisition. The newest masks in the collection were made in 1955 for
an American production of Lysistrata. The collection includes items from Japan,
Italy, Java, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Ivory Coast, Sierra
Leone, India, and the United States. It is particularly abundant in Japanese,
Mexican, and American masks.
Series III: Stage Models
This collection contains 30 models, both models of historic theatres and set
designs for specific productions. The models were acquired between 1911 and the
1960s. The set designs were largely the gifts of the various people involved with
productions, from set designers to producers, and were acquired fairly
consistently throughout the museum’s existence. The theatre models, on the other
hand, were either gifts of Brander Matthews and other Dramatic Museum patrons or
directly commissioned by the Museum, and were planned to display the full history
of the theater when taken together. Global breadth appears to have been the goal
of the BMDM’s curators, who were desirous of adding a Spanish theatre model to the
collection.
A broad rather than deep collection, it nevertheless has concentrations of French,
English, American, and Japanese models. The earliest model, depicting a production
of
Leah Kleschna
at the Manhattan Theatre in New
York, was built in 1904. The latest models, both set designs, were built in 1966
for Japanese productions.
The several Joseph Urban set models which the BMDM had collected to illustrate
various parts of that influential man’s career were added to the over 300 set
models in the Joseph Urban Papers when his widow presented them to the Museum in
1955, and are described in the Urban finding aid.
The numbering is that used in Donald Pace’s
Catalogue of
the Brander Matthews Collection of Theatre Models
(New York: Barnard
College, 1973).
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Using the Collection
RBML
Access Restrictions
This collection is located on-site.
Some of the items are fragile and their use may be restricted. The larger items (models
and some puppets) can only be seen by appointment. These restrictions are included in
the descriptions of the individual items, below.
Restrictions on Use
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material
from the collection must be requested from the Curator of Manuscripts/University
Archivist, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML). The RBML approves permission to
publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission
rests with the patron.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Dramatic Museum Realia. Box and
Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Related Material-- at Columbia
Dramatic Museum Ephemera
Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript
Library
The Dramatic Museum Ephemera Colelction contains posters, playbills, programs, subject
files and portraits once part of the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum.
Dramatic Library Manuscript Collection 1864-1911
Columbia University Rare
Book & Manuscript Library
Dramatic Library Manuscript Collection 1864-1911 contains a collection of letters and
manuscripts that formed part of the collection of the Dramatic Museum
Columbia University Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum Collection
Columbia
Rare Book & Manuscript Library
These are the records of the Dramatic Museum itself, and contain much information on the
acquisition of the Realia.
Joseph
Urban Papers, 1893-1998
Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript
Library
The Joseph Urban Papers, which were originally acquired by the Brander Matthews Dramatic
Museum and are now held by RBML, contain a large number of set models created by Urban’s
studio.
Other materials from the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum are in the Office of Art
Properties (art objects such as puppets and masks); Barnard's Minor Latham Theatre
(stage and theater models); Barnard Library (phonograph records - 33 1/3 rpm); and the
Music Library (music phonograph records).
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About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries. Rare Book and
Manuscript Library; machine readable finding aid created by Columbia University
Libraries Digital Library Program Division
Processing Information
This finding aid was made possible by a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation,
and written by Maria Abascal, CC2009, and Jane Siegel.
Puppet and mask descriptions are based primarily on the card catalogs prepared by the
BMDM in the 1960s; the model descriptions are based primarily on Donald Pace’s Catalogue
of the Brander Matthews Collection of Theatre Models (New York: Barnard College,
1973).
Machine readable finding aid generated from MARC-AMC source via XSLT conversion
June 19, 2010
Finding aid written in English.
2010-06-19
xml document instance created by Carrie Hintz
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Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
All links open new windows.
Genre/Form
Subjects
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History / Biographical Note
Historical Note
Brander Matthews (1852-1929) first began collecting puppets in
1867 at the age of sixteen, when on his first trip to France he bought a set of eleven
Guignol hand puppets with wooden heads. His puppet collection, along with the various
stage models and masks he had collected over the years, eventually became part of the
Dramatic Museum, which opened in 1911.
After Matthew's death, the Museum's curators continued to
expand the collections, and created an inventory of the puppets and masks in the 1960s.
When the museum was dissolved in 1971, the puppets and masks
were transferred first to the Art Properties Department, and then to the Rare Book and
Manuscript Library in 1981 & 1983, where they remain. The set models were first
on long-term loan to Barnard, and then most were for many years on display in Dodge
Hall; they were transferred to Art Properties in 1996, then to RBML in 2001. Many pieces
included in the Museum's 1960s inventories are no longer in the collection. Only the
remaining items are described in this finding aid.
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