Historical Society of Pennsylvania

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania will undertake a project to support "Soul of America," a 12-month preservation and access project of society’s Playbill Collection. The full collection consists of 53 linear feet of playbills, broadsides, programs, theater publications, scrapbooks, clippings, photographs, illustrations, and other materials documenting almost 250 years of Philadelphia performing arts, especially in theater and music. Material represented in the collection range from theatrical plays and classical music concerts to minstrel shows, circus acts, vaudeville, and other forms of entertainment. In this project, the society’s archival staff will provide conservation treatment and then rehouse the collection in acid-free boxes and folders, arrange and catalog them, and create a new finding aid to make the collection more accessible to the public.