Scope and Content Note
The Reader's Collection of Library of Congress Copyright Office Drama Deposits spans the years 1863-1928, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1880-1900. The collection represents one of the largest extant groups of Copyright Deposit Dramas for nineteenth- and early twentieth-century plays. Additional early Copyright plays deposited as unpublished were selected for the Rare Book and Special Collections Division’s Manuscript Plays Collection, Hebraic Section’s Yiddish Dramas, and Music Division’s Libretto Collection.
The Reader's Collection is eclectic in coverage and unselected for quality, reflecting only the interests of early researchers and the desire of later curators to preserve rare samples of early drama. Represented dramatists include Edward "Ned" Harrigan, whose late nineteenth-century comedies remain famous, Elliott W. Barnes, William Courtright, Clay M. Greene, C. A. Gunter, Annie L. Johnson, William A. Sliver, T. H. Sayre, and Russ Whytal. Genres include melodrama, vaudeville, farce, musicals, and satire. Subjects reflect the interests of their times: ethnic and immigrant groups, city life, exploration, inventions, foreign influences, theater, the style of the wealthy, and the plight of the poor.