Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Collection Summary
| Title | Federal Theatre Project collection, 1932-1943 |
|---|---|
| Span Dates | 1932-1943 |
| Bulk Dates | (bulk 1935-1939) |
| Call No. | ML31.F44 |
| Creator | Federal Theatre Project (U.S.) |
| Extent | approximately 525,000 items |
| Extent | 1,554 containers |
| Extent | 200 mapcase folders |
| Extent | 584.5 linear feet |
| Language | Collection material primarily in English with some Yiddish, Italian, Spanish, French, and German |
| Location | Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. |
| Finding Aid Permalink | Cite or bookmark this finding aid as: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu995001 |
| LCCN Permalink | LC Catalog record: https://lccn.loc.gov/2003682046 |
| Summary | The Federal Theatre Project, created by the U.S. Works Progress Administration in 1935, was designed to conserve and develop the skills of theater workers, re-employ them on public relief, and to bring theater to thousands in the United States who had never before seen live theatrical performances. The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, play and radio scripts, reports, research studies, manuals, publications, bulletins, forms, lists, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, charts, costume and set designs, blue-prints, posters, addressograph plates, photographs, negatives, slides, playbills, and other records documenting the activities of the Federal Theatre Project and its impact on all aspects of the theater. Some materials in this collection contain offensive or demeaning language. |
| Online Content | Select digitized images with identifying information and a narrative introduction are available through the Library of Congress Web site at https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-theatre-project-1935-to-1939/. The story map The Play that Electrified Harlem explores a 1936 production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth by the Negro Unit of the Federal Theater Project. |