The Prints Collection, 1669-1906 (bulk 1775-1825), consists of circa 8,000 prints, the great majority of which depict British and American theatrical performers in character or in personal portraits. The collection is organized in three series: I. Individuals, 1669-1906 (58.25 boxes), II. Theatrical Prints, 1720-1891 (1.75 boxes), and III. Works of Art and Miscellany, 1827-82 (1 box), each arranged alphabetically by name or subject.
The prints found in this collection were made by numerous processes and include lithographs, woodcuts, etchings, mezzotints, process prints, and line blocks; a small number of prints are hand-tinted. A number of the prints were cut out from books and periodicals such as
Most of the collection, located in Series I. Individuals, dates from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and consists of prints of circa 2,400 Britons and Americans, the majority of whom were associated with the theater. Portrayed in busts, half- to full-length portraits, scenes from plays, or caricatures are actors, playwrights and composers, dancers, theatrical managers, popular performers, and concert artists. The series also includes, to a lesser extent, poets and novelists, European royalty, members of the British peerage, statesmen, religious and military leaders, and medical doctors. Those persons represented by the greatest volume or variety of material are Frances Abington, Elizabeth Billington, Maria Theresa Bland, Thomas Potter Cooke, John Emery, David Garrick, Elizabeth Hartley, John Henderson, Joseph George Holman, Robert Keeley, Frances Maria Kelly, Thomas King, Edward Knight, John Liston, Charles Mathews, Isabella Mattocks, Anne Merry (née Brunton), John Palmer, William Parsons, John Quick, Rachel, Sarah Siddons, William Smith, Anna Thillon, Ellen Tree (Ellen Kean), James William Wallack (1795-1864), John Lester Wallack, James Pimbury Wilkinson, Henry Woodward, and Eliza Wrixon-Becher. Among the most frequently represented plays are
Series I. is arranged alphabetically by the individual's name. Composite portraits and unidentified persons are located at the end of the alphabet; individuals in composites are cross-referenced. When known, the roles and works in which performers are depicted are also given in the folder list.
The Theatrical Prints series, 1720-1891, contains circa 100 prints which do not depict a particular person but have a dramatic theme. About three quarters of these prints depict scenes from plays in which the actors are not identified; many are idealized representations of characters and settings. Works by Shakespeare are prevalent. The remainder of this series consists of a small number of prints that do not relate to any particular play but contain a theatrical element. The subject of these prints ranges from wax museums to religious processions, with more material pertaining to the commedia dell'arte than to any other topic; caricatures and stock characters are also present. The prints are arranged alphabetically by title of play or subject; for the plays, specific characters depicted are given in parentheses in the folder list when known.
Series III. Works of Art and Miscellany, 1827-82, consists of circa 60 landscapes, romanticized or idealized scenes, and assorted images. Notable items are the invertible pictures of faces in which a second face can be seen when the print is viewed upside down. The series is arranged alphabetically by artist; untitled works by unidentified artists are followed by miscellaneous material.
Lillian Arvilla Hall's
For reasons of brevity, the title of a play is not repeated if it exactly matches the name of the character (e.g., Hamlet and Othello). Although the dates given in the folder list most often reflect the year in which the items were published, they sometimes indicate when the original painting (which the engraver copied) was executed, or when the engraving was etched. Composites are housed in folders 26.47-28.80, 53.7-54.5, and oversize 59.6-9.
comp---composite, composites
ob---oversize box
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Ransom Center collections may contain material with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in the collections without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the Ransom Center and The University of Texas at Austin assume no responsibility.
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Helen Baer and Antonio Alfau, 2000
Similar prints are also located in the Theater Biography Collection, Theater Buildings Collection, and the Boydell Shakespeare Prints.
The finding aid for the Prints Collection is a conflation of the original inventory created in 2000, and of an addition that was catalogued in 2006. Currently the addition is described only by a Folder List which is appended to the original inventory, using the series arrangement established within the original inventory and continuing the box and folder numbering sequence. The Scope and Contents note does not make reference to the addition.
The Prints Collection was assembled by Ransom Center Theater Arts staff, primarily from the Messmore Kendall Collection which was acquired in 1958. Other sources were the Robert Downing and Albert Davis collections.