Selections from the Sidney P. Albert — George Bernard Shaw Collection
The John Hay Library
Brown University
May 27- June 11, 2006
In 1991 the Brown University Library acquired a collection of George Bernard Shaw material formed by Sidney P. Albert, professor emeritus of philosophy at California State University – Los Angeles . The collection is rich in manuscript material, including autograph and typed letters, post cards, notes, inscriptions and signed photographs as well as costume designs and a fragment of music in Shaw’s hand. There are more than 2,000 books by and about Shaw and a strong collection of ephemera – pamphlets, “rough proof” rehearsal copies of plays, programs, press clippings, film stills, posters, publicity photographs, recordings, photographs of Shaw’s 1933 visit to Hollywood, and publications of Shaw societies in London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. More than 200 periodicals containing pieces by or about Shaw round out the collection.
Brown University Library also holds the correspondence between Shaw and his American publisher, Dodd, Mead & Company. That purchase, including 15 letters, original contracts, sketches and photographs of Shaw, and more than 100 files covering contracts and reprint rights, provides a picture of Shaw as a businessman who composed his own contracts and championed the economic cause of writers.
The exhibit also includes a selection of posters from Shaw productions at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence. Trinity has recently donated its archives to Brown University Library.
This exhibit is based on the one presented by Jean Rainwater from September 25-October 6, 2000, which itself drew from Jennifer B. Lee’s, which was mounted from May 5-July 28, 1995. I wish to acknowledge the excellent work they did in bringing this material together, and thank them and the staff of the John Hay Library, who made it possible for me to create the current exhibit on the occasion of the International Bernard Shaw Conference, June 8-11, 2006, sponsored by Brown University and the International Shaw Society, celebrating the “Sesquicentennial Shaw.” Additional material may be viewed in the digital exhibit The Quintessential G. B. S.
For further information, please contact Stephen_L_Thompson@brown.edu