EARLY AMERICAN AND BRITISH POPULAR AMUSEMENTS

An exhibit from the personal collection of Professor Emeritus Don B. Wilmeth, supplemented by items from Brown’s Special Collections

John Hay Library
10 Prospect Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02912

Open to the Public
September 13 – October 28, 2010.
Monday – Friday, 10:00am – 6:00pm

This exhibit focuses on some of the pioneer entertainment forms and entrepreneurs who dominated the amusement business in England and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries It includes pleasure gardens and annual fairs; equestrian demonstrations and dramas featuring animals; the minstrel show and early vaudeville. There are child prodigies, pantomimes and the early popular museum. Formats include broadsides, playbills and satirical prints, along with photographs, pamphlets, and posters.

The exhibit, which will be in place through September and October of 2010, will be enhanced by the seventh annual Wilmeth Lecture on American theatre and performance. This special event will be held on Oct. 3 (Sunday) at 3 PM in the John Hay Library. The distinguished speaker is Laurence Senelick, Fletcher Professor of Drama and Oratory at Tufts University and an internationally-known authority on popular entertainments. His topic is “Custard’s First Stand: The Origins of American Slapstick Comedy.” A viewing of the exhibit will follow the lecture.

Guest curator: Don B. Wilmeth, Asa Messer Professor Emeritus and Emeritus Professor of Theatre and of English, Brown U. (retired in 2003). Download Professor Wilmeth’s complete catalog of the exhibit.