- Creator
- Jones, Robert Edmond, 1887-1954
- Call number
- *T-Vim 2010-030
- Physical description
- 2 boxes (ca. 66 drawings)
- Preferred Citation
- Robert Edmond Jones designs and originals, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Billy Rose Theatre Division
- Access to materials
- Request an in-person research appointment.
Robert Edmond Jones was born in Milton, New Hampshire and attended Harvard University. Jones became an innovative force in modern set design for the American theatre. He also designed for opera and dance and was named Radio City Music Hall's first art director in 1932. Jones died at his birthplace at the age of 67. Primarily original costume designs, but also several set designs, sketches, and portrait drawings by designer, producer and writer Robert Edmond Jones for stage productions including some operas. Among the productions are: The barber of Seville (opera) by Gioacchino Rossini, 1941; Percy Mackaye's Caliban by the yellow sands, for the New York Tercentenary Celebration, 1916; Carmen (opera) music by Georges Bizet, 1932; The Cenci by Percy Bysshe Shelley, undated; The devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet, 1939; The fountain by Eugene O'Neill, 1925; Die gluckliche hand (opera) by Arnold Schoenberg, n.d.; Mary of Scotland by Maxwell Anderson, 1933; The merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, ca. 1914; A midsummer night's dream by William Shakespeare, n.d.; Night over Taos (previously titled City forgotten) by Maxwell Anderson, 1932; Orpheus (opera) by C.W. Gluck for Central City Opera House, Colorado, 1941; Othello by William Shakespeare, 1943; Susanna, don't you cry (musical with Stephen Foster songs) by Sarah Newmeyer, 1939; and the Tuskegee Choir for Radio City Music Hall, 1932. Many of the costume designs include swatches. There are 3 unidentified portrait drawings (1 for which the actor Irving Pichel was possibly the model) and 2 caricatures (1 of which is unidentified). There are worksheets attached to 2 of the 3 costume designs for a night club scene from an unidentified 1932 production (possibly for Radio City Music Hall).
Using the collection
Location
Billy Rose Theatre DivisionNew York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor