Scope and arrangement
The Robinson Locke collection consists of scrapbooks and envelopes containing clippings, programs, photographs, prints, letters, and other ephemera documenting American theater history. The collection documents the work of actors, singers, and other artists connected with the stage, including Maude Adams, Margaret Anglin, Theda Bara, David Belasco, Sarah Bernhardt, Billie Burke, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Henry Dixey, Geraldine Farrar, William Faversham, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Mary Garden, Henry Irving, Buster Keaton, Richard Mansfield, Julia Marlowe, Alla Nazimova, Olga Nethersole, Jan Paderewski, Anna Pavlova, Lillian Russell and E. H. Sothern. It also depicts the early film careers of Ethel Barrymore, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith, Lillian Gish, Cecil B. DeMille, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Lois Weber, composers from George M. Cohan to Richard Wagner and hundreds of other performers. The collection also contains materials on African-Americans, Europeans, Asians, and Latin Americans in the New York theater and scrapbooks of notable vaudeville and burlesque performers. Some material falls outside the typical date ranges of the collection and was most likely added at a later date.