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Creator
Arthur Weyhe
Call number
*T-Vim 1998-047
Physical description
5.25 linear feet (11 boxes and 1 portfolio)
Preferred Citation

Arthur Weyhe Toy Theatre Collection, *T-Vim 1998-047. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Sheets of scenery, characters and wings, both colored and uncolored, used in toy theatres. Also published booklets of play scripts for the theatres.

Biographical/historical information

Toy theatres were a popular English children's toy in the first half of the19th century. Many publishing houses were involved in printing engraved sheets depicting the prinicipal characters and scenery of current plays. The characters could be cut out and mounted on pasteboard and attached to sticks for performances in front of the scenery. The sheets came as penny plains that could be colored at home or as twopence coloured, already colored. The theatres themselves were made of card and fit on a table top. Scripts, condensed and adapted for children, were produced to be used with the theatres. Popular titles included Aladdin, Black-Eyed Susan, Blue Beard, Cinderella, Forty Thieves, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Maid and the Magpie, The Miller and His Men, Richard the Third, Sleeping Beauty, Timour the Tartar, Uncle Tom's Cabinand various harlequin tales. With the late 19th century rise of a more realistic theatre deemed less suitable as entertainment for children as well as the increase in illustrated journals, the publishing of toy theatres declined.

Scope and arrangement

Collection is primarily sheets for toy theatres consisting of scenery, characters and wings, both colored and uncolored. Some sheets are still threaded together into booklets showing they were sold as sets. A few characters and wings have already been cut out. The sheets are mainly 1814-1832 or undated, with the exception of Green who published his prints from 1833-1857 and Mathews who published from 1886 to1895. The collection is particularly strong in the work of the publishing firms of Green, Hodgson, Pollock, Redington, Skelt, Webb and West. The collection also includes published booklets of the juvenile drama used with toy theatres.

The Arthur Weyhe toy theatre collection is arranged in three series:

  • Series I. Toy Theatre Sheets
    1814-1895
    7 boxes

    Scenery, characters and wings used in toy theatres.

  • Series II. Toy Theatre Oversize Sheets
    1812-1832
    2 boxes

    Scenery, characters and wings used in toy theatres. Box 9 is almost entirely from the publishing house of W. West.

  • Series III. Printed scripts
    2 boxes and 1 portfolio

    Plays in published booklets consist of juvenile drama to accompany toy theatre sets. Includes scripts as well as, in some cases, directions on how to cut out and place the scenery and characters. Most booklets are undated; some are illustrated.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Received from Arthur Weyhe in December 1998.

Processing information

Processed by Pat Wise and Elisabeth Elkind; Machine-readable finding aid created by Elisabeth Elkind.

Separated material

One box of oversized toy theatre sheets in very poor condition. Sheets have been folded, booklet covers have been pasted onto other sheets. Very fragile. Research use not recommended and only with special permission from the curator.

Key terms

Names

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.