The Mander and Mitchenson Catalogue

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Searching
1. Advanced Search
2. Quick Search
3. Search results and catalogue records

Images
1. Retrieving and manipulating images

Additional Information
1. Names
2. Keywords (subject terms)
3. The numbering system and the structure of the collection
4. External resources

Glossary of terms used in help and in catalogues

The Mander and Mitchenson Collection

The Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection contains original and copy material relating to all aspects of British theatre. The material is divided into the following areas - paintings, porcelain, original costume, books, posters and ephemera.

The ephemera collection consists of programmes, playbills, prints, photographs, music scores, reviews, articles, etc. covering London and provincial theatres, individuals such as actors or producers, and subjects such as pantomime, music hall and toy theatre. There are also sections on dance and music. Many of these documents are original; however, there are also a number of photocopies, photographic prints, negatives, etc.

Currently, the online catalogue only includes material from the pre-1890 London Theatre ephemera collection. For information on accessing other materials in the Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection, click here.

The Mander and Mitchenson Catalogue

The records in the Mander and Mitchenson Online Catalogue are divided into two sections. The first provides a comprehensive set of descriptions at collection level. The second provides descriptions at item level for London theatres before 1890.

What is a collection?
In terms of this catalogue, collections are the various subgroups that make up the entire set of other documents - each one includes the largest possible set of related records. For instance, the records of the Adelphi Theatre form their own collection. The records of George Bernard Shaw form another collection, records relating to Music Hall another. Collections can be of any size, from a single document to several boxes.

There are approximately 1850 collection-level descriptions. They broadly reflect the organisation of the material and are arranged as follows:

London, Greater London and Provincial Theatres – there is one collection for each theatre within each of the three areas, and in which the theatres are arranged in alphabetical collections.

Actors, Producers, Designers, Writers, Variety Artists, etc. - one collection for each individual for whom a sizeable amount of material exists; individuals for whom a small amount of material exists are placed together in alphabetical collections, each containing c500 persons.

Subjects - one collection for each subject, e.g. Pantomime, Puppets, Circus.

Please note that there are some collection which have not yet been catalogued at the collection level e.g. Shakespeare; Drama Schools; Radio; etc.

For a more detailed description of the arrangement of collections, click here.

What is an item?
An item is a single document (or, occasionally, a single document with related papers). Currently there are 6000 item level descriptions available for many of the London Theatres before 1890, beginning with the Adelphi Theatre up to the Kingsway Theatre proceeding in alphabetical order.

Searching Help

Advanced Search:
Advanced Search presents multiple search fields in order to limit a search accordingly. Enter search term/s in one or more of these fields, using operators (AND, OR, NOT), which are found to the right of the field to join the search terms.
For more information see the Operators section below.

These are the advanced search fields:

A search can then be limited further as follows:

Therefore, to find out how many playbills of Shakespearian tragedies are held by the collection for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane for 1815, enter Theatre Royal, Drury Lane under title, Shakespeare as author, tragedy under keyword, 1815 under year, and playbills as record type.

Operators (also referred to as Boolean Operators)

The following operators can be used in a Boolean search to combine terms in several fields. The choice of operators will determine the search results:

Special characters allow substituted and truncated words to be used as search terms:

Quick Search

Quick Search involves entering one or more terms in the search field, using the operators (AND, OR, NOT) to link terms in the same field, and then browsing through the resulting list. The search can be limited by using various search options (scroll down the field to the left of the search field itself).

For example, if a keyword search is performed on the terms Dion Boucicault and his play The Colleen Bawn, the various search options would retrieve the following types of result: if one search in Search everything it would retrieve a list of records where the terms Dion Boucicault and Colleen Bawn are matched anywhere within the record e.g. prints of Dion Boucicault, music scores from The Colleen Bawn, programmes where both terms appear; using Title: Colleen Bawn for most types of documents, but Dion Boucicault only for prints and photographs of him; using Name: a list of records where Dion Boucicault and Colleen Bawn feature as index terms; and using Keyword: a list of records based on relevant subject 'keywords', such as Productions, Authors, etc.

Search results and catalogue records

Search results:

A successful search will display a list of relevant records- the default order is chronological by cataloguing date, the most recently catalogued item at the top. The Sort by option located at the bottom of the Advanced Search page can be used to tailor the order of the search results.

The Search results page contains the following information for each record: reference number, title, date, and number and location of copies. On the left hand screen thumbnail images will be present to indicate which items have been digitised.

For more detailed information of each item, click on the Details button on the left hand side of the screen.

To refine a search after looking through the Search results list scroll down to the bottom of the screen and choose the Search again facility.

Brief Details:

After clicking the Details button, the Brief details screen will appear along with a choice to see the Full description.

The Brief details page gives the reference number, title, date, and number and location of copies for any chosen item, as well as the names of author, publisher and publication date, and pages (the physical format). The highlighted Media file next to A look inside is a link to an image associated with the item.

To see the full catalogue record for the item, click on the Full description tab.

Full Description:

The Full description page contains the complete information for collection and item level descriptions.

• · For collection level descriptions the catalogue fields include the following:

Title –name of the collection
Format - a list of the main types of material found in the collection e.g. print or programme.
Description - a general background to the collection. The major theatres will include a brief theatre history, then a description of the documents themselves, focusing on the collections highlights and listing persons and productions for which coverage is good (with dates)
Time-span - the period covered by the collection
Indexes - personal and corporate names, play titles, etc.

• · For item level descriptions the catalogue fields include the following:

Title - always includes the name of the theatre as it appears in the item, and date
Published - place of publication, publisher or printer, and date
Format - physical type of document, measurements, and pagination
Description - usually very detailed, often including the names of productions with their authors and opening dates, and information on the dating of the item
Conservation note –a record of the physical condition of the item
Date - in the form of an 8-figure code: YYYYMMDD e.g. 18881128. However, many items are dated by year only.
Keywords - subject index terms
Indexes - personal and corporate names, play titles, etc.

The highlighted and underlined information in the catalogue indicates a hyperlink to either records with similar information or to a digital image. For example, if Ellen Terry is highlighted, click on her highlighted hyperlinked name in the catalogue to find other documents where her name appears.

Images-Digital Image Archive

Operating in conjunction with the Mander & Mitchenson Theatre Collection online catalogue is a database of digitised images, the Digital Image Archive, which contains 2282 separate images from the collection’s catalogued material.

The images were chosen as follows; as thumbnail illustrations to illustrate the collection-level description for London and some Greater London theatres; as accompaniments to the item level descriptions of London theatres before 1890 (for these roughly every 3rd catalogued item was selected); and a number of additional images falling into various themes.

Retrieving and manipulating image
When searching the online catalogue, any item, which has been digitised, will show a thumbnail image on the Search results list. Click on the highlighted words Media file to retrieve the image.

Another way to access the images is to click on the link Digital Image Archive located on the Menu bar at the top of the page.

When an image is retrieved, two windows will simultaneously appear. In one window a reduced size image will appear at the top left of the screen. To enlarge to full screen size, move the cursor to the bottom right of the image, click on the 4-arrowed icon which automatically appears, and maximise the window, scrolling up and down if necessary to see the whole image. The 4-arrowed icon can be used to return the enlarged image to its original size. In the other window, a hierarchy will appear showing the pathway leading to the image.

Some of the records, usually the programmes and articles, have multiple images attached. Please note, that the second thumbnail image will show the first image due to vagaries in the system. In order to view the other images attached to the record, choose the Jump to link from the Menu bar of the Digital Media Archive page. It will note the number of pages available to view, then choose and enter the page number in the box and click on Jump. The first two or three will be JPGs and the last image will be a PDF.

Names

Personal Names
The spelling of a particular name can vary from document to document. Moreover, it has often been difficult to tell whether similar-sounding names refer to the same person or to separate individuals. If in doubt of the correct form of a name, use a truncated form of the name with the operator $ (see above) to retrieve all the various spellings. For instance, to retrieve the name either Mrs Manesiere or Mrs Manesniere use Mrs Manes$.

Sometimes one version of a name has been used in preference to another and a cross-reference has been set up between both terms. For instance, a search for Mrs. Alfred Mellon will instruct a search for Miss Woolgar instead.

Epithets are included for non-performers e.g. manager, scene artist, costumer, but not for performers. Where a person is listed twice in the same item, for instance as actor and manager, they will be indexed twice, once as actor and once as manager.

Dates are only included for a number of composers and/or where the name corresponds to an entry in the Jerwood Library Catalogue.

Theatre names
Theatre names often changed regularly. We have tended to use the latest name as the standard version. This appears in the title of each theatre's collection level entry and as an index term. Most of the alternative names appear as extra index terms. However, for items where an alternative name is given, that name appears in the title field, and as an extra index term. Please note that alternative theatre names can denote changes of use as well as historical changes.

In some cases, the alternative name given in a document is not the official contemporary name of the theatre. For example, during the late 18th century the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden was known as the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Documents from that period sometimes refer to it as the Theatre Royal, sometimes as Covent Garden Theatre. In cataloguing the item, we have used whichever name is given in the document. However, where no name has been provided, we have used either Theatre Royal or Covent Garden Theatre depending on the particular circumstances of the item being catalogued. For this reason, we recommend searching under both titles.

Titles
On item level descriptions, not only the titles of plays are indexed, but also pieces of music, songs, etc.

Keywords

Each catalogue entry is indexed by proper names and play/music titles and also by subject (keyword). For a full alphabetical list of the keywords we have used, select the Subject Keywords option from the top toolbar.

Use the alphabetical keyword list for alternative terms. The phrase 'see also' indicates that both keywords should be used in a search e.g. architecture see also theatre design. The phrase 'use' or 'use for' indicates that one keyword is preferred to the other e.g. announcement use notice.

The alphabetical subject keyword list has grown organically as the cataloguing work has progressed. Some of the earlier collections may not be covered by some of the narrower search terms. In order to avoid losing any possible search hits, use a broader term, or enter the narrower term under the search everything option. For instance, to search for actors' contracts, try using management as a keyword as well as contract, or enter contract in the Search everything option in either Advanced Search or Quick Search.

The numbering system and the structure of the collection

Each item on the catalogue has its own reference number. The reference number has various different components, which helps to identify which part of the collection a particular item comes from.

The reference number for every item begins GB2649-MM. This identifies the item as part of the Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection.

Group level
The next part of the reference is a set of numbers, which denote groups of collections, each reflecting a broad area of interest:

The first three groups are further subdivided:

Sub-group level

Theatres:

The next part of the reference number specifies the individual collection:

and so on for other theatres:

The other theatre groups’ collections consist of material arranged alphabetically in order of venue after which the numbers follow. For instance –

People

Persons for whom at least a box of material is held have been allotted their own collection. Others are merged into alphabetically ordered collections. For example –

Organisations

The same principle applies:

Productions and tours

Dance

Music

File level

This section refers only to the London Theatre collection.

The final part of the reference number consists of 3 components. The first denotes file level, as follows:
* A Theatre illustrations
* B Theatre history
* C Souvenir and charity programmes
* D Productions
* E-Z Any files falling outside these categories; the nature of these files, where they occur, will be specific to the theatre concerned

Item level
This leaves the final 2 components.

The first denotes date span, as follows:

* a Undated
* b Pre-1740
* c 1740-1769
* d 1770-1799
* e 1800-1819
* f 1820-1839
* g 1840-1849
* h 1850-1859
* i 1860-1869
* j 1870-1879
* k 1880-1889
* l 1890-1899
* m 1900-1909
* n 1910-1919
* o 1920-1929
* p 1930-1939
* q 1940-1949
* r 1950-1959
* s 1960-1969
* t 1970-1979
* u 1980-1989
* v 1990-1999
* w 2000-2009

Within each date span, the documents are counted consecutively. The final component of the reference number reflects the position of an item in this count. Therefore:

GB2649-MM-TL-ADE-Ap4

describes the 4th consecutive illustration (A) of the Adelphi Theatre (ADE), falling within the period 1930-1939 (p).

External resources

The external resources page provides a selection of links to gateways of theatre resources on the web. A separate window will appear when a link is chosen.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN HELP AND IN CATALOGUES

This glossary does not cover default fields in catalogue records, which tend to be self-explanatory.