The Mander & Mitchenson theatre collection: enhancing access for research
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Grant Holder:
Dr K. Davis
"The MMTC exists thanks to the extraordinary lifetime’s work of Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, who met as young actors in a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the London Docklands Settlement in the East End in the late 1930’s, and formed a professional and personal partnership that was to last until Raymond’s death in 1983.
Both were already keen collectors of theatre-related material, and the home they shared at 5, Venner Road in Sydenham was filled over the years with the vast collection of theatre ephemera, works of art, books and props which they accumulated together. Friends in the theatre such as Noel Coward, Sir John Gielgud and Dame Sybil Thorndike made generous personal donations, and Raymond and Joe also acquired original paintings of theatrical subjects, theatre costumes belonging to Henry Irving and others, and an outstanding collection of nineteenth century ceramic theatrical figures". (see project web site for more details).
| Project start date: 2002-11 | Project end date: 2006-01 |
Subject domains:
Era(s):
Country/region(s):
| Methods used | Category |
|---|---|
| 2d Scanning and photography | Data capture |
| Data modelling | Data structuring and enhancement |
Funding sources:
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Content types created:
Dataset/structured data, Still Image/Graphics, Text
Software tools used:
PHP
Source material used:
"The Raymond Mander & Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection is one of the largest collections of theatre and performance related materials in the UK. A charitable trust, the Collection is part of the Jerwood Library of the Performing Arts, based in Greenwich, London UK and staffed by Kristy Davis, the Collection Manager. It owes its existence to the extraordinary lifetimes work of Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, and has at its heart two thousand or more archive boxes containing playbills, posters, programmes, engravings, cuttings and production photographs of London and regional theatres. There are files on every actor and actress of note in the British theatre, and sections on circus, dance, opera, music-hall, variety, dramatists, singers and composers, together with many engravings and pictures. The Collection includes many theatre paintings, as well as set and costume designs and 500 pottery figures" (see project web site for more details).
Digital resource created:
"In 2003, a three-year project of cataloguing and digitisation was enabled by a generous Resource Enhancement grant from the AHRC awarded to Dr Sophie Nield. The project team, directed by Dr Nield, comprised two Archive Cataloguers, Paul Davidson and Kristy Davis. Dr Emily Mitchell also worked on the catalogue in the first year of the project. Dr Rosemary Firman, former Chief Librarian at the Jerwood, and the current Head Librarian Claire Kidwell were key members of the project team, which also benefited from the invaluable advice and day to day support of, the former Administrator Richard Mangan. The project was supported by the various contributions of our distinguished advisory panel, which included theatre academics, archive professionals and Trustees of the Collection in the UK and beyond.
The AHRC Access for Research project was able to begin the process of creating an on-line catalogue for the MMTC, covering the holdings of the research archive at collection level (1,850 records). It then focuses particularly on the collection's pre-1890 London theatre records at item level (6,000 items), and also contains a digital media archive of 2,000 images
The project, which began in February 2003 and concluded this stage of its work in January 2006, only represents the first steps in cataloguing the Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection. We estimate that the collection contains over a million items of ephemera". (see project web site for more details).
Access to digital resource:
Open Access
Data Formats created:
JPEG File Interchange Format (JPG)
Institutions affiliated with this project:
| UK HE institutions involved: |
|---|
| University of Surrey |
| Roehampton University |
| UK HE institutions involved: |
|---|
| Central School of Speech and Drama |
Project staff and expertise:
| Principal staff member: | Dr Sophie Nield |
|---|---|
| Other staff: | Computing officer(s) / Technical supporter(s) |
| External expertise: |
| Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) of record | Kristy Davis |
| Title | The Mander & Mitchenson theatre collection: enhancing access for research |
| Record created | 2007-10-23 |
| Record updated | 2011-01-25 16:06 |
| URL of record | http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2197 |
| Citation of record | Kristy Davis: The Mander & Mitchenson theatre collection: enhancing access for research. <http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2197> created: 2007-10-23, last updated 2011-01-25 16:06 |