PERFORMING ARTS LIBRARY

The Museum of Performance & Design Performing Arts Library is dedicated to collecting, preserving and making available to the public materials documenting a broad spectrum of the live performing arts and theatrical design.

The more than three million items in our Archives, Reference Collection, Special Collections, and Theatrical Design Collection include books, periodicals, playbills, clippings, photographs, posters, sheet music, plays and libretti, radio interviews, videotapes, musical theater recordings, oral histories, theatrical design research materials, costume and set designs, personal papers of performers and patrons, as well as the archives of several local organizations.

An ON LINE CATALOG contains a portion of the materials available at the Museum of Performance & Design Performing Arts Library. For access to the complete collection, please arrange a visit to our facility.

The Library is open to anyone free of charge but appointments are strongly recommended as we can not guarantee access or the availability of the  materials you wish to use without prior arrangement. 

To make an appointment, please call 415-255-4800 extension *818 during open hours or email reference@mpdsf.org

For the research policies and procedures, please CLICK HERE.

ARCHIVES

The Library serves as the official archives for several of the areas most significant performing arts organizations past and present including: Grants for the Arts, Lamplighters, Loring Club, Merola Opera Program, Oakland Symphony, Pickle Family Circus, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, San Francisco Municipal Chorus, San Francisco Musical Club, San Francisco Opera, Stern Grove Festival, and others.

REFERENCE COLLECTION

The reference collection includes published materials that support core subject areas in Special Collections, the Museum’s exhibitions, and existing major holdings such as sheet music and musical theater. Highlights include:

BOB JOHNSON SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION
60,000-piece sheet music collection of songs from film, stage and more than twenty other categories ranging from rock and pop to wars and world’s fairs.

JOSEPH J. MARCHI MUSICAL THEATER COLLECTION
10,000 musical theater related LPs, CDs, books, scripts, scores, magazines, videos, and posters.

MUSICAL THEATER RECORDING COLLECTION
More than 5,000 musical theater recordings, including studio recordings, original cast recordings from Broadway and London, film soundtracks, and compilations. The collection includes both vinyl and CDs from the collections of Maurice Bassan, Joseph J. Marchi, and Bruce Walker.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Our special collections include materials which document individuals, productions, organizations, and/or genres significant to performing arts in California, with particular emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area.
           
LEGACY ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM records and preserves the artistic legacies of San Francisco Bay Area performing arts community members who are at-risk

BIOGRAPHICAL FILES Article, review, program, and photograph files on individual actors, dancers, musicians, composers, conductors, choreographers, singers and other performing artists who have performed in the Bay Area from the Gold Rush to the present.

PERSONAL PAPERS of performers, patrons, and creators including Lew Christensen and Gisella Caccialanza, Phil Elwood, Alexander Fried, Anna Halprin, Calvin Simmons, Michael Smuin, and Gladys Swarthout, and others.
           
THEATER FILM ARCHIVES: Videos of theater performances in the Bay Area from the mid-80’s to the present including ACT, Berkeley Repertory, San Jose Repertory, American Musical Theater of San Jose, 42nd Street Moon, California Shakespeare Festival, and others.

PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS: Kurt Herbert Adler, Lillian Bauer, Donald Coney, Thomas Curran, Edgar Foster Daniels, Harry Jew, Katherine Kahrs, Chester Kessler, Henri McDowell, Bob McLeod, Robert Millard, John Morrissey, Alexander Murray, Ida Nevis, Ira Nowinski, Ron Scherl, Bernard Taper, Enid Thompson, Tom Zimberoff, Chris Wahlberg, Max Waldman, Wylie Wong, and others.

THEATRICAL DESIGN RESEARCH COLLECTION

Theatrical Design Research Collection contains more than 10,000 books, periodicals, fashion plates, hand-colored engravings and 35 volumes of postcards documenting centuries of theatrical costumes, theater architecture, set and costume design, masks, and fashion and clothing ranging from Japanese kimono to African tribal dress, including the work of Boris Aronson, Cecil Beaton, Eugene Berman, Stewart Chaney, Elizabeth Dalton, Iris de Luce, Judith Dolan, Julian Dove, Raul Du Bois, Roger Furse, Howard Greer, Russell Hartley, Jesse Hollis, Eiko Ishioka, Romaine Johnston, Willa Kim, Peter Larkin, Oliver Messel, Beni Montresor, William Pitkin, Peter Rice, Douglas Russell, Irene Sharaff, Antonio Sotomayor, Jose Varona, Tony Walton, Walter Watson, and others.