André de Saint-Rat Collection of Russian History, Literature & Art: The Russian resources and the André de Saint-Rat Collection of Russian History, Literature and Art in Special Collections document the period from 800 – 1950 AD. Several of the volumes are from the library of Czar Nicholas II. This collection specializes in Imperial Russia and its military regiments before, during and after the Russian Revolution into the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, as well as the military units of the 18th and 19th centuries.
English Toy Theater Collection: The English toy theater was a craft hobby for children of the 1800s, which evolved from the popularity of theatrical portraits sold as souvenirs in London. Each toy theatre play (sold for either “a penny plain or two pence coloured”) was comprised of several sheets of paper illustrating characters and settings from contemporary productions that children would cut out, assemble and then perform in little wooden theaters for their friends and family.
Folios of William Shakespeare: The Walter Havighurst Special Collections is fortunate to hold a complete set of all Four Folios of the works of William Shakespeare, which were donated to Miami University in 1949 by Dr. O. O. Fisher. Fisher was a Miami alumnus (class of ’09) who went on to become an industrial surgeon and an avid book collector. The First, Second, and Fourth Folios are from the matched set once owned by Lord Leigh. The Third Folio was once a part of the collection of John Gribbel.
Labiche–Leveaux Papers: This collection contains correspondence, manuscript books, newspaper clippings, and printed material pertaining to the French dramatist Eugène Marin Labiche (1815-1888) and Alphonse Leveaux (1810-1893).
Native American Women Playwrights Archive: The Native American Women Playwrights Archive (NAWPA) is a collection of original materials by Native women playwrights of the Americas. NAWPA hopes to identify playwrights, collect and preserve their work, try to make it widely known, and encourage performances and continued creativity. Plays in manuscript, disk, videotape, or other format are cataloged, given appropriate preservation treament, and made available to anyone who wishes to read them in the library.
Rodolfo Usigli Archive: The Usigli Archive is a repository of the papers of Rodolfo Usigli (1905-1979), Mexican playwright, essayist and diplomat. The Archive is the definitive research collection relating to Usigli’s life and career, including correspondence, both manuscript and typed drafts of original plays and translations of works by other artists, personal, theatrical, and diplomatic photographs, essays, books, playbills, posters, theses written about Usigli, awards, newspaper and magazine articles, memorabilia, and ephemera.
